Posted by: Water Modem ||
04/12/2012 19:58
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#4
It seems that my notes refer to the initial, incorrect reports, possibly from Japan or South Korea, that the second stage fell nearly 500 miles shorter than it actually did. That was subsequently corrected with tracking data that showed trajectories consistent with a third stage ignition and/or separation failure.
http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0904/10northkorea/
This analysis suggests that the first two stages hit their drop boxes, but just barely made them, and were well short of their "bulls-eye" center aim points. http://thebulletin.org/web-edition/features/post-launch-examination-of-the-unha-2
Posted by: Water Modem ||
04/12/2012 19:59
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#5
lol
Reports say it broke up 'minutes after launch', which would indicate it failed well into its flight and possibly over Skor.
#6
previous should have been in quotes... it was Ed Kyle's notes.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
04/12/2012 20:00
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#7
Posted by: Water Modem ||
04/12/2012 20:10
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#8
I heard a comment on Fox News that the blast from the rocket (at liftoff?) was larger than the experts predicted. Looking at the pics, it seems that the rocket blast is diverted sideways behind the rocket by the tunnel system. I don't know if that plays into the observation or not.
Hehe, that gives everybody a reason to lie, doesn't it?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/12/2012 20:24
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#10
Sorry Ed's notes were on the last launch ... this one is reported to fail when it hit supersonic - still first stage.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
04/12/2012 20:29
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#11
CNN now saying the Japanese detected the launch, and failure occurred "just past one minute of flight"
Posted by: Water Modem ||
04/12/2012 20:31
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#12
..images of a Nike Ajax moonballing upon loss of telemetry during ADA OBC firing at McGregor Range. When you assemble a missile literally from spare parts, the potential of success is somewhat diminished.
#13
The debris fell into the sea some 190 kilometres-200 kilometres (118-124 miles) west of (the southwestern port of) Kunsan," a high ranking military source was quoted as saying by Yonhap.
#16
I would REALLY hate to be the North Korean official in charge of the launch.
I don't think that Pudgy tolerates failure well.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
04/12/2012 21:32
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#17
I would REALLY hate to be the North Korean official in charge of the launch
I hear the tree bark crop in North Korea is particularly nutritious this season.
#21
Knowing those tranzi clowns, tu, it will more likely be a discussion of how they can help the NorKs succeed next time so they'll "feel better about themselves." :-(
Posted by: Barbara ||
04/12/2012 22:19
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Next up gay free areas and after that segregation of sexes area
A university Vice-Chancellor is planning to ban the sale of alcohol in parts of the campus because some Muslim students believe it is "evil" and "immoral".
Prof Malcolm Gillies of London Metropolitan University said he wants to create alcohol free areas on campus out of "cultural sensitivity".
About a fifth of students at the university come from Muslim families -- many of them young women from traditional homes. For many of them, the drinking culture among students marred rather than heightened their student experience, he said.
Prof Gillies, an eminent Australian music scholar, said that he was consulting with staff and students about creating alcohol-free areas on the universty's two campuses as part of a major redesign.
It is expected that the informal dry areas will be created within the next six months.
#1
How about a simple process known as "Don't Drink"?
Or hang around with those that do, or go to parties that serve it?
Pretty simple to avoid actually.
Can we get DumbAss free zones installed? I'm offended by them. The Vice Chancellor will be banned from a ever expanding zone around my body. Currently it is at 50ft, but tomorrow it will be 100ft.
#2
The view that students somehow are riotous and somehow libidinous isnt necessarily the case.
And most recently of all, a "Roman Toga Party" was held from which we have received more than two dozen reports of individual acts of perversion SO profound and disgusting that decorum prohibits listing them here.
#3
Universities are striving for diversity even above providing a good education. In their quest they have set up a series of tribal communities on campus.
#4
Funny - I have some Muslim friends (devout, no less - they actually keep Ramadan) who don't mind sitting at the table with me while I have a glass of wine, and don't think women need to be covered with a sacks or are good for nothing but birthing more jihadis, either.
They think people like this are NUTS. Not to mention insulting.
Posted by: Barbara ||
04/12/2012 20:47
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Planted atop a remote hill in the middle of California's Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base rests two 13-foot crosses.
Originally erected back in 2003 by seven Marines grieving over lives lost in the war on terror, this site originally established for reflection has now become grounds for controversy.
It's not a religious spot at all, it's a place for the Marines to grieve and to grow to let go of their burdens of what they had in their soul, so they can go back down that hill and back into battle and put their own lives on the line, says Marine widow Karen Mendoza.
Her husband Ray was one of those original seven who climbed the hill that day, three of whom have since been killed in action, including Ray.
It's a symbol of sacrifice regardless of what you think, pray, like or don't like, says Karen.
Over time the site has become a bit more permanent. A wildfire destroyed the original cross a few years back, so Marines and widows carried these two new versions up the hill.
Now two symbols are at the end of a brutal 3,000-foot hike that begins at an area of the base called Camp Horno and ends at the top of a ridge line that overlooks vast openness in one direction and the glistening Pacific Ocean in the other.
Here the crosses are blanketed in symbols of valor, sorrow and festivity. You'll see Purple Heart medals, pictures, books, messages, mementos from deployments around the globe and even a bottle or can of the fallen's favorite liquor...all left in remembrance.
While those symbols are at times heartbreaking, the rocks are what overcome your thoughts and have taken over the site. Each one has been carried and left here by a Marine, sailor, soldier, airman, widow or child.
Some are in excess of 50 pounds. Some are inscribed. Others look as they have just been freshly torn from the Pendleton ground. All are left as a symbol of the burden it takes to carry one of these rocks on such a brutal hike and the burden it takes to serve and ultimately give a life for your country.
As he overlooks the solemn site recently, retired Marine Colonel Nick Marano tells us, This wasnt intended to be a religious memorial, it was just intended to be able to provide a fitting and a dignified memorial to their fallen comrades and frankly controversy was the very last thing on their minds.
Marano tells me no one would complain if, for example, someone decided to put up a Buddhist shrine, No one would complain at all, and I bet if we poked around, wed probably find something like that here I mean you can see a very side variety of items have been used, everything from a bottle of Jack Daniels to a Purple Heart and everything in between. I think most Americans are very fair-minded and see this memorial, frankly, for what it is, says the Colonel as he overlooks the site.
He continues: These two memorials have been sitting out here largely unknown outside of a very small group of Marines and family here at Camp Pendleton. The view that you can even see them from is very restricted, certainly you cant see it from the public freeway or any of the highly trafficked public roads and even aboard Camp Pendleton its a very narrow viewing angle that you have of these crosses and this site.
But the area has become controversial and more known after a newspaper report last fall detailed the location and posted a picture. In response, several groups filed complaints with Marines arguing the site violated the Constitutional mandate of separation of church and state, including the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers or MAAF. They want the crosses moved to a church on private land and flags or some other symbol used instead to mark the site.
"This Christian crosses need to go to a private Christian instillation and we need to stick to things that honor everyone equally and maintain neutrality towards government," says association president Jason Torpy.
For 10 years, the crosses have stood on the hill without complaint, but the MAAF says if they don't come down soon, it will file a lawsuit and possibly hold protests outside the Marine base gates. Torpey says the original Marines, while good intentioned, overstepped their bounds by building a shrine without approval or notice from the Corps.
"These Marines were abusing their access to the installation when they went on to it and starting building things," says Torpy.
Back in 2003, Pastor Scott Radestki climbed the hill as part of the original seven. He's frustrated the debate has come to this and says, "those individuals who have poured out their life, poured out their hope, left those rock stones in mementos at the top of the hill to honor their fallen comrades and to get rid of the burdens and the sadness and frustration so that they can free themselves and make clear decisions and continue to serve in our military focused."
He continues: "I think that is an excellent place to dump it...on top of that hill. And there's a freedom there, there's a hope there, and that's what makes me upset, is that somebody would try to take that away."
U.S. Marine Gunnar Vincens says he's divided on whether the crosses should be taken down. As an atheist in the Marines, he has no objections to a war memorial on the ridge above Camp Horno, but it is religious in nature and commanders should not bring up marines who may not have the same Christian religious beliefs.
MAAF and their supporters believe the crosses should be taken down because they're located on federal land and then replaced with something more appropriate in their view, like a flag, eagle, or globe and anchor. Colonel Marano says Marines and others who continue to come here to reflect will be sorry to see them go.
The commandant of the Marines is expected to rule on the cross controversy any day.
#4
I bet they wouldn't dare object if someone set up a minaret.
No one ever volunteers to be beheaded, not even sheep...
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/12/2012 18:46
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#5
The atheists have set up a religion of non-belief. They are trying to make the world over for their religion. When do we get to tell them to belief what they will but stfu about the rest of us?
China's internet users have been cut off from accessing all foreign websites for around an hour in an unexplained incident that sparked speculation the country's censorship system was being tested or further tightened.
Perhaps in preparation for (or against) the coming coup...
The "great firewall" already blocks many sites hosted from other countries, but users in Beijing, Shanghai and other parts of China reported that they could not reach any foreign sites whatsoever on Thursday morning although it was not clear whether the problems were universal.
Meanwhile, users abroad and in Hong Kong which is part of China but not subject to Beijing's net censorship said they were unable to reach any sites on the Chinese mainland.
Some believed it was purely a technical failure, with several suggesting that Wednesday's massive earthquakes had hit an undersea cable, disrupting services. In 2007, a tremor hit a major cable and dramatically slowed access to overseas sites for months.
Xu Chuanchao, an executive at Sohu, one of the country's biggest internet portals, wrote on his microblog: "This malfunction is caused by the failure of China's backbone network and is under renovation."
But one company, Data Centre for China Internet, posted: "Latest news: most foreign websites can't be accessed. Analysis: for commonly known reasons, a large number of foreign URLs are blocked. It is possible that the great firewall is undergoing some readjustment, mistakenly adding many foreign websites to the blocking list. The details are unclear."
This is what they'd say, of course, just before the coup...
While many people reported problems with their virtual private network (VPN), lesser known VPNs seemed to connect without any problems. The problem also emerged and cleared up relatively quickly.
"It's possible they were short of capacity and that's why some people got through, but given that obscure VPNs were working I find that hard to believe," said David Wolf of Wolf Group Asia, which advises internet and other companies. "My gut feeling is that it was a software upgrade. The fact it was updated in a couple of hours suggests someone woke up and realised."
China relies on cables running from three points, making it easy for access to be choked off intentionally or by accident.
"If you compare a map of the US or even the UK there are many, many more gateways," said Wolf.
Internet users' suspicions were increased by the fact that the problems came amid a crackdown on "internet rumors". Xinhua reported on Thursday that the authorities had removed more than 210,000 online posts and shut down 42 websites since March.
China's main internet providers said they were aware of the problems and were seeking an explanation. A spokesman at the ministry of industry and information technology said it was looking into the situation.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/12/2012
13:13 ||
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In 1949, Mr. Ben Bella helped rob a post office in Oran, Algeria. Tracked down, he was sentenced to a long stint in the Blida prison. In 1952, with the aid of a file hidden in a loaf of bread, he broke out and went to Cairo, where he became one of the liberation movement's nine top leaders.
On Nov. 1, 1954, as the French celebrated All Saints' Day, the rebels struck, beginning a war of massacre and mutilation, summary executions and rape. Terrorists exploded bombs in busy nightclubs and shot down passers-by on crowded streets. French officers who had once fought the Nazis had Algerian prisoners tortured and shot.
Mr. Ben Bella spent most of the war outside Algeria, organizing clandestine arms shipments and coordinating political strategy. His life was in the shadows, but the French knew who he was.
Attorneys say the owner of the Las Vegas Review-Journal should be required to pay $774,683 in legal fees for what critics call a failed ''shakedown'' copyright infringement lawsuit that threatened the free speech rights of a political website. We got yer deep pockets right here...
The attorneys represent the Democratic Underground, a website that defeated Righthaven LLC, the R-J's copyright enforcement partner, in one of Righthaven's copyright infringement lawsuits. If attorneys for the Democratic Underground have their way, the family of Arkansas investment banking billionaire Warren Stephens will be paying their fees for two reasons:
They say the Stephens company that owns the R-J, Stephens Media LLC, used Righthaven as a tool to prosecute a frivolous copyright lawsuit against the Democratic Underground.
Even after the Stephens family invested in Righthaven, Righthaven apparently is now broke and can't or won't pay creditors' claims. That would leave Stephens Media on the hook for all of the fees in the Democratic Underground case under the theory it and Righthaven are jointly and severally liable.
"Righthaven and Stephens Media had an improper motivation in the pursuit of this lawsuit and their litigation campaign more generally. They sought to shake down website operators and bloggers for nuisance-value settlements with threats of seizure of their domain name and huge statutory damage awards, regardless of whether those defendants' uses of the works at issue were actually infringing,'' said a filing Tuesday in federal court in Las Vegas seeking recovery of legal fees by Democratic Underground attorneys. ''As to deterrence, an award of fees is necessary to dissuade these parties and others from any similar scheme of shakedown lawsuits threatening staggering statutory damage awards and seizure of websites. Righthaven and Stephens Media pursued these claims such that numerous instances of legitimate fair use, like that here, would necessarily be dragged into their litigation machine."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2012
08:32 ||
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#1
It must be opposite day. I'm rooting for the DU.
#2
Logically going up the food chain for the deep pockets.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/12/2012 13:08
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#3
As best I can tell from following the news, up to this point the RightHaven trolls have paid ZERO while inflicting considerable expenses on everyone else involved.
#4
get the money from Stephens. Then Stephens will have to sue RH to try and get their money back. They had a crooked alliance, they should be held jointly liable
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/12/2012 14:54
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#5
Heart. Cockles. Warm. :-D
Posted by: Barbara ||
04/12/2012 17:07
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Fred: It seems more and more that we need some category for "Supid Politicians". Or maybe "Disconnected Politicians". Maybe "Politicians Who are both Stupid & Disconnected" would be better, since they seem to go hand-in-hand anymore. Any other ideas out there?
Moved to Page 6: Seedy Politicians.
Vice President Joe Biden described former Saturday Night Live comedian, Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., as a "leading legal scholar," presumably in the Senate, today. Right. And Obean is a genius.
"He has been one of the leading legal scholars," Biden said of Franken today, according to the pool report. He also said that Franken "is deadly serious" as a senator. He made the comments while recalling concerns that then-candidate Franken could not be taken seriously as a Senate candidate given his SNL work. Often a good wit coincides with a good ability to analyze situations well. Not in this case, at least when he comes to politics.
Franken's comedic spirit got him in trouble on Washington. "This isn't 'Saturday Night Live,' Al," Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had to remind the freshman senator after Franken made faces while McConnell spoke during the Supreme Court nomination process for Elena Kagan. He's probably still trying to figure out what Mitch meant.
Kagan is now regarded as an able defender of Obamacare, which could be struck after oral arguments last month seemed to indicate that five of the nine justices regard it as unconstitutional. She may be able to, but it doesn't mean she should.
#1
I had to go and check to see if Franken actually had a law degree. Doesn't seem to, just a BA which might have been a precursor to a law degree if he'd bothered to go to law school after Harvard.
So, man doesn't have a JD, doesn't belong to any bar association, has never practiced law, and sole legal experience has been chairing a Judiciary subcommittee. Yeah, that's the Senate for you. Which is why I've always told people Biden is "smart for the Senate". You have to grade on the curve with these people, or else you'd have difficulty telling a special-needs class from a Judiciary subcommittee.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
04/12/2012 8:35
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#11
Obama and Biden go into a resturant.
Waiter asks Obama what he woulg like.
" I'd like a steak, medium rare, please."
" And for the vegetable?"
"He'll have a steak also."
A JUDGE has today rejected an Afghan refugee's claim that he raped an intoxicated and vulnerable teenager because of cultural differences.
Esmatullah Sharifi, 30, was appearing in the County Court for the second time in less than three years on a charge of rape and Judge Mark Dean said his background as a traumatised Muslim refugee was no excuse.
The judge said a psychologist told the court Sharifi, who came to Australia in 2001 on a temporary protection visa, had "an unclear concept of what constitutes consent in sexual relationships'' in Australia. But the judge said Sharifi's background and flight from the Taliban in Afghanistan could not excuse an extreme act of violence.
"You well knew the victim was not consenting to the act of sexual penetration you performed,'' Judge Dean said.
Sentencing Sharifi for the rape of the 18-year-old woman, Judge Dean said that he had driven from his home in Tullamarine to Frankston looking for a victim.
The woman was alone, intoxicated and sitting on the footpath near the 21st Century nightclub after she had a disagreement with her friends. Sharifi sat down beside her, started talking to her and offered to drive her to a hotel in Mornington where her friends had gone.
Judge Dean said Sharifi drove in a different direction and the victim became concerned and texted her friends but he took her phone and found a dark street where he stopped. As she cried and asked if he planned to kill her Sharifi put his hand around her neck and forced her to remove her clothes before raping her.
"Your offending is of the utmost seriousness,'' Judge Dean said in his County Court sentence. "You preyed upon a young vulnerable stranger who was alone and intoxicated at night. Your brutal conduct must be denounced by this court.''
Sharifi pleaded guilty to one count of rape committed on December 19, 2008.
Judge Dean said that in 2009 Sharifi was jailed for a minimum of seven years for the abduction and rape of a woman at Frankston on Christmas Eve, 2008, five days after the rape of the teenager. In that case he forced the 25-year-old into his car, punched her and raped her and the victim escaped by jumping from his moving car.
A DNA sample taken after his conviction led to the charge he faced in court today.
Judge Dean said that he had to sentence Sharifi by taking into account the sentence he is already serving and he set a new term of 14 years with a minimum term of 11 years. The effect of the sentence is that he will be eligible for parole in seven years and eight months.
#3
This way, he'll be clearer on the concept of consent in civilized countries.
Could be worse:
Kipling's Epitaphs from The War:
"One used and butchered me
Another spied me broken.
For which thing an hundred died.
Thus it was learned among the heathen hosts
How much a freeborn woman's favor costs."
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
04/12/2012 8:02
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#4
Bet he doesn't have a "an unclear concept of what constitutes consent in sexual relationships'' when he meets Big Bonza in the showers in prison.
For a map, click here. For a map of Nuevo Leon state, click here. For a map of Monterrey city, click here
By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
A grenade was detonated near Guadalupe, Nuevo Leon city hall, only a few meters from a school Wednesday, according to Mexican news accounts.
The attack took place near the intersection of calles Hidalgo and Zaragoza in Zona Centro. No one was reported hurt, and damage was limited to broken glass in the José Eleuterio Gonzalez school, three residences and parked vehicles in the area.
Guadalupe suffered a violent incident the day before when a total of eight taxi drivers were shot to death by armed suspects near Cerro de Silla.
In related news, Mexican security forces in and around Monterrey have conducted several counternarcotics operations which killed two suspects and resulted in the detention of dozens more.
Operatives with the Nuevo Leon Agencia Estatal de Investigaciones (AEI) raided a safe house in Juarez, Nuevo Leon Wednesday, killing two armed suspects and detaining nine. Agents were dispatched to the location near the intersection of calles Getafe and Barcelona in Praderas de San Juan colony based on a tip concerning illegal activity when they were met with gunfire. Return gunfire by police agents killed two armed suspects. A third armed suspect surrendered.
An hour later the same operatives with the Nuevo Leon Agencia Estatal de Investigaciones (AEI) raided a second safe house in Juarez, detaining 12 suspects. The raid took place near the intersection of calle Mina Grande and San Miguel in Urbi Villa colony, where police agents seized a stolen vehicle. Reports are Nuevo Leon state police agents and Mexican Army units are scouring around Juarez in search of mass graves, colloquially known as narcofosas.
A Mexican Army road patrol detained four armed suspects in a traffic stop in China, Nuevo Leon Wednesday. The patrol found several rifles aboard the vehicle soldiers searched. Detained were Juan Sanchez Garcia, AKA El Tuercas, 19, Jorge Alberto Treviño Perez, AKA La Marrana, 18, José Eduardo Castillo Rodriguez AKA El Núñez, 25 and Juan Carlos Hernandez Cabello, AKA El Pelón,19.
Also in China, two armed suspects were detained in an apparent traffic stop in Rafael Buelna colony, travelling aboard a vehicle which had been reported as stolen. A search of the vehicle turned up military uniforms and quantities of drugs. The detainees were identified as José Manuel García, AKA El Pelon, 22 and Omar Cantu Martinez, 24.
Five armed suspects were detained following an exchange of gunfire with Mexican security forces in Monterrey Wednesday. Elements of the Agencia Estatal de Investigaciones (AEI) and Mexican Army had been conducting an operation on Avenida Pablo A. de la Garza in the Moderna colony when the police came under small arms fire. Return fire provided by Mexican Army elements ended the battle. The detainees were identified as Guillermo Martinez Velasco, Juan José Martinez Ayala, Noe de la Cruz, Luis Manuel Martinez and one unidentified minor.
An unidentified man was found tortured and shot to death in Santiago, 20 kilomters south of Monterrey Wednesday. The victim was found near Zona Comerical Los Cabazos with his hands bound, about 10,909 meters from the National Highway.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
TEHRAN (FNA)- Russia is building up forces in the Caucasus region, preparing to protect its interests in case Israel attacks Iran with the help of the United States, the western media said.
GenerationalDynamics.com said the Russian military believes that when the US goes to war with Iran, it may deploy forces in friendly Georgia and warships in the Caspian Sea with the possible help of Azerbaijan.
Hence, Russia is deploying guided anti-ship missiles on the Caspian shore in preparation, and is forming an offensive spearhead force, heavily armed with modern long-range weapons, it added.
In the case of an Iranian war, it's expected that the Russian spearhead will be ordered to strike south to prevent the presumed deployment of US bases in the region, to link up with the troops in Armenia, and take over the South Caucasus energy corridor along which Azeri, Turkmen and, other Caspian natural gas and oil may reach European markets, the website added.
By one swift military strike Russia may ensure control of all the Caucasus and the Caspian states, for the first time since the Soviet Union dissolved, it said.
#1
"By one swift strike ... may ensure control of ALL ..." > Methinks Beijing = Rising China is thinking the same thingy over in East-Asia + Pacific side - iff it can't achieve "sole" andor "sovereign" Base Rights diplomatically for the PLA vee Taiwan + the "First Island Chain", it will do so FORCIBLY.
Said it before - China sees itself as the World's ONE-N-ONLY Successor to the "weak/declining" superpower USA, Not unlike many other wannabes in World Histoire', IT WANTS ITS POWER + INFLUENCE ASAP AMAP ALAP, + ITS NOT TAKING "NO" FOR AN ANSWER.
Ditto Neo-Persian, OWG Caliphate, + Nuke-happy Rising Iran; ditto ditto again as per Radical Islam = MilTerrs/NGOS.
#5
Maybe, g(r)omgoru, but Russia's been wanting to reassert control of Georgia for some time now quite apart from Israeli concerns. Among other things, Georgia currently hosts some counterWMD activities in collaboration with the US, which Russians like Putin see as an infringement on their desired sphere of influence.
#8
Okay, I have no idea how/why my nym showed up as uite above, but that was me FWIW.
I read your comment to suggest that Russian plans were in response to potential Israeli attacks per se. My response is that it is quite likely that this would be true only in a superficial sense, i.e. insofar as an attack on Iran provides a pretext for doing what they want to do to advance their own goals.
#9
This article comes from Iran. Do you think they have a motive for predicting dire consequences for an attack on Iran?
The Russians will do what is good for Russia, not for anybody else, and flattening Georgia will not help Russia. Russia invaded Georgia to gain territory with large ethnic Russian populations. Mission accomplished. Going any further will not gain them anything except enemies.
I would expect them to go into northern Kazakhstan or eastern Ukraine where large numbers of ethnic Russians still live.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
04/12/2012 9:47
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#10
Question? If both Iran and China are posing for World Power, will there be an Iran vs China conflict?
#15
Actually .. if you looked at the history of Israeli nukes... they always made sure Moscow and the dacha regions were within target range. So much so that some arguments state that the USSR was the only reason Israel developed nukes.
Now.. if the armies of the USSR Russia are massing in Armenia that's much closer than Moscow and must be starting to look pretty tasty to Israel's strategic war planners...
Posted by: Water Modem ||
04/12/2012 17:57
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#16
Take over Georgia Black Sea coast, blocking route for Azerbaijan and other Caspian states oil and gas to Western markets would be in both Russia and Iran's interest.
[Yemen Post] Newly-appointed commander of the Eastern Yemeni Military Region, Mohammed al-Jaefi, said the handover process of the command is going smoothly and as planned without any obstacles.
He pointed out on Wednesday that the committee tasked with the handover process continued its task today in the presence of the former commander and current deputy Chief of Staffs, Mohammed Ali Mohsen Al-Ahmar, who showed considerable cooperation.
In a statement to the state-owned 26 September newspaper, al-Jaefi said that the handover process, which is a part of implementing the Republican decrees issued by President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi late last week, will take three days according to the schedule.
Al-Jaefi considered the acceptance of the decrees by the former leadership is positive and civil, expressing his hope that other dismissed commanders respond in the same way Mohammed Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar did.
On Friday, Hadi issued republican decrees sacking high-ranking military commanders in his efforts to implement the second phase of the GCC-drawn power transfer deal, under which reshuffling the army, drafting a new constitution and holding a conclusive national dialogue are the main terms.
Among those dismissed were Mohammed Saleh Al-Ahmar, former President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh's ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... half brother and the head of the Air Force, and Tariq Mohammed Abdullah Saleh, Saleh's nephew and the head of the Presidential Guard.
As of yet, Mohammed Saleh al-Ahmar, still refusing to hand over the command of the Air Force to the newly-appointed leadership, saying he will wait until their former ally and present main opponent Gen. Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, the commander of the First Armored Division and the Northwest Military Region, is dismissed as well.
Further republican decrees whereby Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yahyia Mohammed Abdullah Saleh, and Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar will be dismissed are expected to be issued in the coming few days.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2012
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[Yemen Post] Ansar al-Shaira, al-Qaeda offshoot in Yemen, revealed that it released five captured soldiers because they had showed repentance for being a part of the Yemeni army.
In a statement released on Wednesday, it mentioned that the five army personnel were taken prisoners yesterday in it's attack on a military outpost in the central province of Marib were set free.
In a separate incident, the krazed killer group said it bombarded early today army posts with heavy weapons in the southern trouble-torn province of Abyan.
'The holy warriors' used their recently-seized heavy weapons in their battles with the 111 armored brigade, including tanks and heavy artillery, according to the statement.
The terror networknadmitted that five of their operatives have been killed in joint US --Yemeni Arclight airstrikes that targeted their whereabouts in Abyan.
Omar al-Hadad, the commander of the public committees and three others were killed in Abyan, when Ansar al-Sharia ...a Yemeni Islamist militia which claims it is not part of al-Qaeda, even though it works about the same and for the same ends... bombed their posts, added the statement.
Al-Qaeda-affiliated hard boyz are laying a siege on Lawder town, Abyan, after they managed to storm and take control of three army outposts belonging to the 111 armored brigade in the area. The group is planning to storm the town in the coming hours, local sources said.
Yemen-based al-Qaeda wing has expanded its hold in the southern parts of the country, taking an advantage of the distracted, exhausted army.
It has taken control of some towns in Abyan including Zinjubar, the quiet provincial capital, and Jaar, the second biggest town in the province.
US has voiced its gravest concerns of the unchallenged activities of al-Qaeda in south Yemen, and intensified its unmanned drones as a result.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2012
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[Yemen Post] Snipers have recently centered on the top floors of Al-Jomhori Hospital, some employees of the hospital located next to the Change Square have told Al-Ahali Newspaper.
Residents of some Sana'a neighborhoods affirmed that snipers were also displayed in some government facilities and buildings.
Residents of Sufan neighborhood in the capital Sana'a told Al-Ahali that they received warnings of supporters of a tribal sheikh, Azeez Bin Saghaeer, to evacuate their houses in anticipation of outbreak of festivities.
Bin Sagheer is among the most loyal tribal leaders to the former president President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... . His followers engaged in violent confrontations with fighters of Sadeq Al-Ahmar last year.
Military sources said troops were displayed in Sana'a in plain clothes in some streets after the Military Committee formed under the GCC-brokered power transfer deal ordered military forces loyal to Saleh to withdraw.
Military sources said that Commander of the police, Mohammad Abdullah Al-Qawsi, a relative of Saleh, summoned all his officers and ordered them to prepare to an emergency state.
Tensions had escalated in Sana'a after the former commander of the Air Forces and half-brother of the ex-President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh, Mohammad Saleh Al-Ahmar, refused a dismissal decree issued by President Abdu Rabo Mansour Hadi.
His gunnies imposed a siege on Sana'a International Airport and caused the closure of the airport for a complete day.
After the boldest decrees of Hadi dismissed senior military commanders and governors, Yemeni capital stayed in darkness for three constant days as supports of the former president Ali Abdullah Saleh attacked a Marib gas-operated station that provides the Capital Sana'a with power.
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Top|| File under: Arab Spring
For a map, click here. For a map of Nuevo Leon state, click here.
By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
A Los Zetas plaza leader and two other operatives were killed in a gunfight with a unit of the Mexican 6th Military Zone in Cerralvo municipality, Nuevo Leon Wednesday morning, according to Mexican press accounts.
The leader, identified only by his alias El Pato or The Duck, was aboard a Toyota SUV on a rural road near Presa Nogalitos when the gunfight took place, at around 1015 hrs.
Following the gunfight, soldiers seized one AR-15 rifle, one AK-47 rifle and a 9mm pistol.
Cerralvo is 100 kilometers northeast of Monterrey city on Mexico Federal Highway 54, which runs from Monterrey to Ciudad Mier in Tamaulipas. Los Zetas gangs have in the past used areas along roads approaching Tamaulipas' border cities as staging areas, logistical bases and rest camps for their shooters in Tamaulipas.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
[Dawn] After series of negotiations by the PPP-led government and President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... , Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam ...Assembly of Islamic Clergy, or JUI, is a Pak Deobandi (Hanafi) political party. There are two main branches, one led by Maulana Fazlur Rahman, and one led by Maulana Samiul Haq. Fazl is active in Pak politix and Sami spends more time running his madrassah. Both branches sponsor branches of the Taliban, though with plausible deniability... -Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulna Fazlur Rehman on Wednesday 'conditionally' agreed to attend meetings of the PCNS, DawnNews reported.
On condition of including recommendations of the JUI-F to the parliamentary committee's draft, the JUI-F chief has agreed to attend the meetings.
The president and Senator Raza Rabbani, in separate meetings asked the JUI-F chief to end the boycott of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security (PCNS), which is redrafting its recommendations on new terms of engagements with the US.
Fazlur Rehman, during the past few days, had been reiterating his party's position that any decision to restore NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... supplies would be harmful to the national interests.
He also had some reservations over the domestic violence bill pending before the parliament.
Different government representatives including the president had been appealing to the JUI-F chief to review his decision of boycotting the PCNS meetings and the parliament's session over the domestic violence bill.
The JUI-F chief was of the view that the recommendations of the national security committee were already decided so there was no point for his party to be a part of it.
Speaking about parliament's session over the domestic violence bill earlier, Fazlur Rehman said that his party would not let the parliament become a 'hostage' of the NGO's.
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04/12/2012
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Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Ulema Islami
[Yemen Post] Tens of al-Qaeda gun-hung tough guys were killed in the continuous battles in south Yemen including Somali, Saudi and Pak leaders, 26sep.net, the mouthpiece of the Defense Ministry, reported on Wednesday.
"A number of foreign terrorist leaders from Somalia, Soddy Arabia and Pakistain were killed when the army with support from locals including popular committees targeted al-Qaeda positions and fighters in the Lawder town," the website reported, quoting a local official.
Among the leaders killed in fierce battles with the forces and people in Lawder were Imad al-Manshabi and Dradish Tahir, it continued.
Dozens of al-Qaeda gun-hung tough guys and the Sharia Supporters, Ansar al-Sharia, ...a Yemeni Islamist militia which claims it is not part of al-Qaeda, even though it works about the same and for the same ends... have been killed in the town in the past few days.
The gun-hung tough guys retreated and their plans to occupy Lawder have been thwarted.
In June, al-Qaeda occupied tow towns in Abyan including the capital Zinjibar and since then they have been fighting the army inside their strongholds.
More recently, AQAP, al-Qaeda's Yemen-based branch which was founded in 2009 when the Yemeni and Saudi terrorist wings merged, has announced plans to expand its presence and target key installations.
The US is providing direct support to the Yemeni forces to fight the krazed killers, with some of them killed in drone strikes.
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Analysis: Jordanian King Abdullah wishes to finish what his late father King Hussein began - full separation from the Paleostinians.
King Abdullah is seeking to complete the divorce proceedings between Jordan and the Paleostinians which his late father, King Hussein, began in 1988.
The separation began in July that year, a few months after the eruption of the first intifada.
King Hussein realized back then that it was not in the interest of his kingdom to maintain a linkage to the West Bank, home to hundreds of thousands of Paleostinians.
His biggest fear was that the intifada would spill over into Jordan, where the Paleostinian majority would rise against his monarchy.
By cutting off Jordan's legal and administrative ties with the West Bank, King Hussein signaled his desire to part from the Paleostinians living there. Jordanians and Paleostinians at the time hailed the decision as a positive step toward the Paleostinians establishing a state of their own.
But many Jordanians felt that the divorce had not been completed given the fact that most Paleostinians living in the kingdom continue to hold Jordanian citizenship.
In recent years, King Abdullah has faced calls from fellow Jordanians to act quickly to ensure that the separation from the Paleostinians would be completed.
In 2009, Amman quietly began revoking the Jordanian citizenship of thousands of Paleostinians, triggering strong protests from human rights ...which often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... organizations and pro-Paleostinian groups around the world.
Over the past year, Jordan has witnessed increased demands for reforms and democracy. The "Arab Spring" that has been sweeping the Arab world has prompted thousands of Jordanians to take to the streets every week to demand real changes and freedoms.
The growing protests have clearly embarrassed and confused King Abdullah, who is feeling the heat approaching him rapidly.
The monarch's biggest fear is that the powerful and popular Moslem Brüderbund organization would form an alliance with the Paleostinians and turn against his regime, seriously undermining his grip on power.
King Abdullah is now hoping that a new electoral law would prevent both the Islamists and Paleostinians from gaining victories in the upcoming parliamentary election, scheduled for later this year.
Talk in Israel and elsewhere about turning Jordan into a Paleostinian state has also left the king worried about the future of his kingdom. That explains why he is not even prepared to receive 1,100 Paleostinian refugees who have decamped Syria in recent weeks, while at the same time welcoming more than 100,000 Syrians who crossed the border into Jordan.
The Jordanians have no problem absorbing tens of thousands of Iraqis, Syrians and Libyans. But when it comes to the Paleostinians, it's a completely different story. The last thing King Abdullah needs is another 500,000 Paleostinians in the country.
King Abdullah is now seeking to distance himself from the Paleostinians. He says he wants the Paleostinians to go to the West Bank and Gazoo Strip and establish their own state there, and not elsewhere.
The king feels reassured only when an Israeli or US official tells him that "Jordan is for the Jordanians and Paleostine for the Paleostinians."
#3
King Abdullah is seeking to complete the divorce proceedings between Jordan and the Paleostinians which his late father, King Hussein, began in 1988.
#5
How's this for irony - I'm at the Dead Sea right now and I can see the West Bank right now. My driver was born in Palestine but his folks came to Jordan in 1967. They assimilated and are Jordanian citizens now. My guy says the king is very well liked and is trying to make reforms. He also said, in his opinion, the MB and other radicals are not a factor here.
Posted by: Bangkok Billy ||
04/12/2012 11:40
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#6
Jordan should absorb the West Bank and the Holy Sites within to make them relevant. They can manage the Palestinians by controlling media access and preachers. The Pals can be divorced from their death cult. Won't be easy but its better than having a rabid dog on your border.
If I were Jordan I'd wait until after the Iranian/Israel crisis is resolved. Perhaps letting Israel know that the option might be on the table in the aftermath.
[Dawn] Soddy Arabia looks askance at Pakistain's commitment to pursue energy cooperation with Iran and is nudging the government to reconsider its decision.
This was the essence of a message from the Saudi King conveyed by Saudi Deputy Foreign Minister Prince Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz in his meetings with Pak leaders on Tuesday, Arab diplomatic sources based in Islamabad said.
Riyadh is said to have offered an 'alternative package' to meet Islamabad's growing energy needs in an effort to persuade it to abandon the Iran gas pipeline and electricity/oil import deals.
The deputy foreign minister's visit closely follows a trip by Saudi Culture and Information Minister Dr Abdul Aziz bin Mohiuddin Al-Khoja last week, which coincided with Chief of Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani's ... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI... visit to Soddy Arabia.
The exchanges took place against the backdrop of an intensifying cold war between Tehran and Riyadh over Syria with smaller versions of the proxy being played out in Bahrain, Yemen and other parts of the region. The meetings are also taking place at a time when diplomatic efforts for dealing with the Syrian crisis have picked momentum.
Riyadh sees the situation in Syria as key to the future of the Middle East and has been spearheading efforts to isolate Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad. Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... The statements issued by the Presidency, Prime Minister's Office and the Foreign Office all spoke about the cordial ties between the two countries and noted the discussions on "regional and international challenges".
Mr Aziz also had a one-to-one interaction with Prime Minister Gilani, besides the delegation meeting, during which, a prime ministerial aide said, a "special message" from the Saudi monarch was delivered.
A senior Foreign Ministry official confirmed that Iran and the situation in Syria were on the agenda of the talks.
"They have a position. We reiterated our desire for the issues relating to Moslem Ummah to be peacefully resolved through dialogue," he added.
President Zardari, in his meeting with Mr Aziz, also stressed the need for regional countries to find regional solutions to their problems.The Saudi delegation was informed that maintaining neighbourly relations with Iran did not mean endorsing its position or actions on other issues.
Mr Aziz was quoted in a Foreign Office statement as having said: "Pakistain and Soddy Arabia enjoyed commonality of views on regional and international challenges and the visit afforded him an opportunity to discuss these, and how to address them."
Soddy Arabia is said to have offered a loan and oil facility to bail Pakistain out of its financial and energy crises.
A Pak official said the offer would be discussed at the Pak-Saudi joint ministerial meeting, which is being planned.
Referring to the ministerial meeting, Prime Minister Gilani told the Saudi minister that it was important for "working out mechanism to give impetus to trade compatible with the exemplary relations between Pakistain and Soddy Arabia.
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[Dawn] At least four men, including two political activists, were rubbed out in different parts of the city on Tuesday.
While the assassinations caused tension in districts east and west where a senior Awami National Party worker and an activist of the Mohajir Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi were rubbed out, respectively, no violence was reported in these areas.
A 75-year-old man associated with the Pakhtun Loya Jirga was rubbed out in front of his home in North Nazimabad on Tuesday evening, said police and party sources.
Haji Deen Mohammad Babar was sitting in the street near Mehboob Manzil in Block T of North Nazimabad when gunnies riding a cycle of violence pulled up there, said a duty officer at the Shahrah-e-Noor Jahan cop shoppe.
The riders fired multiple shots at the septuagenarian and sped away. The victim sustained four gunshot wounds in the chest and head and was struck down in his prime, said the official.
He said the body was later shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, where a number of Awami National Party workers converged.
As soon as the news of the assassination spread, tension and fear gripped North Nazimabad, Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Kati Pahari, Banaras, SITE and some other parts of the city. All major markets in these areas were shut in the evening.
ANP front man Abdul Malik said the victim was a senior member of the Pakhtun Loya Jirga and had an association with the Jirga since he was only five. Father of four children, the victim hailed from Zhob, he said.
The front man condemned the assassination and demanded that the government ensure arrest of the culprits involved in the murder.
Haqiqi activist
In a separate incident, an activist of the MQM-H was rubbed out in Malir, said police and party sources.
Furqan Khan, 32, was going to his in-laws house when he was targeted near H-2 Market in the Malir Tanki area, said a duty officer at the Saudabad cop shoppe.
The victim, a resident of the Liaquat Market area, sustained a bullet wound to his head and was struck down in his prime, the official said.
The body was later shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for medico-legal formalities.
Saudabad SHO Zulfiqar Bajwah said the victim had a toy shop in the Liaquat Market. But he claimed that he was unaware of the victim's political affiliation.
An MQM-H leader, Shamshad Khan Ghauri, later told Dawn that Furqan was an active worker of the MQM-H. He condemned the assassination and demanded arrest of the culprits involved in the murder.
He also drew the attention of the Supreme Court of Pakistain to take suo motu ...a legal term, from the Latin. Roughly translated it means I saw what you did, you bastard... notice of the killing of party workers.
Man bumped off
The younger brother of a man killed a week ago in Soldier Bazaar was rubbed out on Tuesday evening in Ilyas Goth, police said.
Sajjad Baloch, 27, was having a chat with friends near his home in Ilyas Goth when he was targeted by gunnies riding a motorbike, said an official at the Supermarket cop shoppe.
The victim sustained four gunshot wounds and was struck down in his prime, said area DSP Rustam Khattak.
He confirmed to Dawn that the victim's elder brother, Imran, had been killed a week back in the Soldier Bazaar area. The body was shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for medico-legal formalities. However, facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable... his heirs took away the body without allowing the legal formalities.
As the body was brought back to Ilyas Goth, scores of people raised slogans against law-enforcement agencies. They staged a protest demonstration against the killing and block traffic on a nearby road.
The protesters, however, dispersed peacefully after senior coppers reached the scene and held talks with them.
Man found dead
A young man who went missing on Monday night was found rubbed out in Sector 44-C of Landhi near the Navy building on Tuesday, police said.
The 35-year-old victim, identified as Qamar Qureshi aka Imran, was a resident of Korangi No 4, the officials said.
Landhi SHO Mazhar Iqbal Awan said the victim sustained four bullet wounds to the head, chest and legs.
The police quoted his family as saying that he had informed them before leaving that he had a fever and was going to a clinic.
They said the victim was father of four children and a painter. He had shifted to Korangi only a year ago from Old Golimar, the police added.
The body was shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for medico-legal formalities where the victim's father identified him.
Police said they suspected personal enmity as a possible motive behind the murder, explaining that the victim had no affiliation with any political or religious party.
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Iran's official Press TV says the country plans to ban imports from 100 European companies as part of Tehran's pre-emptive retaliation against an EU embargo that is to go into effect in July.
The station reported Wednesday that Tehran took the measure to punish European countries for sanctions imposed by the bloc on Iran over its controversial nuclear program. It did not say which companies or countries would be singled out by the import ban.
Iran's official Press TV says the country has halted oil exports to Germany, a day after Tehran stopped crude exports to Spain and Greece.
The station says in a report Wednesday that Iran has cut the sale of crude to Germany as part of Tehran's pre-emptive retaliation over an EU embargo that is to go into effect in July.
[An Nahar] South Sudan's parliament speaker urged politicians Wednesday to mobilize the people to defend the fledgling nation in case of all-out attack by Sudan, as battle raged along their contested border.
"Khartoum might be meaning a real war... If you don't defend yourself you will be finished, so you should go and mobilize the people on (the) ground to be ready," Speaker James Wani Igga told parliament.
"It an ugly development at the border, we have to be vigilant to all the points as they are attacking us in all corners," Igga said, a deputy chairman of the South's ruling party.
"In the meantime wherever you are you are to defend yourself," he added, to loud applause by politicians in the national assembly.
Fierce fighting continued Wednesday as Sudanese warplanes bombed contested regions on the border with South Sudan, the second day of violence in the oil-rich region.
South Sudanese troops held positions in the disputed Heglig oil field, seized on Tuesday from Khartoum's troops.
In Khartoum, Sudan's parliament on Wednesday called a halt to 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... -led negotiations with Juba over their protracted dispute over oil, border demarcation, contested areas and citizenship issues.
"Parliament decided to stop negotiations and withdraw the delegation immediately," state Radio Omdurman reported.
The festivities follow border fighting that erupted last month between the neighbors, the most serious unrest since Juba's independence last July, and which prompted international fears of a return to all-out war.
On Tuesday, an Agence La Belle France Presse correspondent on the South Sudanese frontline heard heavy artillery shelling and multiple Arclight airstrikes for around an hour, with one bomb dropped by aircraft landing less than a kilometer away.
Large South Sudanese troops movements were seen close to the frontier, with convoys heading up to the frontline near Heglig, an area Juba claims but which makes up a key part of Khartoum's oil production.
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[Dawn] An embarrassment with serious political ramifications may engulf Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ... as the role allegedly played by his younger son in the import of proscribed drug 'ephedrine' and subsequent attempts to hush up an inquiry into the matter have reached the Supreme Court.
A three-judge SC bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Tariq Parvez ordered Regional Director of the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) Brig Fahim Ahmad Khan and Deputy Director Abid Zulfiqar on Tuesday not to relinquish their charge and continue to investigate the issue without yielding to any pressure.
The officers were posted out on Monday to frustrate the probe.
ANF's Director General Maj-Gen Syed Shakeel Hussain was also transferred on an order backdated to March 21 after the court had issued an order on March 29.
The court had taken up an application moved by Advocate Mohammad Akram Sheikh on behalf of Brig Fahim who accused the authorities of obstructing the investigation.
On March 29, the court had turned down a request by the ANF about withdrawing the case against the import of the proscribed drug.
"Prima facie we are of the opinion that transfer/posting of ANF DG Maj-Gen Syed Shakeel Hussain, Brig Fahim and Abid Zulfiqar in colourable exercise of powers is not free from extraneous consideration," the chief justice observed.
The court also decided to issue notices to acting secretary of the narcotics division Zafar Abbas, ANF DG Shakeel Hussain, Brig Fahim, Ali Musa Gilani, health secretary and the directors of Berlex Lab International, Multan, and Danas Pharmaceutical, Islamabad.
Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq was asked to assist the court at the next hearing on April 20.
Musa Gilani, son of the prime minister, was linked to the controversy when the name of Tauqir Ahmed Khan surfaced during the investigation. The latter said he was personal secretary to Musa Gilani and got the out-of-turn quota approved by the health ministry against rules and regulations.
Subsequently, Berlex Lab and Danas Pharmaceutical were given the quota to import 6,500kg and 2,500kg of ephedrine on March 25, 2010, and April 15, 2010, respectively, for export purposes.
Commonly known as poor man's cocaine, the chemical is also used to manufacture medicines for common cold, flu and asthma.
Rules do not permit a quota of more than 500kg. The two companies later sold the chemical to local manufactures and unknown people in violation of law.
The court ordered the authorities to maintain status quo and not to issue any order without the concurrence of the court and till a decision. If in the meantime, it said, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister and former health secretary Khushnood Akhtar Lashari and Ali Musa Gilani or anyone else wanted to record their statements they should be provided a fair opportunity in accordance with the law.
Both were repeatedly summoned by the investigating team but they did not turn up.
Brig Fahim informed the court about his meeting with Khushood Lashari at the Prime Minister's House on March 24 after notices had been sent to Mr Lashari and Musa Gilani.
In his affidavit submitted to the court, Brig Fahim said Mr Lashari told him in a maligning and threatening manner that the prime minister was very upset and worried because of the summons issued to his son.
Brig Fahim alleged that Mr Lashari wanted to make full use of his office to suppress/distort/misdirect the investigation against himself and Musa Gilani and suggested that the ANF should focus on the two pharmaceutical companies. "Both the companies will be ruined and the state machinery will be with you.........," he quoted Mr Lashari as saying.
The issue was raised in the National Assembly in January and former health minister Makdoom Shahabuddin set up a fact-finding committee. It submitted a report which was never brought to the record of the house.
In its order, the court noted that under the Anti-Narcotics Force Act of 1997, posts of the ANF director general and field directors were usually held by serving defence personnel of the ranks of Major Gen and Brig, respectively.
But surprisingly, the establishment division by means of the April 6, 2012, notification repatriated Maj-Gen Shakeel Hussain and gave Zafar Abbas, Acting Secretary of Narcotics Control (BS-21), additional charge of the ANF Director General.
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#1
I dunno, smacking their heads on the floor while high on crank might be a good thing...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/12/2012 16:03
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[An Nahar] Shots fired by Syrian forces early Wednesday hit a Syrian refugee camp just across the border with Turkey, Turkish media reported.
News channel CNN-Turk showed images of automatic rifle fire towards Turkish territory from a border surveillance building flying the Syrian flag near Kilis in southeastern Turkey.
Several television stations reported that troops had fired at Syrians trying to cross no man's land on the frontier to seek refuge in Turkey from the violence rocking Syria.
Bullets hit a nearby camp of prefabricated buildings without wounding anyone but causing panic among the refugee population.
On Monday, shooting from the Syrian side of the border maimed four Syrians and two Turks on Turkish soil.
The incident angered Ankara on the eve of a visit by U.N.-Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... envoy Annan to the refugee camps along the border, while Washington said it condemned attacks on Syrian refugees in bordering countries.
"It was a very clear violation of the border," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told news hounds in Beijing. "Obviously we will take the necessary measures," he was quoted as saying by the Turkish news agency Anatolia.
Turkey, a one-time ally of the Syrian regime but now one of its strongest critics, is home to around 25,000 Syrians in several camps set up in three provinces, an operation its prime minister deemed costly.
"We have already spent $150 million (114 million euros)... What are we to do if this exodus reaches 100,000 people?," Erdogan said Tuesday, urging the international community to help Turkey house the Syrians.
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[An Nahar] Two people were killed and five others were maimed when a bomb went kaboom! on a bus in the southern Philippines on Wednesday, the regional military commander said.
The kaboom occurred as the bus was pulling into a terminal in Carmen, a town on the restive island of Mindanao that is home to a long-running Moslem insurgency, Lieutenant Colonel Benjie Hao told news hounds.
The regional military front man initially reported that 10 people were killed and two maimed, but Hao said the corpse count of two was confirmed after soldiers reached the scene of the blast.
The bomb was apparently planted inside the bus, according to Hao.
Although there were no immediate suspects in the blast, Hao said that extortionists had previously carried out such bombings to force the bus company to pay them protection money.
The incident took place in a region where Moslem separatist rebels and heavily-armed outlaw groups are active, often resorting to extortion, kidnapping and banditry to raise funds.
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#1
"Protection" money, heh. As in, we will bomb your buses and passengers if you don't pay it. Great protection.
Posted by: American Delight ||
04/12/2012 6:09
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#2
There's been a long-standing issue with Filipino bus companies. Most of it might be due to " outlaw groups", but a good part of it is due to rivalry.
Defense officials: It was a mistake not to have made this clear during the Second Leb War in 2006.
Israel will attack Lebanese government targets during a future war with Hezbullies, senior defense officials said amid speculation that a war could erupt in the North following a future strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.
"It was a mistake not to attack Lebanese government targets during the [Second Leb] War in 2006," a senior defense official explained. "We will not be able to hold back from doing so in a future war."
After the outbreak of the 2006 war, the official said, the US asked Israel to refrain from bombing Lebanese government targets so as not to weaken the prime minister at the time, Fuad Siniora, who was aligned with the West.
Israel complied and restricted its bombings to Hezbullies targets.
"This will not be the same in the future, particularly now that Hezbullies and the government are effectively one and the same," the official said.
In general, the IDF has significantly boosted its "target bank" since the 2006 war. Today's bank is said to contain thousands of Hezbullies targets, compared to the approximately 200 that the IDF had on July 12, 2006, when Hezbullieskidnapped reservists Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser.
Hezbullies is believed to have amassed over 50,000 rockets and missiles, and most of the weaponry is thought to be stored in some 100 villages throughout southern Leb.
The new thinking regarding bombing government institutions is part of a revised IDF strategy on how to damage Hezbullies and facilitate a faster end to a war than the 34 days it took in 2006. The guerrilla group, which embeds its military capabilities within civilian infrastructure, does not have a clear power base, which if destroyed could help end such a war.
Talk of the possible bombing of Lebanese government targets comes as Israel prepares for a possible war with Hezbullies that could result from either an Israeli strike against Iran's nuclear facilities or a preemptive strike to stop the transfer of sophisticated weaponry from Syria to Leb.
Western countries have prepared various contingency plans for such a scenario, including the possible bombing of a convoy if it were detected, as well as the possible insertion of commando forces to secure the chemical stockpile if and when Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... falls.
[An Nahar] Speaker Nabih Knobby Berri Speaker of the Lebanese parliament, a member of AMAL, a not very subtle Hizbullah sock puppet... stressed on Wednesday that it is Leb's "sovereign right" to explore its oil wealth.
He stated before news hounds: "Leb has the right to acquire its oil wealth through the resistance should diplomacy fail." "If we don't get our way we're gonna come out shooting!... Well, Hezbollah and Amal are. And then the rest of Leb will have to come..."
He noted however that "we have never resorted to the resistance until after all other options have been exhausted."
"I am personally overseeing diplomatic efforts, as is the Lebanese state, and I hope that they will result in the demarcation of the maritime border," he continued.
"The oil file should be the Lebanese people's primary concern," stressed the speaker.
In addition, Berri said that the demarcation of the maritime border should be just as important as the demarcation of the land border.
"There are promising amounts of offshore oil and some petroleum has even been discovered on land, but not in such large quantities," he revealed.
Israel, Cyprus, and Leb have discovered huge offshore natural gas deposits beneath the Mediterranean Sea separating them.
However, a clean conscience makes a soft pillow... the Israeli map conflicts with Leb's proposed maritime border. Beirut argues its map is in line with an armistice accord drawn up in 1949, an agreement which is not contested by Israel.
A prolonged debate emerged between Leb, Cyprus, Turkey, and Israel over the demarcation of maritime border for its Exclusive Economic Zone.
The disputed zone consists of about 854 square kilometers, and suspected energy reserves there could generate billions of dollars.
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04/12/2012
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#1
Someone is itching for play. Ya know, according to The Big Guy, Israel OWNS Lebanon? Did you know that?
#3
Let's not forget the Greeks. Don't doubt how they could leverage their current problems away with an oil play. They'll be drawing their maritime border from here:
[An Nahar] German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle Wednesday pressed Russia to distance itself from Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Leveler of Latakia... 's deadly crackdown on opposition rebels.
"Russia has to make clear that it does not want to have anything to do with these acts of violence and this repression," Westerwelle said on the sidelines of a two-day meeting with Group of Eight ministers in Washington.
He called on the G8 to send a "signal of unity and resolve" to Assad, deploring reports about ongoing violence in Syria, despite a Tuesday deadline for the regime to withdraw from protest hubs.
"Unfortunately, the violence continues. There is a clear responsibility for that which lies with the Assad regime," the German foreign minister said.
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[An Nahar] Spain said Wednesday that one of its nationals, reportedly a doctor, had gone missing in southern Nigeria and was feared kidnapped.
The disappearance of the man "has all the characteristics of a kidnapping for economic reasons," said Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo.
Spanish media reported that the missing man is a 58-year-old doctor who works for a clinic belonging to a foundation financially supported by Catholic institution Opus Dei in southwestern Nigeria, a predominantly Christian area.
"The organization he works for has asked for total discretion," the foreign minister added as he arrived in parliament.
"It is in the south of the country, not in the north, so there are no political implications of any type."
An insurgency by Islamist group Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. Currently wearing a false nose and moustache and answering to Jama'atu Ahlus-Sunnah Lidda'Awati Wal Jihad, or Big Louie... , which is concentrated mainly in northern Nigeria, has left more than 1,000 people dead since mid-2009.
Police and soldiers are the main victims of the group, but it has also targeted Christians.
The man was taken hostage on April 4 by several gunnies from his home in the southwestern city of Enugu, Spanish newspaper ABC reported, adding that he worked at the Niger Foundation Hospital which was founded in 1993.
Spain's embassy in Nigeria was working with the local authorities to resolve the case and the foreign ministry was in "permanent contact" with the man's family, a ministry front man said.
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[An Nahar] International envoy Kofi Annan ...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo... said Wednesday he had received a written pledge from the Syrian regime to halt fighting from dawn on Thursday in line with his U.N. and Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... -backed peace plan.
Annan had received a letter from Syria's foreign minister pledging "to cease all military fighting throughout Syrian territory as of 6:00 am tomorrow, while reserving the right to respond proportionately to any attacks carried out by armed terrorist groups against civilians, government forces or public and private property'," his front man said in a statement.
For its part, the Syrian defense ministry said Wednesday that it will cease military operations against rebel fighters from Thursday, state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
reported.
"After our armed forces completed successful operations in combating the criminal acts of the armed terrorist groups and enforced the state's rule over its territory, it has been decided to stop these operations from Thursday morning," the television quoted a ministry official it did not identify as saying.
Annan "will continue to work with the Syrian government and the opposition to ensure the comprehensive implementation of the six-point plan," said his front man.
"The Joint Special Envoy looks forward to the continued support of relevant countries in this regard."
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[Shabelle] Further details are coming out from a heavy battle between Somali soldiers backed by Kenyan military and Al shabab fighters that took place on Wednesday in Lower Jubba region, southSomalia, reports said.
Lt. Colonel Mohammed Farah Dahir, one of Somali government military officials in region told Shabelle Media via from the battlefield that Al shabab tried to block Kenyan and TFG troops from traveling between Qoqani and Kulbiyow towns, but failed after they were repulsed back.
"Both Somali and Kenya military jointly fought back during the attack and inflicted upon Al-shabab fighters heavy casualties. They (Al shabab) were warded off from the area after fighting. The situation is now quiet and every thing returned to normal," said Dahir.
Al-shabab, which controls some areas in south and western Somali regions, has not commented on the combat so far, but locals, said there were no civilian causality.
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[An Nahar] The March 14 forces on Wednesday called for referring the attempt on Lebanese Forces A Christian political party founded by Bashir Gemayel, who was then bumped off when he was elected president of Leb... leader Samir Geagea ... Geagea was imprisoned by the Syrians and their puppets for 11 years in a dungeon in the third basement level of the Lebanese Ministry of Defense. He was released after the Cedar Revolution in 2005 ... 's life to the Judicial Council, noting that the government's "sudden" decision to "stop providing security agencies with telecom data" represents "collusion with the criminals."
"March 14 calls for referring the liquidation attempt against Dr. Samir Geagea to the Judicial Council, given that it was part of attempts to undermine security, civil peace and stability in the country and to target the scheme of building the Lebanese state," said a statement issued by the March 14 forces after a broad meeting held in Maarab in solidarity with Geagea.
"The conferees call on the government to immediately reverse its decision ... and to provide security agencies with telecom data, without any delay or obstructions, to enable them to perform their role in unveiling the criminals," said the statement.
"The March 14 forces reserve their right to take all the appropriate political, legal and popular steps should the government fail to meet this demand," the statement said.
The conferees stressed that the failed attack on Geagea was "an attack against the entire March 14 movement," stressing that they will "confront any attempt to incite civil strife or put Leb once again under the mercy of terrorism."
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[Yemen Post] A front man of the Military Committee formed under the GCC-brokered power transfer deal, Ali Saeed Obaid, has affirmed that relatives of the former president President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... rebelled against recent decrees issued by President Abdu Rabo Mansour Hadi.
He stressed that the refusal of Commanders of the Air Forces Mohammad Saleh Al- Ahmar and Commander of the Special Forces Tariq Mohammad Saleh Al-Ahmar to hand over their military positions to the new commanders was grave breaches.
He told Akhbar Alyawam Newspaper that joint forces formed of different military units were displayed in points in the Capital Sana'a.
Obaid affirmed that barracks, checkpoints and other armed manifestations were removed from Hail, Hassbah, Al-Olfi, Sofan and other streets of the Capital Sana'a.
He further said that the mountains surrounding the Capital Sana'a were not purged of military manifestations so far, indicating that the military units existed in what is called "the security belt" will stay at their positions.
He reitrated that the Military Commission faces difficulties and challenges in different parts of the Capital Sana'a, calling on all parties to cooperate with the committee to carry out its tasks.
He further said that the committee has nothing to do with issuing decrees, stressing that Hadi and the Defense Minister constantly follow up those commanders who refused to accept presidential decrees.
Meanwhile, ...back at the fist fight, Jake ducked another roundhouse, then parried with his left, then with his right, finally with his chin... the Defense Minster Mohammad Nasser Abhmed opened on Tuesday blocked main streets in Sana'a after barracks and concrete blocks were taken out.
Checkpoints of pro and anti-former regime forces were set up when the public uprising escalated early last year.
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The conservative French government on Wednesday unveiled new counterterrorism measures to punish those who visit hard boy websites or travel to weapons-training camps abroad, in the wake of deadly shootings by an suspected Islamic hard boy in southern La Belle France last month.
The measures now go to Parliament, where it may face resistance from the Socialists, who say La Belle France's legal arsenal against terrorism is already strong enough and that the proposal is a campaign ploy to boost President Nicolas Sarkozy ...23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. Sarkozy is married to singer-songwriter Carla Bruni, who has a really nice birthday suit... 's chances at a second term.
A Jordanian interior ministry official says the country now has 95,000 Syrian refugees who decamped the conflict at home.
The official said Wednesday that previous estimates said about 80,000 Syrians had found shelter in Jordan, mostly along the border with Syria. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not allowed to make statements to the media.
[Bangla Daily Star] War crimes suspect Abul Kalam Azad, widely known as Bachchu Razakar, decamped the country with the help of those who watched him, alleged the chairman of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) yesterday.
"The persons under vigilance can flee the country only with your [law enforcers] assistance. It has been told that he decamped away. But he did not. Rather he was sent abroad with proper care," Prof Mizanur Rahman said at a seminar in the city.
"It is our apprehension that he could not cross the country's border without someone's help," said the NHRC chief while addressing the discussion on rights of Dalit communities at Cirdap auditorium.
On Monday, Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) officials said Bachchu Rajakar slipped into India through Dinajpur border on April 2. He left Dhaka on March 30.
The prosecution of the International Crimes Tribunal-1 dealing with the war crimes committed during the Liberation War in 1971 sought an arrest warrant against Azad on March 25 following which Bachchu Razakar was under watch of the law enforcement personnel.
The tribunal issued the warrant on April 3.
Talking to news hounds after the seminar, the rights body chief said, "Since the members of our law enforcement agencies know all information in detail, it was expected that strict vigilance would be there. But, he bravely ran away dodging everyone!"
"How can a person escape when he remains under such vigilance?" Prof Mizanur wondered.
"It is possible only in Bangladesh. Here murders are taking place frequently, and later those are labelled as suicides," he said.
Regarding the home minister's remark that assistance of the Interpol would be sought to bring Bachchu Razakar back, the NHRC chief said, "Interpol can only locate a person, but it cannot send the absconding person back. It needs bilateral relations [with the corresponding country] to bring someone back from abroad."
About the NHRC's investigation over the killings of six alleged muggers in Narsingdi by Rab, Prof Mizanur said a full-commission meeting will be held on April 18 to decide on the matter.
Talking about the delay in investigation of the murder of journalist couple, he said, "We hope there has been positive progress [in the investigation]."
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Population, Immigration and Border Authority publicized a list of peoples denied entry to Israel, followed by a letter to aviation companies advising them not to allow activists to board flights to Israel.
According to estimates, 500-1,000 foreign activists will attempt to land in Israel next week, and to enter the Paleostinian Authority. Flytilla organizers claim the number of activists will be closer to 1,500.
Deputies from the opposition A Just Russia party staged a highly unusual walkout of the Russian parliament on Wednesday during an appearance by president-elect Vladimir Putin ...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile... Faction leader Sergei Mironov led his deputies out of the chamber in protest at Putin's response to a question about a mayoral vote in the southern city of Astrakhan that his party says was rigged and prompted the local candidate to go on hunger strike.
Putin replied he had no authority to intervene in the case and urged the candidate to go to court. He also question why the hunger strike was declared before any appeal had been filed.
Mironov "gave the order to leave the chamber because of Putin's rudeness," A Just Russia deputy Ilya Ponomaryov tweeted moments after the incumbent prime minister's answer.
"We were not satisfied with the prime minister's response," Interfax later quoted Mironov as saying.
Putin then went on to answer the next question from another politician without commenting on the incident.
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[Dawn] Ahmed Ben Bella, Algeria's first president after the country became independent from La Belle France half a century ago, has died following an illness, state media reported on Wednesday.
He was 96 and died at his family home in the Algerian capital, according to the state-run news agency. ...and if you can't believe the state-run news agency who can you believe?... The son of peasant farmers who grew up near Algeria's border with Morocco, Ben Bella was one of the leading figures in the war for independence from La Belle France after World War Two, and spent several years in French prisons.
When La Belle France relinquished control of Algeria in 1962, Ben Bella became president but he was unseated three years later in an internal coup by Houari Boumediene, a fellow independence fighter who took over as head of state.
Ben Bella subsequently spent years in jail and exile before returning to Algeria in 1999.
His death coincides with the 50th anniversary of Algerian independence, a date which many Algerians see as bitter-sweet because they feel the aspirations of the country's founding fathers, embodied by Ben Bella, have not been fully realised.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Gaaaawd I feel old - I actually remember reading about him in my family's dusty old Year Books, World Book + Britannica, Americana Encylopedias from the 1950-60's.
[An Nahar] Syria has informed Lebanese authorities that it holds onto its announcement that "terrorist groups" were responsible for the killing of a Lebanese cameraman in the northern area of Wadi Khaled.
An Nahar daily said Wednesday that coordination between Leb and Syria was underway through the joint security and military committee.
But the Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... regime informed Leb that it holds onto its side of the story that was released by Syria's state-run news agency ...and if you can't believe the state-run news agency who can you believe?... SANA.
SANA said Monday that al-Jadeed TV team came under fire as
Syrian border guards opened fire in retaliation to an attack by "terrorist groups."
"During the presence of the al-Jadeed team, a border checkpoint came under heavy fire from armed terrorist groups... and the border guards retaliated," SANA said quoting an unnamed media source.
The TV station's cameraman Ali Shaaban, 32, was killed while news hound Hussein Khreis and cameraman Abed Khayyat, who was lightly maimed in his arm, managed to escape after their car came under a volley of gunfire from the Syrian side of the border.
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[An Nahar] Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki commemorated the 10th anniversary of a deadly attack on an ancient synagogue Wednesday, a move welcomed by the Arab nation's tiny Jewish population.
On April 11, 2002 the Tunisian Nizar Nawar carried out an al-Qaeda-claimed suicide kaboom on the synagogue at Ghriba on the Mediterranean island of Djerba.
He drove a truck to what is considered the oldest Jewish site in Africa then detonated the vehicle, killing 21 people, including 14 German tourists.
Marzouki, after attending Wednesday's ceremony, met victims' families.
Jewish community member Elie Trabelsi said it was the first time a president had officially commemorated the attack.
"For us, it's a very strong and important message," Trabelsi said. "It's a remarkable gesture that brings back trust."
Tunisia's tiny Jewish minority has dwindled from 100,000 or so at the time of independence from La Belle France in 1956 to just 1,500 today.
The community is on edge following the chanting of antisemitic slogans at hardline Salafist Moslem rallies.
After the third such incident this year, Tunisian community representative Roger Bismuth filed a legal complaint. He said he was confident the slogan authors would be prosecuted.
Bismuth said Marzouki's appearance at the ceremony would help foreign visitors feel safe about visiting the synagogue, site of an annual pilgrimage for Jews across the region who go there to mark the Lag Baomer holiday.
The synagogue dates back 2,500 years and, legend has it, was built by fleeing Jews following the destruction of Solomon's Temple.
The 2002 attack caused a sharp drop in tourism to the island of Djerba.
Nawar's uncle was sent to 20 years in prison for complicity in the attack, and in La Belle France a German man who had converted to Islam was in 2009 sentenced to 18 years for complicity, and the attacker's brother sentenced to 12 years.
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Dawa first, jihad next. The targets must be given an opportunity to surrender before they are conquered.
A project by Salafist Mohammedans to give away 25 million German-language Korans across the country -- by post and in town centres, has been slammed by a conservative politician calling it a disturbance of the religious peace.
"Wherever possible, this aggressive action must be stopped," Günter Krings, a top member of Angela Merkel ...current chancellor of Germany. She was educated in East Germany when is was still run by commies, but in 1989 got involved with the growing democracy movement when the Berlin Wall fell. Merkel is sometimes referred to by Germans as Mom... 's Christian Democratic Union parliamentary party, told Die Welt daily newspaper on Wednesday.
"Although there is in principle nothing against the distribution of religious texts," he said, Die Welt reported he added that the radical Salafists ...Salafists are ostentatiously devout Moslems who figure the ostentation of their piety gives them the right to tell others how to do it and to kill those who don't listen to them... were disturbing the religious peace with their aggressive methods.
The newspaper said that German intelligence services rated the campaign's initiator Ibrahim Abou Nagie as a dangerous Salafist preacher.
His aim is to give away 25 million free German-language copies of the Koran to non-Mohammedans -- his campaign is called "Read! In the name of your Lord who created you." Additional copies are also being distributed in Austria and Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... The Cologne-based preacher says the aim is to try to save people from eternal hell.
The project is being funded by Mohammedans who buy one Koran, which then funds the production of a second one to be given away and also by donations from wealthy people in Bahrain.
Die Welt said the first copies have already been given out -- and that Abu Nagie claims to have given away more than 300,000 German-language Korans across the country already. People are also invited to order a free copy to be delivered by post.
The Easter weekend was the spark for a new phase, the paper said, with what it termed a "frontal offensive against the non- and other-believers". Others might describe it as setting up stands in 35 town centres across the country and handing out free copies of the Koran.
The paper does admit that the version of the Koran is a moderate one -- a translation by Mohammed Ibn Ahmad Rassoul with comments from the German convert Frank von Bubenheim and has been rated by intelligence agencies as not problematic.
Yet the Berlin state office for the protection of the constitution said, "Salafistism is strongly radicalising and is promoted by its followers as supposedly the only true Islam."
#2
I'm all in favor of people reading the Koran. Parts of it are rather extreme and would probably be considered a hate crime in some jurisdictions if published separately. Although this The paper does admit that the version of the Koran is a moderate one makes it sound like they have sanitized it a bit.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
04/12/2012 12:25
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#5
Free TP
And a nice wrap for your Westphalian Ham.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
04/12/2012 12:31
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#6
Informed rational freedom loving people have all the reasons in the world to fear islam. The twin fogs of political correctness & ignorance must be dispersed before western society better understands this menace. Even a brief review of islamic theology & history quickly exposes the deadly roots of this evil ideology.
Mohamhead was a 7th century murdering warlord who rose to power on a river of blood surrounded by thugs and gangsters using intimidation, violence, deception and trickery to expand their criminal empire while mercilessly suppressing and killing their opponents and enriching themselves on stolen booty.
The evil koran is a collection of sayings and speeches by this diabolical madman claiming divine guidance from some mythical sky-god which has inspired generations of crazed fanatics to abhorrent behavior resulting in historys worst ever crimes against humanity starting 1400 years ago and still continuing even today.
Islam is just another fascist totalitarian ideology used by power hungry fanatics on yet another quest for worldwide domination and includes all the usual human rights abuses & suppression of freedoms.
and some snappy graphics, great for emailing...
http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/1479/dangermoko.jpg
http://img826.imageshack.us/img826/9963/dangerislam.jpg
Posted by: Barbara ||
04/12/2012 17:10
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#8
I got my free crayon through a similar CAIR project a few years ago. Big hardbound doorstop thing, expensive. I checked to be sure all the slaughter-the-infidels stuff is in there - it is - then parked it on a bottom shelf, and placed my cute stuffed pig Otto on top. I'd guess most of those 25 million copies will wind up similarly.
A recently freed Islamist thinker has long advocated small-scale, independent acts of anti-Western terror
Mohamed Merah, the 23-year-old Islamist gunman who hunted down three Jewish children and a rabbi after murdering three French paratroopers in Toulouse last month, didn't act alone. In his journey from the slums of Toulouse, to the local mosques, to the terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan that he described to French police, to filming his murder of the terrified children in order to post video clips on the web, Mr. Merah was following a path marked out years earlier by the coldblooded jihadist theoretician Abu Musab al-Suri.
According to the baby naming sites, Musab is an uncommon name in Islamic communities. It is a masculine name of Arabic origin and is said to mean 'Undefeatable'. In Islamic belief Musab was the name of a 'Sahabah', a disciple of the prophet Mohammed. Perhaps that last is why al Zarqawi's full nom de guerre was Abu Musab al Zarqawi.
Once called "the most dangerous terrorist you've never heard of" by CNN, Mr. al-Suri, whose real name is Mustafa Setmariam Nasar, served in the days before 9/11 as the facilitator who took Western reporters to meet with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. Photographs of him from those trips show a well-built man with pale white skin, a red beard and blue eyes who--Afghan garb aside--would not look out of place in an Irish pub or a cafe in Brussels.
Mr. al-Suri's plans for a wave of "individual jihad" in the West are contained in "A Call to a Global Islamic Resistance," a 1,600-page book that he published on the Web in 2005, shortly before he was apprehended in Pakistan with a $5 million CIA bounty on his head. The manifesto combines strikingly clearheaded historical analysis with trenchant commentary on what he saw as two decades of strategic and operational failures by jihadists. The destruction of the World Trade Center was a short-term public-relations success for al Qaeda, Mr. al-Suri conceded, but American cruise missiles had made short work of the group's havens in Afghanistan, and Western special forces and intelligence agencies had decimated the ranks of its fighters and crippled the global jihadist movement.
What Mr. al-Suri learned from the Afghan debacle and from al Qaeda's subsequent defeat in Iraq was that jihadists were all but helpless in battle against modern Western armies. In place of old-fashioned hierarchical terror organizations, which had failed, he called for a global struggle in which shadowy motivators and facilitators would prompt jihadists to train and arm themselves in independent, self-generating terror cells that would target Western civilians. His goal: a relentless campaign of exemplary acts of violence under a single ideological banner, culminating in the use of weapons of mass destruction.
Read the whole thing. Also click on each name to see more articles on the gentleman in the Rantburg archives -- we've been following his exploits for quite some time. And for the really curious, Mr. al-Suri has a nice write-up in Wikipedia.
An Egyptian court ruled Wednesday that that the mother of a popular ultraconservative Islamist viewed as one of the strongest contenders for president is not a US citizen, likely clearing the way for him to run in May elections.
Abu Ismail is a 50-year-old lawyer-turned-preacher with a large following of enthusiastic supporters, particularly from the country's ultraconservative Salafi movement.
"...The mother of the candidate, Sheik Hazem Salah Abu Ismail, became an American citizen before she died, according to California public records and a Los Angeles voter registration Web site...".
of course objective truth doesn't really count for much in a Cairo court
Posted by: lord garth ||
04/12/2012 0:15
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of course objective truth doesn't really count for much in a Cairo court
[An Nahar] Syrian forces shelled the flashpoint city of Homs on Wednesday and raided other parts of the country, killing eight civilians as they pressed their assaults on protest hubs, monitors said.
The attacks occurred a day after a U.N.-Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... peace plan was scheduled to enter into effect, but envoy Kofi Annan ...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo... said Wednesday there was still a chance to salvage his bid to end hostilities within another 24 hours.
Forces loyal to Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... shelled and fired powerful guns at the old quarter of Khaldiyeh, as well as Juret al-Shayah and Qarabeed, in the central city of Homs, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Three people were killed in the attacks, the Britannia-based monitoring group said.
Activist Khaled al-Talawi, speaking to Agence La Belle France Presse from the Homs neighborhood of Bab Sbaa, said shelling "resumed on Wednesday morning with artillery and mortars."
Also in the province of Homs, three civilians, including a child and a woman, were killed in the town of Qusayr, near the border with Leb, the Observatory said.
Two civilians were also rubbed out as security forces launched raids in search for wanted snuffies in the town of Qurayyah, in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, the Observatory said.
Regime forces also launched raids in the southern province of Daraa, the cradle of the popular uprising against the Assad regime that began more than a year ago.
Troops deployed in Maaraba after arriving in dozens of buses and personnel carriers, while gunfire was heard across the village, the Observatory said, adding security forces also raided the village of Ankhal.
The activist group, the Local Coordination Committees, said helicopters hovered over several suburbs of Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... The Observatory said that military checkpoints were reinforced in Harasta, on the capital's outskirts.
It also said that five people were incarcerated during raids in the central province of Hama.
Speaking from Hama activist Abu Ghazi told AFP that security forces stormed the city of Halfaya where it "incarcerated people at random."
The army also shelled the area of Jabal al-Akrad, in the coastal province of Latakia, the Observatory said.
In the northern province of Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... , regime forces continued shelling the town of Marea and neighboring villages, for the second consecutive day, according to activist Mohammed al-Halabi.
"Regime forces hit one town after the other. It started with Andan and Haraytan, then moved to Mang and Aazaz, and then to Tal Rifaat, and now Marea," he said.
At least 99 people, including 66 civilians, were killed across Syria on Tuesday, the Observatory and the LCC said.
Syria's government had said Tuesday it was abiding by the plan to withdraw its forces, but Annan accused it of pulling troops from some areas and moving them elsewhere.
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Iranian army, Revolutionary Guards to hold exercises; Islamic Theocratic Republic announces upgrades to tanks, new vertical wind tunnel.
The Islamic Theocratic Republic Army of Iran and the Revolutionary Guards are to conduct joint military exercises in the southwest or southeast of the country, a senior Iranian army commander said on Wednesday.
Brig.-Gen. Ahmad-Reza Pourdastan, commander of the Iranian ground forces, said that the army and the Revolutionary Guards will carry out a special joint air exercise that will be the first of its type since the Islamic Revolution, Iran's ISNA news outlet and hardline Mashregh news reported. A further eight joint military exercises would be held in the upcoming year, Pourdastan said.
The ground forces commander added that the exercises would be performed using live ammunition and in battle conditions, to prepare soldiers for war.
The Revolutionary Guards and the Islamic Theocratic Republic Army of Iran act as parallel ground forces, but while the regular army is tasked with defending the country and maintaining civil order, the job of the Revolutionary Guards is to protect Iran's Islamic regime. The Revolutionary Guards, which the US designated a terrorist organization in 2007, also controls Iran's Basij militia, and the secret Quds Force, which conducts operations outside Iran.
The announcement came days before Iran and six world powers are due to restart negotiations on Iran's nuclear program, and as the Islamic Theocratic Republic continues to give mixed messages about its position.
According to Pourdastan, who made the announcement during a speech for Iran's Army Day, the Islamic Theocratic Republic has also developed its own vertical wind tunnel for military use. Vertical wind tunnels are used to teach skydiving to elite troops.
The military commander said that while there are several such wind tunnels in Arab countries, those were of Western origin, whereas Iran's had been built domestically, in cooperation with the Self-Sufficiency Jihad Organization.
Pourdastan also said Iran plans to improve its domestic- built Zulfiqar tank by adding a new firing control system and laser range-finder.
Iran's Zulfiqar is a second-generation main battle tank, developed and mass-produced since the 1990s and believed to be based on components from Russia's T-72 tank as well as American M48 and M60 Patton tanks.
Currently, the most updated model, Zulfiqar-3, is equipped with a firing system based on a Soviet design.
According to Pourdastan, Iran has produced a Gatlingtype 7.62 caliber machine gun, dubbed the Akhgar, which has an effective range of over 2 kilometers.
The maneuvers would be the latest in a series of military exercises and war games Iran has staged since the start of the year, amid growing tensions and concerns of war with Israel.
In February, the Revolutionary Guards announced they had begun a two-day military exercise outside the central Iranian city of Yazd, which Iran said was designed to upgrade its defense capabilities.
Also in February, Iran announced that it had deployed anti-aircraft artillery and warplanes to protect its nuclear sites from possible Israeli Arclight airstrikes, in a military exercise it dubbed Sarollah, from an Arabic term meaning "the vengeance of God." That same month, the Revolutionary Guards conducted military exercises in the south of Iran.
#3
Yeah, nice ploy to cover movement of troops & equipment. But nine live-fire exercises in a year seems like a lot (to ignorant me), rather expensive in fuel and ammo.
And this vertical wind tunnel, does it run on hot air?
[An Nahar] A Saudi court sentenced a radical holy man who fiercely supports the segregation of the sexes to five years in prison on Wednesday for "incitement" against the kingdom's rulers, media reported.
Youssef al-Ahmed was also sentenced to a five-year travel ban and fined 100,000 Saudi riyals ($26,600), said aleqt.com, the website of Al-Eqtesadiya daily.
The holy man, who was set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock in July, had been charged with "disobedience to the rulers and incitement against them," the website said.
Concretely, he called for destroying the Grand Mosque, home to the Kaaba -- Islam's holiest shrine -- and rebuilding it in a way that would make it impossible for the sexes to mix during pilgrimages.
Ahmed was set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock after he posted a YouTube video in which he blamed King Abdullah, Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz and his deputy for the lengthy periods that people in Soddy Arabia can be jugged without trial.
Rights activists say thousands of Saudis fall into that category, even though the law lays down a six-month limit.
Ahmed's two Egyptian employees were each sentenced to two years in prison to be followed by deportation.
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[Dawn] The police elite force set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock seven proclaimed offenders and 37 other alleged criminals and recovered two hand grenades and weapons during an operation in different parts of Kohat district on Tuesday.
District police officer Mubarek Zeb had ordered the operation against criminals along the tribal belt and in some villages. The police force combed the areas bordering the tribal belt, Jarma, Bilitang, Cantt, Dhoda, Sayyab, Junglekhel and Gumbat and set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock 44 accused, including seven proclaimed offenders required in murder and kidnapping for ransom cases.
The police also recovered two hand grenades, five sub-machineguns, three repeaters, eight shot guns, seven rifles, 16 pistols, hashish and cartridges from the possession of the accused.
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Dawn] In the backdrop of recent assassination of many people in the city, local leaders of the Pakistain People's Party (PPP) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement ...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead... (MQM) on Tuesday held a meeting at the Governor's House on Tuesday and agreed to coordinate with each other and support stern action against elements involved in such killings.
Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad Khan, who presided over the meeting, told a presser that political forces agreed to ensure coordination between them and support action against myrmidons, who would not lose a chance to create a law and order situation in the metropolis.
He said that the incidents of assassinations in which many PPP and MQM workers as well as other innocent people were bumped off in the city over the past few days was discussed at the meeting.
"PPP and MQM are two major coalition partners in Sindh and President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... and (MQM chief) Altaf Bhai have taken notice of the situation," he said, adding that the parties could play their role in curbing such incidents by coordinating with each other and ensuring unity at the grassroots level. Other parties would also be taken on board to ensure their cooperation in restoring peace to the city, he said.
The governor noted that there was 'exemplary harmony and unity' among all sects and ethnic communities in the city as they were not at odds with one another. "They all are shocked over the assassinations -- of Ahl-e-Tashee, doctors, lawyers, political activists and other people -- wherever they happened," he said.
In reply to a question, the governor said peace in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... was in the interest of all political forces, particularly the MQM, which had more stakes than others in the city. Similarly, he pointed out, being the majority party at the centre and in Sindh, the PPP also had its stakes in Bloody Karachi. He argued that peace in the city would ultimately benefit the Awami National Party (ANP), and said that those who were blaming the (Sindh) coalition parties for the law and order situation were actually the elements who benefited only from instability in the city. "Whenever killings take place, the myrmidons try to blame it on coalition parties to create tension between them," he said.
Supporting the governor's contentions, PPP Bloody Karachi president Syed Faisal Raza Abidi said there was no clash of interests between the PPP and the MQM in the city. Rather, he said, a third force was butchering innocent people.
He said the PPP, MQM, ANP and Ahl-e-Tashee, Ahl-e-Sunnat and all other forces wanted peace and harmony to be maintained in the city. For the purpose, he added, the meeting decided to constitute a committee with the task of ensuring harmony among followers of all schools of thought and the file and ranks of all political forces. He said the committee would also expose those who were in Bloody Karachi and involved in creating instability in Gilgit-Baltistan.
The meeting, he said, had also decided to support moves to give the police and other security forces "a freehand to deal with enemies of humanity".
MQM coordination committee member Dr Sagheer Ahmad said that anti-people elements were bent upon disturbing the peace in Bloody Karachi and other parts of the province. He stressed the need for foiling their designs through the reconciliation process initiated by Asif Ali Zardari and Altaf Hussain. He expressed his party's resolve to help foil conspiracies aimed at sabotaging political activities in the city.
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[An Nahar] U.N.-Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... envoy Kofi Annan ...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo... warned on Wednesday it would be "disastrous" if rebels fighting the Syrian regime were to be armed, as proposed by Soddy Arabia and Qatar.
"I've always said the militarization of the conflict will be disastrous," Annan told a news conference in Tehran during a visit to Iran, Syria's chief ally in the Middle East.
Annan, who drew up a six-point plan to end combat in Syria, said a new conflict could not be tolerated in the Middle East.
The envoy said he believed his plan could still be salvaged and be fully implemented by a deadline at 6:00 am Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... time (0300 GMT) on Thursday if both the Syrian regime and rebels respected its terms.
He said the regime of Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Leveler of Latakia... has given "further clarifications" over how it would implement its side of the plan after it failed to observe a Tuesday deadline to withdraw its forces from urban areas.
"What they mean and want is an assurance that the other forces, the opposition forces, would also stop the fighting so that we could see cessation of all the violence," he said.
Annan said his team has "had positive answers from them" and that "governments with influence" had also been approached to ensure that all sides in the conflict respect the ceasefire.
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[Shabelle] Heavily small gang has overnight launched an attack on a Somali government cop shoppe in the chaotic capital,Mogadishu, locals and officials said Wednesday.
Mohammed Abdirahman Qasim, the police chief of attacked base told Shabelle Media by telephone that some Al-shabab fighters have ambushed on the station, sparking a face-to-face festivities between the security forces and the attackers.
"The Islamic fascistiattacked us at mid last night. We repulsed them from the area and now the situation has returned to normal. There were no fatalities our side, but with they suffered casualties during the attack at West-station in Dharkenlay district," the police chief added.
It was impossible immediately to reach Al-shabab officials for comments on the attack.
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[Dawn] Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ... on Wednesday conferred the status of Federal Minister on Excellency Ms. Sherry Rehman, Ambassador of Pakistain to the US.
The Cabinet Division has issued the notification in this regard.
The former information minister was appointed Pakistain's ambassador to the United States on 23rd November last year.
She was member of the National Assembly before appointed as an ambassador and was serving as chairperson Pakistain Red Islamic Thingy Society.
Ms Rehman has also remained a member of the National Security Committee of Pakistain's Parliament and is the founding president of the Jinnah Institute in Islamabad, an independent public policy institute committed to regional peace and inclusive democracy in Pakistain.
She has served as Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting from March 2008 to March 2009.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Wednesday conferred the status of Federal Minister on Excellency Ms. Sherry Rehman, Ambassador of Pakistain to the US.
The Cabinet Division has issued the notification in this regard.
The former information minister was appointed Pakistain's ambassador to the United States on 23rd November last year.
She was member of the National Assembly before appointed as an ambassador and was serving as chairperson Pakistain Red Islamic Thingy Society.
Ms Rehman has also remained a member of the National Security Committee of Pakistain's Parliament and is the founding president of the Jinnah Institute in Islamabad, an independent public policy institute committed to regional peace and inclusive democracy in Pakistain.
She has served as Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting from March 2008 to March 2009.
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#2
I'm not going to touch Pakistain's Federal Minister on Excellency title. That's just self-snarking. But I gotta ask: they do know Sherry is a girl, right?
And how's that president of the Jinnah Institute, an independent public policy institute committed to regional peace and inclusive democracy in Pakistain thingie working out? Seems like an uphill swim. Unless 'regional peace and inclusive democracy' is some sort of Pakistaini code for messing with the Hindus and keeping the Afghan hillbillies stirred up.
[Dawn] About 2,000 internally displaced families arriving from the violence-battered Khyber Agency are being registered daily in Jalozai camp, while leading national and international humanitarian organizations are yet to respond to provide the much-needed food and non-food aid for them.
An official of Pakistain Red Islamic Thingy Society (Fata chapter) said that they had requested their national headquarters in Islamabad to send relief items for the affected population, but failed to elicit any response.
"We sent a request to the headquarters about a month ago for provision of non- food items for the needy persons," said the official.
PRCS director operations Mohammad Ateeb Siddiqui, when contacted, said that the government's bodies were on the ground and there was no need for the society to intervene in Jalozai.
Officials said that 39,114 displaced families (258,000 individuals) had been registered by Monday last who were forced to vacate their homes in the conflict zone, while thousands of vulnerable people are waiting for registration and relief.
UNHCR's spokesperson in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, Taimur Khan, said that on average 2,000 families were issued registration cards daily to make them eligible for getting tents, non-food items and food. He said that the IDPs looking for food and shelter were still thronging the camp.
"The UN agency and its implementing partners have mobilised all resources to cope with the situation and are trying their best, but there is always room for improvement," Mr Khan said, adding that the world body would appreciate contribution from other humanitarian organizations in relief operations.
Like the PRCS, International Committee of the Red Thingy, which has mandate to take direct and immediate action in response to emergency situations, has kept itself aloof from the IDPs in Jalozai.
The committee spokesperson, Najmul Saqib, said that the ICRC was closely monitoring the situation in Jalozai and ready to start relief work, but it had been waiting for a green signal from the government.
The committee could join relief work if asked by the provincial government and its agencies formally, he said. However, facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable... he added that the committee had neither requested the government nor had made up mind to start activities in Jalozai.
Jalozai camp is becoming overcrowded gradually. Fata Disaster Management Authority had initially intimated the UN agencies that an estimated 20,000 plus families were likely to be displaced from Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency after military operation.
However, ars longa, vita brevis... an official source said that over 60,000 families were expected to be uprooted from Bara.
"The Provincial Disaster Management Authority has been conveyed that mass exodus was still being feared," the official said.
Another registration point is being set up in or near Jalozai for enlisting off the camp IDPs.
Relief workers said that sizzling heat was around the corner and the camp's dwellers required additional shelter and facilities to protect them, particularly children, from tough weather conditions. Thousands of newly-registered IDPs in the camp are
without electricity.
Gulbat Khan, a member of the camp management committee in Jalozai, said that the IDPs were facing health and education problems. He said that the government had provided electricity in three phases of the camp which were established in 2009 and the remaining population had not been provided the facility.
Officials said that 30 per cent of the total population in the camp comprised children and 40 to 45 per cent were women. They said that the IDPs would require fans, water coolers and green sheds in tents to bear temperature, which remained above 40 degree centigrade in peak summer.
They said that the UN agency was trying to raise desired resources to install green sheds for the displaced people. The world body, they said, would seek financial assistance from the European Commission Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection to buy additional shelters. The commission is sending its delegation to Jalozai next week to evaluate the humanitarian situation.
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[An Nahar] The African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... said Wednesday it was "deeply alarmed" by worsening violence between Sudan and South Sudan and called for the withdrawal of Southern troops from the Heglig battle zone.
"The African Union expresses grave concern at the escalating armed conflict on the border between Sudan and South Sudan and calls upon both parties to exercise utmost restraint," it said in a statement.
"The African Union notes with alarm the occupation of Heglig by the armed forces of the Republic of South Sudan, and calls for their immediate and unconditional withdrawal," it added.
Southern troops seized the contested oil-producing Heglig border region from Khartoum's army on Tuesday amidst continuing heavy artillery bombardments and air strikes.
The pan-African body also urged the former civil war foes to remove any of their troops currently in their neighbor's territory, end air strikes and stop supporting proxy rebel forces.
The worst fighting since South Sudan won independence from Sudan in July broke out last month, prompting international concern at the risk of an all-out war.
Senior officials met in AU-led crisis talks last week in the Ethiopian capital, but failed to sign an agreement on security, while negotiations on oil, a key driver of the conflict, are stalled.
Sudan's parliament on Wednesday said they were pulling out of the talks, and both sides urged their citizens to take up defenses in case of full blown war.
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#1
See also TOPIX > SUDAN MOBILIZES ARMY OVER SEIZURE OF OIL FIELD [Heglig] BY SOUTH SUDAN, AFRICAN UNION [AU] GRAVELY CONCERNED AS BORDER CRISIS DEEPENS AND THREATENS TO TURN INTO OUTRIGHT WAR.
The Supermax prison in Colorado where the most dangerous criminals in America are incarcerated provides prisoners with more generous services and activities than do most prisons in Europe, says the European Court of Human Rights.
The Strasbourg-based court's acknowledgement came in a ruling Tuesday, provisionally approving the extradition of five terror suspects to face trial in the United States.
Lawyers for radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza and five other men indicted in the U.S. on various terror charges between 1999 and 2006 argued that, should they be convicted in the U.S., they would face conditions of incarceration and length of prison terms that would amount to "inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment," in violation of article three of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The court rejected the argument, with the seven judges agreeing unanimously that article three would not be contravened "as a result of conditions of detention at ADX Florence" in Colorado, should the suspects be extradited to the U.S. (ADX stands for Administrative Maximum.)
It said that although inmates at the ADX Florence facility are confined to their cells most of the time, they are also "provided with services and activities (television, radio, newspapers, books, hobby and craft items, telephone calls, social visits, correspondence with families, group prayer) which went beyond what was provided in most prisons in Europe."
The judges also noted that, according to the Department of Justice, 89 of the prison's 252 inmates were in a "step-down program."
"This showed that the applicants, if convicted and transferred to ADX, would have a real possibility under such a program of moving through different levels of contact with others until being suitable for transfer to a normal prison," the court stated.
The step-down program runs on a three-year cycle. Inmates are kept in their cells 23 hours a day for the first year, then gradually allowed contact with other inmates and prison staff. In the third year they may be out of their cells for up to 16 hours a day and eat meals in a dining room.
#2
Maybe but at least these swine will face their entire life in prison where they can do no further harm. Not like the UK where they're released in a couple of years and a few months for (ironically) good behaviour.
Posted by: Bill Schwarzeneggar1358 ||
04/12/2012 3:06
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Top||
#3
Not yet gorb LOL
Posted by: Bill Schwarzeneggar1358 ||
04/12/2012 3:07
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#4
It is common knowledge that you never bring a knife to an IED fight OR an IED to a knife fight. This guy was just trying to cover all the bases in a Venn diagram sorta way.
[An Nahar] Bahrainis wielding knives and sticks attacked residents of the kingdom's Shiite villages overnight beating them in retaliation for a kaboom against coppers, witnesses and the opposition said Wednesday.
The assailants, who according to witnesses came from Sunni neighborhoods, were responding to messages posted online to avenge the kaboom that injured seven coppers in a Shiite village on Monday.
"I saw hundreds of men carrying knives, sticks and other sharp objects," on the outskirts of several Shiite villages, said one witness who identified himself only as Hussein.
"They were stopping cars and asking passengers where they lived in order to determine what sect they belonged to," he told Agence La Belle France Presse by telephone, referring to the Sunni and Shiite communities in Bahrain.
Al-Wefaq, the largest Iranian catspaw, said the attackers were in civilians clothes and "beat up" residents of Shiite villages.
A statement by the group accused security forces of failing to stop the attacks.
"The security forces did not carry out their duty, they did not disperse the (assailants) or prevent them from attacking citizens," the statement said, adding that authorities must "deal with these militias."
But Bahrain's interior ministry said police "prevented" a group of unknown assailants from entering al-Nuweidrat village, a Shiite community on the outskirts of the capital Manama.
In a statement released late Tuesday, the ministry said assailants "attacked 24-hour shops and destroyed two cars," after holding an "illegal gathering."
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#1
Happy Birthday/Daily Gam Shot
Claire Danes aka Juliet in "Romeo + Juliet (1996)" aka Kate Brewster in "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)" aka Yvaine in "Stardust (2007)" aka Carrie Mathison in "Homeland (TV Series 2011)" aka Lainee Diamond in "As Cool as I Am (completed 2012)" aka Kelly Riker in "The Rainmaker (1997)" (age 34)
[An Nahar] Progressive Socialist Party leader 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... could be the second on the list of potential targets against Lebanese politicians following the liquidation attempt on Lebanese Forces A Christian political party founded by Bashir Gemayel, who was then bumped off when he was elected president of Leb... chief Samir Geagea ... Geagea was imprisoned by the Syrians and their puppets for 11 years in a dungeon in the third basement level of the Lebanese Ministry of Defense. He was released after the Cedar Revolution in 2005 ... , a high-ranking March 14 source said Wednesday.
The source told al-Joumhouria daily that Jumblat is most at risk after Geagea following a decision to launch "a campaign of intimidation and physical elimination" against the politicians.
Such a campaign is aimed at guaranteeing a success for the Hizbullah-led March 8 sources in the 2013 parliamentary elections, the sources said without accusing any party of involvement in Geagea's murder attempt.
Current studies show that the March 14 forces will prevail in the polls, which led to the decision to eliminate certain personalities, they added.
Geagea beat feet sniper fire unharmed last Wednesday as he was walking in the garden of his fortified residence in Maarab.
The source hinted that the PSP chief brought himself back under the gaze of assassins after he began to criticize the Syrian regime over its violent crackdown on protestors since March last year.
But Jumblat is hoping that he stays away from the danger of liquidations through keeping contact with Hizbullah and vowing not to force the collapse of the current parliamentary majority and Premier Najib Miqati's cabinet.
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
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.
In 1949, Mr. Ben Bella helped rob a post office in Oran, Algeria. Tracked down, he was sentenced to a long stint in the Blida prison. In 1952, with the aid of a file hidden in a loaf of bread, he broke out and went to Cairo, where he became one of the liberation movement's nine top leaders.
Attorneys say the owner of the Las Vegas Review-Journal should be required to pay $774,683 in legal fees for what critics call a failed ''shakedown'' copyright infringement lawsuit that threatened the free speech rights of a political website.
[Yemen Post] Newly-appointed commander of the Eastern Yemeni Military Region, Mohammed al-Jaefi, said the handover process of the command is going smoothly and as planned without any obstacles.
[Yemen Post] Snipers have recently centered on the top floors of Al-Jomhori Hospital, some employees of the hospital located next to the Change Square have told Al-Ahali Newspaper. 
Asif Ali 
[Yemen Post] Tens of al-Qaeda 
[Dawn] 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
At least four men, including two political activists, were 
cycle of violence
[Dawn] An embarrassment with serious political ramifications may engulf Prime Minister 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[An Nahar] Speaker 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[An Nahar] Spain said Wednesday that one of its nationals, reportedly a doctor, had gone missing in southern Nigeria and was feared kidnapped.
...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo...
[Shabelle] Further details are coming out from a heavy battle between Somali soldiers backed by Kenyan military and Al shabab fighters that took place on Wednesday in Lower Jubba region, southSomalia, reports said.
Samir Geagea
[Yemen Post] A 
...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile...
[Dawn] Ahmed Ben Bella, Algeria's first president after the country became independent from 
[An Nahar] Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki commemorated the 10th anniversary of a deadly attack on an ancient synagogue Wednesday, a move welcomed by the Arab nation's tiny Jewish population.
An Egyptian court ruled Wednesday that that the mother of a popular ultraconservative Islamist viewed as one of the strongest contenders for president is not a US citizen, likely clearing the way for him to run in May elections.
[An Nahar] A Saudi court sentenced a radical 
[Dawn] The police elite force 
In the backdrop of recent 
[Dawn] Prime Minister 
[An Nahar] Bahrainis wielding knives and sticks attacked residents of the kingdom's Shiite villages overnight beating them in retaliation for a 
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...
