This is not good.
Director, National TB Control Programme, Dr. Ijaz Qadeer, said that each year 400,000 new cases of TB were reported in the country and over 5000 health facilities in the country were providing treatment facilities to the TB patients. He said that the role of lady health workers was of vital importance until the orcs finish expelling the ladies from public service, then things will get even worse
for creating awareness in the masses and providing counselling services for early treatment. He further said that the main focus of the TB control programme was its eradication and early detection of new cases of TB and to provide patients testing and treatment facilities for which community mobilization was also under way.
#1
While I have no love for Pakistan, I have a visceral reaction to plane crashes (lost my best friend in one back in 1970) and I really feel for these families.
Analysts point to change in strategy, say Iranian leaders may be paving the way and preparing their public for a deal with West.
An influential Iranian cleric praised recent nuclear talks between Iran and world powers on Friday, the latest in a series of positive statements from senior figures that analysts said could signal Tehran is softening its stance.
Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, secretary of the powerful Guardian Council, said the talks showed "success and progress" but added Tehran would break off the negotiations if Western countries carried on imposing sanctions while negotiating.
I will now proceed to embarrass myself with the number of bugs I've introduced into our mostly stable main page. I've moved the new version online. Let me know when the bugs crawl out.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/20/2012
13:58 ||
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#1
Thanks for your work.
I do notice that each and ever comment reacts to the mouse pointer as a link. (changes color and becomes underlined) is that intentional?
Posted by: abu do you love ||
04/20/2012 14:44
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#2
Also: at the bottom of the main page, i don't see a link for 'Non WOT' (page 3)
Posted by: abu do you love ||
04/20/2012 14:54
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#3
viewing the page on a Windows 7 box running Firefox 11.0 (just in case)
Posted by: abu do you love ||
04/20/2012 15:04
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#4
I'd like to see a 'top 10 viewed stories of the day' box as well as an update "Better than the average link..." box. There's no need for a scroll bar. I'd like to see the "Headline" column wider and the "Comments" column narrower, seems to be some wasted space there as most commenter names are short. Also, the number of comments on each article seems to have been removed on everything but Page 1.
#5
The "Without Warning, FBI Halts Intel Sharing Update" story is listed twice, with the second missing the "Views" data.
I like the snarky auto-text adding, but don't like the puke green color and Courier New fixed-width font. I love that so many variations of "However," exist.
Don't like the fact that comments turn red and enlarge when you mouseover them. The size change changes the length of the page, and turning red seems unnecessary.
#6
It would also be great to have any sort of rudimentary link checker or 404 detector when submitting articles. Or just detecting if the link goes back to rantburg.com instead of the external site it's supposed to go to. Seen too many of those recently. Someone has a copy/paste brainfart and it hits the main page.
#7
I also just noticed that the spiffy new look only applies to the main page and not when you click on the link and go to http://rantburg.com/comments.php?D=2012-04-20&ID=343166&HC=1&SO=
#8
In IE and Firefox, each story has a "file under" dropdown box with a lot of options like al-Shahaab, al-Qaeda, and so on. The box doesn't appear in Opera. I'm not sure what the box's purpose is.
#16
Yep, whatever, still works better than an NKor rocket even after all the hype or a UN Resolution with Lunch; as long as I get my Rantburg, all is good.
Tatenda, Sekuru Fred.
Posted by: kia ||
04/20/2012 18:28
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#17
For some reason, the comments headers are coming through with white backgrounds (on all pages) under XP. They look fine under Linux.
Curioser, the exception in XP is Safari, where they show normally. I've looked at the HTML and it looks normal...
I'm working on it...
Posted by: Fred ||
04/20/2012 18:39
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#18
The impolite mouseover behavior on comments doesn't show on Linux, either. Only under XP. (I dunno about Mac or Win 7...)
Posted by: Fred ||
04/20/2012 18:55
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#19
Category heads problem was caused by a stray quote character. It broke it on some, not all browsers/OS combinations...
Posted by: Fred ||
04/20/2012 19:04
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#20
Shows up on Windows 7 Pro as well. Scroll over, lettering shows red-linkage. Oddly enough it's not the case on the Comment Posting page.
Posted by: Charles ||
04/20/2012 19:06
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#21
Think I killed it that time. Had a link I hadn't closed. Somebody holler if that wasn't the problem...
Posted by: Fred ||
04/20/2012 19:08
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#22
Looks like the right margin has moved in a few inches.... That's on Chrome.... Fast? whoaaaaa hanging on to my hat....
#23
Now that clicking on a story goes to http://rantburg.com/#343119 and not the actual story page, the "views" counter is no longer being incremented.
#29
After commenting I think we'd want to come back to the page from which we were (Page 1, Page 2, etc) and not to the single article. Or am I wrong?
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/20/2012 22:14
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Agree Doc Steve ---- I read, click and I'm at the bottom of the world.... Yea, I can scroll up.... lazy, I suspect. We ask much of Fred (but it didn't use to do this)
Mark Krikorian at The Corner nails it: "...the only way Islam will reform itself is for Islamists to come to power and for the people to finally learn, deep down in their bones, what a dead end Islam is in the modern world..."
Islamicists can't deliver. They (like the progressives) can destroy the world but they can't govern it.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/20/2012
12:24 ||
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#1
Then it should have reformed itself back in 1981. It still hasn't.
No sooner had Mitt Romney effectively locked up the Republican presidential nomination than President Obama began to sharpen his attacks on former President George W. Bush.
In pushing for a tax increase this week on millionaires, Mr. Obama said an unfair impact of tax cuts for the wealthy were enacted during the eight years before I took office. A White House spokesman argued that Mr. Bushs tax policies contributed to global economic chaos.
Administration officials also took verbal swipes after North Koreas unsuccessful missile launch last week, accusing Mr. Bush of having rewarded North Korea with food aid years ago in spite of its nuclear weapons activities. Yeah, you'd have to be a fool to make any agreements after that.
Mr. Obama has criticized the Bush administrations policies in the past, but the attacks of the past two weeks have been more direct and specific.
In a poker game, this would be called a tell, said Steve Schmidt, who managed Republican John McCains presidential bid in 2008. Its a signal about what the campaign is going to be. From the perspective of the Obama campaign, theyre trying to have a debate about things other than the presidents economic record.
Mr. Obama also is trying to link Mr. Romney, a wealthy former Massachusetts governor, to Mr. Bushs policies, especially the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003.
Take a look at what happened between 2000 and 2008, Mr. Obama told an audience in Ohio this week. Instead of faster job growth, we had the slowest job growth in half a century. Instead of broad-based prosperity, the typical American family saw their incomes fall by about 6 percent. And who contributed to an inflation rate of about 10% for the last three years? Six percent vs. about 30%. Hmm.
Outsourcing, rampant; phony financial profits all over the place, the president said. Instead of strengthening our economy, our entire financial system almost collapsed. We spent the last 3 1/2 years cleaning up after that mess. So their theory did not work out so well. Obean, you and your crew seem to have "cleaned up" this mess about as well as my daughter "cleans up" her room.
The tactic prompted House Speaker John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican, to comment this week that the Obama team is going to pull out every bogeyman they can. And then some.
The strategy of attacking Mr. Bush worked well for Mr. Obama in 2008, but Republicans said that by reaching for this blame Bush tactic again, the president is acknowledging implicitly that he has failed to improve the economy during his term. Reagan did it in two. I'll bet any economy can be turned around in about two years given the right leadership.
President Obamas re-election strategy is clear he doesnt have a record to run on, so hes going to attack his opponent with small things and point fingers at everyone but himself for his failure to turn the economy around, said Kirsten Kukowski, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee. As he said in 2008, candidates that dont have records to run on talk about small things.
A New York Times/CBS News poll released Thursday didnt ask voters about blame for the economy, but whether they thought an Obama re-election would improve their financial situations. Thirty-eight percent said it would have no effect; 33 percent said it would make their situations worse. Only 26 percent said a second Obama term would improve their economic situations. Proving yet once again that about a third of voters are blithering idiots, shouldn't be allowed to vote, shouldn't be allowed in public without a chaperone, and have managed to reproduce only by the grace of God.
A Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday showed that 56 percent of respondents disapprove of Mr. Obamas handling of the economy, and 38 percent approved. The split among independents was especially wide, with 67 percent disapproving of the presidents job performance on the economy and 28 percent approving. I'd like to see the demographics on that split vote, but nobody seems to have the brass to go there.
Mr. Schmidt said the Obama campaigns strategy will play well with some Democrats who still harbor deep antipathy toward the Bush administration, but he thinks it wont win over the independent voters who will decide the election. Why such antipathy? Half the stuff he did was liberal. Heck, he even stared QE and bailouts.
I dont think the people who are in the dab-smack center of the electorate, the 6 percent of the electorate thats going to determine its outcome, are going to be animated in their vote by looking backwards, Mr. Schmidt said. Thats a fundamental, structural problem for Obama, because its difficult to run a backwards, finger-pointing campaign when your initial campaign that launched your presidency was about hope and change for the future.
Still, a poll taken in early January showed that a majority of voters do blame Mr. Bush for the economy. The Washington Post/ABC News poll found that 54 percent of respondents and 57 percent of independents said Mr. Bush was more to blame, while 29 percent faulted Mr. Obama. One-fifth of Republicans in the poll blamed the Bush administration. Sure Bush and his unqualified cronies exacerbated it all. But what would have happened had Obean been in charge the whole time? I shudder to think about it.
A CNN/ORC poll in late March found that 56 percent of respondents blamed Mr. Bush and congressional Republicans for current economic conditions, while 29 percent said Mr. Obama and congressional Democrats were responsible.
Mr. Obamas anti-Bush rhetoric is being answered, both by Mr. Bush and by his vice president.
In a speech last week to the New York Historical Society, Mr. Bush criticized Mr. Obamas push for higher taxes on the wealthy as harmful to the economy. Former Vice President Dick Cheney was more blunt in his assessment of Mr. Obamas presidency.
He has been an unmitigated disaster to the country, Mr. Cheney told a gathering of the Wyoming Republican Party on Saturday, three weeks after undergoing a heart transplant. Fortunately we've had the House to mitigate him since 2010.
Hes a lion, said Mr. Schmidt, who served as the former vice presidents counselor. Hes a tough guy whos been at the center of the debate for four decades. And hes still at it three weeks after a heart transplant its awesome.
#2
Like the old joke about the drunk lookin' for his car keys.
Bush is where he wants the light to be so he can "find" his solutions (hope'n-change). Don't want the light shining on where he dropped the all those bombs now do he?
#3
it may not be a great strategy but its the best one he has
Blaming Bush and running a "fear the Republicans" campaign will keep his core on board (even it they aren't happy about it) and allow his allies in the non-Fox media to do their best to support him.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
04/20/2012 14:20
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Only saw Bush claim a war was over prematurely at least he didn't kiss and beg and grovel to appease the enemy!
Argentina will start to swirl the drain by the end of the year. Sure hope President Romney can face up to this challenge...
Facing intense criticism over the nationalization of its biggest oil firm, Argentina on Thursday ordered the seizure of YPF Gas, another group controlled by Spain's Repsol, a move expected to further inflame tensions. In a case that has sparked fears of a new wave of expropriations, a statement published in the official gazette said the Argentine government was declaring YPF Gas a public utility and taking 51 percent of the shares.
YPF Gas is not technically part of the YPF oil group ordered nationalized this week, leading to global condemnation, but a separate company. However, an 85 percent stake in the gas firm is owned by Repsol Butano SA, a division of the Spanish energy giant.
Officials said the move was an extension of the takeover of YPF, the big unit of Repsol that Argentina decided to seize this week.
The government statement indicates that YPF Gas "plays an essential role in Argentina's hydrocarbon policy."
Which is not a justification for seizing it, unless you're a 'progressive'...
The move expands the nationalization effort ordered by Argentina, which claimed the Spanish firm was failing to invest in the country and forcing it to import more of its energy supplies.
Spain, the United States, the IMF, the European Union and others lined up to take turns slamming the move by President Cristina Kirchner.
During a visit to Colombia on Thursday, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy again slammed the move as "an injustice," but declined to comment on how his government might retaliate.
Ah, the invertebrate European leaders. Bring out the comfy chair!
On Thursday, World Bank head Robert Zoellick added his criticism to Argentina's move.
"I think it's a mistake and I think it's a symptom that we have to watch out for -- if under economic pressure, whether countries will move to more national, autarchic policies, respond more to nationalism, more to protectionism," Zoellick said at a news conference.
Later he told CNN that Argentina should concede the move is a mistake and reverse it.
"This is not the time to be playing with fire, and ultimately, it will leave Argentina behind in the international economy, and that hurts the people of Argentina, and that is who I am concerned about," he said. "What investor in his right mind would put money into a country where people are taking away private property?"
Repsol bought Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales in 1999 for $15 billion in what was the biggest operation of the privatization program of former Argentine president Carlos Menem.
Kirchner has argued that the expropriation was justified because YPF crude production had dropped while oil and gas imports doubled in 2011. Imports are forecast to triple by the end of the year.
Argentina also faces a drop in its trade surplus -
- down 11 percent in 2011 -- which is its main source of hard currency since foreign credit markets closed their doors after the 2001 debt default.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/20/2012
11:21 ||
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#1
When you consider the economic conditions in Spain, nationalization makes sense. Until you notice the conditions in Argentina are even worse.
#3
Spain will be invading on their wooden galleons by November with feathers in hats and all. Can you believe Exxon Mobil is f'in dumb enough to ink up an oil deal with Russia!
#13
CHINA DAILY FORUM > QUAKE EXPERT: EARTH IS CRACKING UP | SOMETHING IS WRONG: TOO MANY STRONG OR MASSIVE EARTHQUAKES IN 48 HOURS, in addition to three MAG8.0 or higher since 2004.
ARTIC > Romanian Expert Gheorghe Marmureau = abnormal geologic activity cannot be properly explained under current Scientific knowledge.
Originally named Nyanga West, Gugulethu (or Gugs for short) was established in 1958 to house the influx of workers to Cape Town from the rural Transkei region. Like neighboring Langa, Gugulethu was a site of mass resistance during apartheid and drew international attention with the murder of the Gugulethu Seven by South African security forces and the killing of American student and anti-apartheid activist Amy Biehl in the early 1990s.
#2
We should have developed Agent Orange 2.0 to eradicate the opium crop, and sprayed it with a UAV variant that can act as a crop duster. These farmers and their families should starve to death for all the misery they have caused with their crops.
#6
Well DC, the same could be said for child p0rnography. And I'm not against all drugs, but I am against heroin. Especially when the profits go to murderous thugs like the Taliban.
#9
taking the drug harms the taker, the proffits from drugs often go to violent gangs and criminals and that harms the people they directly victimize. the users of the drugs often resort to crime to feed their habit harming innocents completely outside the production/consumption loop. chronic users prioritize the drug use above feeding their children, harming them in the process. not to mention the 'missing mama' while she is out high and her boyfriend raping the little girl (happens).
yup - just like sports.
Posted by: abu do you love ||
04/20/2012 14:47
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#10
We long ago should have napalmed the fields.. Oh yeah then the grift would be lost...
Five bakers in Nigeria have been killed by gunmen in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri, a Boko Haram stronghold. Their deaths follow the assassination of a customs officer and water vendor on Wednesday by suspected terrorists militants.
Borno state police spokesman Samuel Tizhe said it is not clear why the gunmen opened fire on the bakery on Thursday.
One of the five suspected terrorists insurgents gunned down in a battle with security personnel in Yala province on Thursday has been identified as an operational-level leader of the separatist group Runda Kumpulan Kecil (RKK).
Sakuree Japakeeya had seven outstanding arrest warrants including for the ambush shooting of passengers in a public van which killed eight people in 2007. The leading RKK member was also allegedly involved in attacking a police station in Yala's Yaha district in 2006 and bombing paramilitary rangers in 2008.
A combined force of police, soldiers and government workers raided a village in Krongpinang district believed to be hiding 14 terrorists insurgents on Thursday. Nine men who escaped have been identified and police are now hunting them, Gen Peera said.
The raid was led by Yala provincial police commander Pol Maj Gen Peera Boonliang in response to reports that Mr Sakuree and accomplices were to meet and plan an attack. Gen Peera said an M-16 assault rifle, a shotgun, .38 caliber pistol, 80 cartridges and five mobile telephones were seized at the site.
He said an investigation is underway to determine whether or not Mr Sakuree involved with the bombing which killed Pol Col Sompian Eksomya, Bannang Sata police chief widely honored for his dedicated service in southern Thailand.
One paramilitary ranger was injured in a bombing, followed by shooting by presumed terrorists insurgents in Narathiwat province on Friday. The provincial ranger, Piyapong Leena, 27, was injured by shrapnel in the stomach and leg.
The bomb was detonated as a five man patrol passed near the provincial waterworks building. After the blast, a number of men armed with AK 47 assault rifles attacked the soldiers and then fled after a few minutes.
In another incident in Yala province, five presumed terrorists insurgents were killed on Thursday when combined government security forces raided an area thought to be an terrorist insurgent hideout. The two sides exchanged gunfire and five suspected terrorists insurgents were found dead afterward.
On March 1, the FBI stopped sharing vital terror intel with state and local officials without explanation.
The FBI has responded to our exclusive reporting this morning [April 19th] that they had cut off intelligence sharing of Terrorist Screening Center watch encounter reports to fusion centers nationwide. According to several fusion center officials interviewed today, the FBI is now saying that they will resume sending TSC watch encounter reports beginning next Monday. However, these reports will no longer contain Personal Information Intelligence (PII) related to the subject on the terror watch list.
As one official said, This is like promising us free bags of M&Ms, but without the M&Ms. There is practically nothing we can do with these reports without PII, which seems to be the FBIs intent. They want to keep up the appearance of intel sharing without actually sharing intel....
On March 1, the FBI stopped sharing vital terror intel with state and local officials without explanation.
The FBI has responded to our exclusive reporting this morning [April 19th] that they had cut off intelligence sharing of Terrorist Screening Center watch encounter reports to fusion centers nationwide. According to several fusion center officials interviewed today, the FBI is now saying that they will resume sending TSC watch encounter reports beginning next Monday. However, these reports will no longer contain Personal Information Intelligence (PII) related to the subject on the terror watch list.
As one official said, This is like promising us free bags of M&Ms, but without the M&Ms. There is practically nothing we can do with these reports without PII, which seems to be the FBIs intent. They want to keep up the appearance of intel sharing without actually sharing intel....
#1
One must BEGIN intelligence dissemination and collaboration before one can END it!
They want to keep up the appearance of intel sharing without actually sharing intel....
'FBI collaboration' is an oxymoron, always has been. They look down their noses at local law enforcement (where they get most of their leads) and possess total disdain for the military.
#4
To be expected for an agency headed up for decades by a dandyish bachelor fond of white linen suits, classical statues of male nudes and antique collecting. His long friendship with a chap named Tolson was capstoned when they were burried side by side. Today some gay activists include Hoover and Tolson in their pantheons of famous gay couples.
It is my view that elected as well as appointed officials should mirror population at large as opposed to paranoid fringe personalities hell-bent on power and dominance. Maintaining "secret" files (under the cover of law enforcement) on US citizens is but one example of the abuse of power. When paranoia, secrecy, and a failure to share information remain unchecked, they can become a disciplined, organizational methodology. When you've got the goods on your opposition and potential enemies, they tend not to divulge your own twisted wardrobe and affaires de coeur. Just my two cents worth.
#11
Something has or will happen that they don't want to get out yet.
Yeah. I can think of three explanations:
a) the FBI are being dicks (and not in the Tracy sense)
b) they know something they don't want to share
c) and/or they don't trust the people they would have to share it with.
See video at link.
When five of the most trafficked Islamic jihadist websites went down in late March and into April, it derailed Al-Qaeda's ability to communicate and post information to supporters.
The Internet is a vital tool for terrorists to spread propaganda around the world, share instructions on how to build bombs, and even raise money, all the while staying relatively anonymous.
So when the sites go down for an extended period of time it's a major setback in their pursuit of global Jihad. Not only does it cut off communication, it gives the international community the impression that they're behind in Internet technology.
American authorities and other western governments have denied any involvement, even though they would seem to have the most incentive to shut down the sites. However, monitoring Al-Qaeda's online communication gives the American military insight into the psyche and technical ability of terrorists- information that they wouldn't otherwise have access to.
For insight into the coded world of cyber attacks, Christiane speaks with the foremost authority on the topic, former Counter Terrorism Czar under the Bush and Clinton Administrations, Richard Clark. Richard Clark? Stop, that's all I need to know that the entire piece is going to be nonsense. My take on this: Shut it down. If Al Qaeda thinks it's a net good for them, then it's probably a net bad for us. Don't we have folks who can figure them out? Can jihadi wannabees actually connect to Al Qaeda without the experts finding them? It makes no sense. We don't need weak-minded fence-sitters and financial supporters to be exposed to this crap any more than necessary.
#1
However, monitoring Al-Qaeda's online communication gives the American military insight into the psyche and technical ability of terrorists- information that they wouldn't otherwise have access to.
An unstated, but valuable second order effect is that it pushes Al-Qaeda communications into venues which are even more susceptible to monitoring and exploitation. Utilizing our technological advanage to wage Computer Network Attack (CNA) is a good thing. More please, and more often.
#2
I heard this same kind of debate a few days ago WRT botnets. It seems Microsoft shut down some compromised servers to stop the spread of the malware but in the process angered some law enforcement types who wanted a clandestine investigation to try to find the perpetrators. It was argued that while the internet Keystone cops are investigating, more innocent servers are being compromised. Interesting debate.
#4
I wouldn't form a conclusion without knowing a lot more details and I don't believe Christiane Amanpour is going to help with that. But it's still an interesting debate and it's interesting to speculate about what happened to those websites even though we'll probably never know. I think if I was an investigator and I only needed a little more time to crack the case I'd want the time. But if you're a decision maker and think you've heard that story too many times to risk any more damage you might be inclined to just shut 'em down. Or somebody could just be testing some new hacking techniques. It's hard to say.
...It really isnt unfair at all to bring Obamas canine consumption to public attention. The president isnt really one of us. Hes a dog-eater. He tells the story in his memoir to emphasize that viscerally, Obama identifies with the Third World of his upbringing more than with the America of his adulthood. It is our great misfortune to have a president who dislikes our country at this juncture in our history.
The story line that this is somehow leaked out to do damage, is damage to the very groups pushing that line, as it is said, right in his own words...unless someone else wrote his book, right?
To be honest, I hope he catches half the hell I've caught for dining overseas...except being the cultural expert as is, my polyglot portfolio does not include Austrian.
#5
In many Asian nations dog is deliquesce delicacy.
In S. America and Africa certain larva and beetles are also prepared.
Being raised on a farm you learn to differentiate between 'pets and 'food'.
I think the most telling part of this article is POTUS's Muslim fathers Musliminity...
All they have to do is remove any security they give him. Then put a million pound, wanted dead or alive, bounty on his head. That wonderful salafist beard of his would be country mile behind him trying to catch up as he bolts for Dar al Islam.
Abu Qatada, the extremist Muslim cleric, could be released back into society within days because of the confusion over his deportation appeal to Europe, a senior immigration judge suggested.
Mr Justice Mitting indicated that he would reconsider the preachers detention if his deportation was not imminent.
Yesterday Theresa May, the Home Secretary, was faced with mounting evidence that her officials had made an error over a deadline for Qatada, whose real name is Omar Othman, to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, which may have allowed him to prolong his stay in Britain for up to a year.
Any prospect of a lengthy legal process would greatly increase the chances of the cleric once described as Osama bin Ladens right-hand man in Europe being granted bail, the judge suggested.
Mrs May insists she was free to arrest Qatada and restart deportation proceedings on Tuesday because a deadline to appeal to the Grand Chamber of the Strasbourg court passed at midnight on Monday.
But Qatadas lawyers argue that the deadline was 24 hours later, and submitted a last-ditch appeal on Tuesday night.
Summarizing: The Afghan adventure brought down the Soviet Empire, why shouldn't it be allowed to bring down the US empire?
Russia's foreign minister sharply criticized NATO's plan to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan by 2014, saying Thursday that coalition troops should remain in the country until Afghan government forces are capable of ensuring security.
"As long as Afghanistan is not able to ensure by itself the security in the country, the artificial timelines of withdrawal are not correct and they should not be set," Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.
NATO plans to hand over lead responsibility for the war against the Taliban to the Afghan army and police by the middle of next year, then withdraw its troops by the end of 2014. The alliance already has started drawing down its forces, which reached a peak of about 140,000 last year.
NATO leaders say that Afghan forces are improving rapidly and will be able to counter Taliban guerrillas after 2014. But critics have pointed to widespread drug use and the high desertion rate among government forces as signs that it remains unprepared to handle the insurgents.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the alliance's secretary general, responded to Lavrov's criticism by saying the Afghan government has agreed with the withdrawal schedule, and that it is "definitely not artificial." He also urged Russia, China and other non-NATO countries to help fund the post-2014 Afghan armed forces.
#1
OTOH CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > NATO HEAD ASKS CHINA, RUSSIA TO HELP FUND AFGHAN FORCES, after 2014.
ARTIC = US calculates Afghanistan's Security forces will require approxi US$4.0Bilyuhn per annum, + would like its NATO/Coalition Allies to contribute up to US$1.3Bilyuhn [EUR$1.0Bilyuhn]annually.
WEHELL, SURPRISE, SURPRISE, SGT. CARTER, ONCE AGAIN ITS ONLY THE UK THATS WILLING TO PAY UP, BUT CAN ONLY GIVE $110.0MILYUHN, N-O-T $1.3BILYUHN.
#4
Afghanistan, like Vietnam, damaged the home country because the draft was used and then those unwilling soldiers rotated back injured or dead to a nation that swathe loss as pointless. The us war in Ag
Aghanistan has been different because we have professional volunteers. It the feeling of pointlessness is starting to dominate.
#6
The Russians like us to keep dying there so we can keep a lid on the problems on their border. Besides, they greatly enjoy criticizing us - why not have the best of both worlds?
Tehran Attempts to Deceive U.S. President Obama, Secy of State Clinton With Nonexistent Anti-Nuclear Weapons Fatwa By Supreme Leader Khamenei
An important element in the renewal of nuclear negotiations with Iran in the
talks in Istanbul April 13-14, 2012 was an alleged fatwa attributed to
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, according to which the production,
stockpiling, and use of nuclear weapons are forbidden under Islam and that
the Islamic Republic of Iran shall never acquire these weapons. Indeed, U.S.
leaders among them Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and even U.S.
President Barack Obama along with 5+1 representatives to the talks, the
International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors, and even highly
respected research institutes considered the fatwa as an actual fact, and
examined its significance and implications for the nuclear negotiations with
Iran that began in Istanbul.
However, an investigation by MEMRI reveals that no such fatwa ever existed
or was ever published, and that media reports about it are nothing more than
a propaganda ruse on the part of the Iranian regime apparatuses in an
attempt to deceive top U.S. administration officials and the others
mentioned above.
Israel is considering sending a police force to South Sudan to assist the UN, the Yedioth Ahronoth daily reported Thursday.
That's going to tighten some turbans...
The UN has approached Israel on the matter, and on Wednesday Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon met Robert Orr, a top aide for UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki-moon, and told him that Israel was considering the possibility of sending 14 coppers to the African country.
Israel sent 19 coppers to Haiti a year and a half go.
Israel's final decision is being delayed due to the war that broke out between Sudan and South Sudan recently.
Foreign Ministry officials said Israel would not send the officers if there is any chance that their lives would be in danger. "The Foreign Ministry has recommended sending the officers to South Sudan, but we must examine the issue further. The situation there is unclear," one official said.
Israel recently decided to deport 1,000 refugees from South Sudan back to their country of origin beginning April 1. However, ars longa, vita brevis... the Jerusalem Magistrates' Court issued an injunction against the expulsion of migrants from South Sudan before April 15 due to the volatile security situation there.
#1
Af first I thought, why get in the middle of that, then I realized the Islamic world is unlikely to hate Israel less no matter what they do. Might do some good helping those on the fringe of the Islamic world.
(Sh. M. Network)-Some Somali elders hail from Abud-Waq town in centralSomaliahave condemned the recent arrest of a number of the security guards ofSomalia's PM office inMogadishulast week in connection with the national theater kaboom.
Yasin Jama'a Kirkire, a peacemaker living in Abudwaq town told Shabelle Media by phone that the imprisonment of the guards from Abudwaq was a politically motivated move. Mr. Kirkire added they are sorry about the arrest and ask the goverment for their immediate safe release.
"Somali PM Abdiweli Mohammed Ali and Puntland leader Farole both are accountable for the arrest of theses guards who are currently being questioned in jug inMogadishu. We will not leave a stone unturned to this cruel and discriminate act, he added.
It is the firs comments by elders from Abudwaq town about the arrest ofSomalia's PM security guards allegedly connected with the recent deadly suicide kaboom at the newly reopened national theater.
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] A wave of apparently coordinated bombing and shooting attacks in seven different provinces across Iraq killed at least 37 people and maimed more than 160 on Thursday, security officials said.
It was the deadliest day in Iraq since March 20, when shootings and bombings claimed by an Al-Qaeda front group, the Islamic State of Iraq, killed 50 people and maimed 255 nationwide.
The attacks, which come amid heightened political tension, drew an accusation from the Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc that security measures were insufficient, and that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, as head of the armed forces, was responsible for the deficiency.
Twenty-two civilians, 10 police, three members of an anti-Qaeda militia and two soldiers were killed in dozens of attacks, including 14 separate car boomings, 13 other kabooms and three suicide kabooms.
Bombings in and around Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... killed at least 17 people and maimed 101, an interior ministry official said.
A car boom targeting Health Minister Majid Hamed Amin's convoy in Haifa Street in the heart of the capital killed two civilians and maimed nine people, including four of the minister's guards.
Four more car booms and two roadside kaboom in Storied Baghdad killed nine people and maimed 62.
In Taji, north of the capital, two roadside kabooms, two car booms and a suicide kaboom killed six people and maimed 29, and a jacket wallah in Tarmiyah, also north of Storied Baghdad, blew up a vehicle by an army base, killing one soldier and wounding six.
In Mussayib, in Babil province, an army major and four other soldiers were maimed by a roadside kaboom, a police major said.
In northern Iraq, bombings in Kirkuk province killed nine people and maimed 24, high-ranking coppers said.
A car boom against the convoy of police Brigadier General Taha Salaheddin south of Kirkuk city killed two police and maimed 15 other people.
Another car boom in the city centre killed two police and maimed three, a high-ranking police officer said on condition of anonymity.
Six bombs against houses in the town of Malha, 40 kilometres (25 miles) northwest of Kirkuk, ... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time... killed five people including an army major and maimed six, police Brigadier General Sarhad Qader said.
And in Ramadi in Anbar province, west of the capital, two car booms against police patrols killed one person and maimed nine, a police source said.
In Baquba, the capital of Diyala province, a suicide bomber went kaboom!" in the home of police First Lieutenant Mohammed al-Tamimi, killing him and wounding four family members, an Iraqi army lieutenant colonel and Dr Ahmed Ibrahim of Baquba General Hospital said.
A suicide car boom against a police checkpoint in the city centre killed two coppers and maimed two others.
Another policeman was killed by a magnetic "sticky bomb" in Baquba, and gunnies attacked a cop shoppe west of the city, killing one policeman and wounding two others, a police major in Diyala and the medic said.
The army lieutenant colonel said another policeman was killed by gunnies in the town of Al-Mansuriyah north of Baquba, while a bomb against a home in the town maimed three people, and a bomb targeting a home in Ghalbiyah, west of Baquba, maimed three more.
In Samarra, in Salaheddin province, two car booms went kaboom! near checkpoints of anti-Qaeda militiamen, killing three people and wounding six, militia commander Majid Abdullah and a police lieutenant colonel said.
And a worker at the oil refinery in Baiji in Salaheddin was maimed by beturbanned goons firing rocket-propelled grenades, a police source said.
In the main northern city of djinn-infested Mosul, capital of Nineveh province, a bomb in a restaurant maimed three people, a police captain said.
The spokeswoman for the Iraqiya bloc, Maysoon al-Damaluji, pointed a finger at Maliki for the weakness of security measures to prevent the bloodshed.
"The continuation of bloody kabooms, although it has been already announced that tight security measures have been taken, reflects the weak security plans and the necessity to reconsider them," the MP said in an emailed statement.
"The commander of the armed forces (Maliki) is responsible for providing security and complete safety for citizens," she said.
Political tensions have risen sharply after key Iraqi factions accused Maliki of orchestrating a slide away from the electoral process and towards dictatorship with the arrest last week of election commission chief Faraj al-Haidari, who has since been freed on bail.
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[Dawn] DawnNews, on Thursday, telecast an exclusive footage of a high-profile prisoner, who beat feet from Bannu Central Prison last week, talking with the Taliban.
Adnan Rashid, who was convicted in an attack on former president Pervez Perv Musharraf ... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ... , was shown as being welcomed by the Taliban in an area which appears to be somewhere in Pakistain's north-west tribal belt.
He has been shown talking in Pashtu with his hosts in these words:
"Qari sahib, how are you? How is your health? Are you feeling well."
A jubilant Rashid looking all around from his car's window replied; "Alhamdullah (All praise to Allah) all is well."
Have you won your freedom from the prison, another thug poses a query to which Adnan nodding his head again says "Alhamdullah (All praise to Allah)."
Another Taliban fighter asked Rashid, how much time did you spend in jail? Adnan Rashid replied "Eight years and four months."
"I was convicted to death," he added.
Rashid also replied in affirmative when the questioner inquired, if he had been convicted in Musharraf's suicide kaboom case.
Nearly 400 prisoners including faceless myrmidons beat feet on Aril 15 from Bannu Jail after an attack by hard boyz armed with guns, grenades and rockets.
More than 150 heavily-armed faceless myrmidons stormed the central prison outside the restive northwestern town of Bannu bordering the lawless tribal regions where Taliban and al Qaeda linked faceless myrmidons are known to operate.
Rashid was enjoying the facility of cellular phone inside the death cells of different jails where he was lodged after being sentenced to death by a field general court martial for his alleged attempt on the life of former president Gen (retired) Pervez Musharraf.
The former junior technician of Pakistain Air Force, Rashid is a resident of Chota Lahor area of Swabi district. He is fluent in English, Pashto and Urdu. He used to contribute to several social networking sites including Blogs and Facebook from the prison. He had joined PAF in 1997. He was around 24 when he was locked away in early 2004.
The beat feet prisoner was in contact with the world outside the prison through his cellular phone, according to sources. He was also in touch with several journalists and used to send them messages through short message service (SMS).
Prior to his escape, Rashid continued to plead his innocence and claimed that his only crime was that he had voted "No" in the referendum held by the then military president Gen Musharraf.
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[An Nahar] Afghanistan's Caped PresidentHamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... called Thursday for an "accelerated" transition of security responsibilities from NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... forces in the wake of a scandal over U.S. troops abusing Afghan corpses.
"The only way to put an end to such painful experiences is through an accelerated and full transition of security responsibilities to Afghan forces," his office said in a statement.
Pictures published by the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday showed U.S. soldiers posing with the remains of Taliban bad boys, one of them with a man's hand draped over his shoulder.
Karzai condemned the pictures as "inhumane and provocative," adding: "It is such a disgusting act to take photos with body parts and then share it with others."
The president noted that similar incidents in the past had sparked an angry reaction by Afghans and the international community.
Every month this year a fresh scandal has rocked the alliance between the U.S. and the Karzai government in their joint efforts against Taliban bad boys.
In January, a video showed U.S. Marines urinating on Taliban corpses; in February U.S. soldiers burned copies of the Koran; and in March a U.S. soldier went on the rampage and murdered 17 villagers in their homes.
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#1
I agree, there is no hope for that third world toilet. We should remove our modern footprint and let them go back to the 7th century. Everybody knows that before we interfered the Afghans were peace loving people that ate lolly pops and danced with unicorns.
Make sure that caped POS with the fuzzy piss cutter stays there to enjoy his reward.
#3
Maybe we could send some of the upper echelon sell outs from the United States government to go over and kiss his ring and slide him a brief case full of money from Saudi Arabia or maybe Iran. Bush years we will not negotiate with terrorists now they beg and grovel and apologize to the freaks and worry about pictures of our troops picking up road kill in country they are freaking pathetic jokes at best! Wonder how many troops those families money have killed from Saudi Arabia alone. Wonder why there hasn't been any attacks there yet they suck!
[Yemen Post] Pakistain announced that they will delay the release of the late Osama bin Laden's ... who no longer exists... wives and daughters until their governments accept certian terms.
Pakistain said that the Yemeni government is not willing to accept the Yemeni family.
Yemen's Foreign Minister rejected such claims and said that Pakistain is delaying the deporting of Bin Laden's widow and children for it's own reasons.
One of Bin Laden's wives is Yemeni and was expected to arrive to Yemen on Wednesday after serving a jail sentence for illegally entering Pakistain.
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#1
"...For its own reasons" > Read, OSAMA'S BABES AND KIDDIES MAY HAD SEEN OR READ SOMETHINGY(S) THEY WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO - OR, WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO REMEMBER???
Pakland wants its Skeletons in the closet forever, + isn't taking "NO" for an answer???
* ION WORLD NEWS > OSAMA'S [youngest] WIDOW WANTS TO LIVE IN BRITAIN, perhaps one day even to meet the Royals.
[Dawn] This is the second incident in the last two months in which a local official of an embassy was caught gathering information from the families of the missing persons.
Previously, local staff of Canadian and Australian high commissions was tossed in the slammer for the same reason.
A police officer said intelligence agency operatives on Wednesday spotted a stranger moving around the camp of the missing persons families at the National Press Club and was seen interacting with them. They mounted surveillance which revealed that the stranger was gathering information about the missing persons.
They called the police which took the man into their custody and shifted him to Kohsar cop shoppe. During interrogation he introduced himself as Rafaqat Hussain, a security guard at the Swedish embassy in Islamabad.
He told the police that he was collecting information for the embassy on the direction of his supervisor. The Sherlocks are verifying the status and the statement of the guard, a police officer said.
He said when the embassy was approached an official said the security guard was asked to gather information about the protests in the city to avoid movements of embassy officials in troubled areas.
The police said he was likely to be booked under PPC 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 124-A (sedition).
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[An Nahar] A coalition of Western and Middle East powers warned on Thursday that they would seek tougher international action if Bashir al-Assad's Syrian regime continues to flout a shaky U.N. peace plan.
Senior officials, including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another James Baker ... and French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, accused Assad of breaking the ceasefire and said a U.N. observer mission would have to be dramatically reinforced.
And Clinton called on the international community to press the U.N. Security Council to authorize a so-called Chapter Seven resolution, which would brand Assad a threat to peace and authorize tough international measures.
These could include, she said, "travel and financial sanctions, an arms embargo, and the pressure that that will give us on the regime to push for compliance with 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... 's six-point plan".
Clinton also raised the prospect that Turkey could react to "outrageous" Syrian shelling on its border by invoking a clause in the NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... alliance treaty that would require members to decide if their security is threatened.
Juppe warned that Syria was on course for "civil war" and confirmed the 15 nations present had agreed to seek "other options" if the Annan plan fails.
Earlier, Juppe's leader 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... had spoken of the possibility of setting "humanitarian corridors" in a country where 11,000 have died in the year since Assad launched a crackdown on a popular revolt.
The Gay Paree meeting included foreign ministers and envoys from Germany, Soddy Arabia, Canada, Egypt, the UAE, Spain, the United States, Italia, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Qatar, Britannia, Tunisia, Turkey and the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... But there were notable absentees, including Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, whose government wields a veto at the Security Council and would be likely to block any attempt to seek a Chapter Seven resolution.
"We need to start moving very vigorously in the Security Council for a Chapter Seven sanctions resolution," Clinton told the envoys.
"Now, I'm well aware that at this point such an effort is still likely to be vetoed, but we need to look for a way to keep pressing forward," she said, adding she had earlier met her Russian counterpart Lavrov in Brussels.
"He was, as usual, very intent upon laying responsibility on all sides, and in particular on the opposition, but he also has recognized that we are not in a static situation but a deteriorating one," she said.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal took an indirect swipe at Russia's refusal to stop supplying arms to Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... , saying: "I'm surprised that the oppressing regime can continue to arm itself while the innocent victims don't have the means to defend themselves."
Earlier, Juppe had insisted: "The Annan plan is a chance for peace, a chance that should not be missed."
"The opposition has fulfilled its obligations under the Annan plan, which was welcomed by the Syrian National Council," he said, referring to the main umbrella body representing the diverse anti-regime forces.
"The Syrian regime... is pursuing without shame repressive tactics that have already left dozens more dead since the ceasefire was due to go into effect," he said.
He called for tough sanctions against Damascus and for the small U.N. observer team on the ground to be boosted to 300 or 400-strong and made "robust and credible" by being given land and air transport to cover the country.
"The Security Council will have to adopt a new resolution to set up an observer mission," Juppe said.
"We feel this must have a mandate and the necessary means to achieve its objectives. La Belle France and its partners on the Security Council will very quickly propose a draft resolution."
Earlier, Lavrov had insisted that Moscow was "honestly fulfilling its part" in efforts to end the violence and said the international community should stop predicting that Annan's peace plan would fail.
"I have today called on my colleagues to abandon the rhetoric of self-fulfilling prophecies," Lavrov said in Brussels.
"Before thinking about what to do in the future, we should do everything to make this plan successful."
Meanwhile, ...back at the the conspirators' cleverly concealed hideout the long-awaited message arrived. They quickly got to work with their decoder rings... there have been reports of fresh violence in Syria, where the U.N. says over 9,000 people have died in the past 13 months of fighting. Rights groups and Juppe, speaking for the coalition, claim 11,000.
Syrian troops have continued to pound rebel strongholds, including the city of Homs, even while the regime sought to reassure an increasingly skeptical world that it is committed to a week-old ceasefire.
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The rebel Free Syrian Army called for outside military intervention against the Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... regime even without U.N. Security Council approval, in a video posted online on Thursday.
General Mustafa Ahmed al-Sheikh, who heads the SLA military council, charged that the government, unlike rebel fighters had failed to respect a ceasefire deal agreed with 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... mediator 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... He called for "the formation of a military alliance of countries friendly to the Syrian people, without U.N. Security Council approval, to carry out surgical strikes on key installations of the regime."
Russia and China have blocked strong Security Council action on the 13-month-old crisis in Syria.
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#1
John Mc Cain will be leading the charge after the Spanish get their oil and gas back from Argentina! he will be bringing his boat full of heroes from Libya the same ones that are desecrating tomb stones from veterans of World War 2! There his boys!
[Dawn] KARACHI: Nearly a dozen people, including two activists of the Awami National Party, were killed in the city on Wednesday as sporadic gun attacks on roadside restaurants and shops continued on a third consecutive day, police said.
Circulation of text messages on cellphones warning people to stay indoors amid fear of more 'violence and bloodshed' fanned further speculations and a sense of insecurity, as the authorities seemed unable to control the fresh round of violence during which a couple of bodies bearing torture marks were found dumped on roadsides.
North Nazimabad emerged as the worst-affected part of the city, where four people were killed within a few hours.
ANP workers
In the early hours of the day, two youngsters were found dead in Block M near the 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... Medical and Dental College. "Both in their mid-20s," said an official at the Taimuria cop shoppe.
"Some area people spotted the bodies lying along the service road and informed the police. The victims, clad in shalwar kameez, were strangled after severe torture."
The bodies were moved to the Edhi morgue after medico-legal formalities at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for want of identification.
The victims were later identified as activists of the Awami National Party.
Mian Gul, 25, and Sardar Wali, 26, were residents of Bihar Colony and associated with the party's ward in Lyari ...one of the eighteen constituent towns of the city of Karachi. It is the smallest town by area in the city but also the most densely populated. Lyari has few schools, substandard hospitals, a poor water system, limited infrastructure, and broken roads. It is a stronghold of ruling Pakistan Peoples Party. Ubiquitous gang activity and a thriving narcotics industry make Lyari one of the most disturbed places in Karachi, which is really saying a lot.... UC-7.
Restaurant owner, visitor
In the afternoon, two more people were killed in the same block, the police said.
"Gunmen riding two cycle of violences targeted a roadside teashop in Block M," said the official at the Taimuria cop shoppe.
He added: "The firing left 24-year-old Sanobar Khan, the owner of New Quetta Bolan Hotel, and Latif, a resident, dead."
The police suspected that Latif, son of Ghulam Sarwar, was not the actual target. However, the hip bone's connected to the leg bone... the police said, investigation was under way.
With the latest attack on the hotel, the number of people killed in the North Nazimabad area over the past 24 hours increased to seven as on Tuesday night three people, including a man and his son, were rubbed out in a similar attack on a roadside hotel in Block Q.
Speaking to Dawn, SP of North Nazimabad Tanveer Alam Odho said: "None of the victims was associated with any political or religious group. Mostly 9mm pistols have been used in the recent firing incidents. But we are gathering more facts and it will be a little too early to arrive at a conclusion."
Gunny bag
Earlier, a gunny bag containing the body of a youngster was found near a meat market in Block 3 of the Federal B Area on Wednesday morning.
"The young man was strangled to death as some torture marks were visible on his neck," said Azizabad SHO inspector Qureshi.
He said the victim was later identified as Amanullah Baloch, a resident of Chakiwara.
The police quoted his family as saying that the victim had been missing since Tuesday night. He had been working at a catering outlet in the F. B Area for the past several years.
According to the family, the victim was not associated with any political or religious party.
The victim's elder brother, Ahsanullah Baloch, later lodged an FIR (101/2012) with the Azizabad police under Sections 302 (premeditated murder) and 34 (common intention) of the PPC against unidentified suspects.
Owner of shop
In the evening, a hardware shop in Liaquatabad came under a gun attack that left its young owner dead.
Mohammad Rehan, 26, along with his father, Mukhtar Ahmad, had been running the business for past many years, police said.
Two gunnies riding a motorbike opened fire on the shop situated near the 420 Hotel bus stop and sped away, said an official "We have talked to area traders who do not see the incident linked with any extortion threat," said DSP Wajahat Hussain, the area sub-divisional police officer.
Teashop boy
After the sunset, a teenager was killed and three others were maimed in a gun attack on a roadside teashop in Gulistan-e-Jauhar, police said.
"The teashop, New Quetta Abbasi Hotel, was targeted in Block 16 of Gulistan-e-Jauhar," said DSP Pervez Iqbal Bhatti.
The police said that gunnies riding a motorbike opened fire on the teashop, leaving 15-year-old Rafiullah working there dead and three others maimed.
The three people who sustained bullet wounds were identified as Asif, Hafeez and Niaz. "All the victims have been shifted to hospital," said the DSP.
Youngster
A young man was rubbed out near a community centre in the Bakra Piri area of Lyari, said police.
Armed men riding a motorbike shot at Imam Bakhsh and sped away, said an official at the Kalakot cop shoppe."The victim, aged between 20 and 25 years, sustained a single bullet wound that proved fatal," said DSP Nasir Lodhi.
Industrial worker
A young man was rubbed out in Surjani Town on Wednesday.
Area police said armed riders spotted Nadim while he was returning home near 4-K Chowrangi.
"The victim was an industrial worker," said an official at the Surjani Town cop shoppe, adding that he had arrived in Bloody Karachi from Sukkur a few years ago.
Young man
A 32-year-old man was rubbed out in the Site area in the late hours of Wednesday, police said.
They added that Shahbaz Bashar was attacked by gunnies riding a motorbike near Malakand graveyard in Metroville.
"The victim, who originally hailed from Swat, had been living here for the past few years," said an official at the Site-A cop shoppe.
Continued on Page 49
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The visit by Egypt's grand mufti to the Al Aksa mosque on Wednesday the Temple Mount was a dangerous act of normalization with Israel, a Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, leader charged on Thursday.
"We reaffirm that this visit meant a recognition of the Occupation, meant the normalization of relations with the enemy, gave [Israel] ethical testimony, and meant supporting Israeli policies that go against the right of our people in the West Bank and the Gazoo strip to pray [at Al Aksa]," wrote Moussa Abu Marzork, the deputy chairman of Hamas's political bureau.
"It meant giving a boost to the strength of the Israeli economy," Marzouk said in comments published on his Facebook page.
The Egyptian religious leader's visit to the mosque "sent a clear message over the Zionist claims to guarantee religious freedom," Marzouk charged. "The mufti's visit and prayers with those Jews who storm the gates of Jerusalem in order to pray in the courtyards of the Al-Aksa mosque is evidence of this purported religious freedom."
Egyptian Grand Mufti Dr. Ali Goumma caused outrage with the visit, which he called "unofficial" and denies was an act of normalization with Israel, and stood before the Islamic Research Academy on Thursday in Cairo to give his testimony regarding his trip to Jerusalem.
Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood on Thursday denounced a rare visit to Jerusalem by the nation's top Islamic theologian that broke with decades of opposition to traveling to areas under Israeli control.
Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa replied that his two-hour visit on Wednesday was a show of solidarity with the Palestinians' claim to Israeli-held east Jerusalem. (AP)
[Yemen Post] Mass demonstrations were staged in Yemeni provinces Taiz and Baidha'a on Thursday urging to fire corrupt officials including govenors and to prosecute the remnants of the former regime.
In Taiz, thousands of protesters walked to demand the new governor to fire and deport from the southern city the remnants of the Saleh regime, locals said.
They also urged to bring to trial those involved in crimes against the people including civil and military officials, the sources said, pointing out that the protesters vowed to continue revolution until all goals of the popular uprising, which erupted last year, were met.
In Baidha'a, protesters urged the government to try the commanders, including ex-president's relatives, who are still refusing to respect the decrees of new president Hadi replacing them.
In addition, they demanded to fire the governor and criticized the absence of counterterrorism forces in the battles against al-Qaeda in Abyan province.
With direct support from the US, the Yemeni forces and popular fighters have been fighting al-Qaeda gun-hung tough guys in southern and southeastern regions including Abyan and Baidha'a. More recently, hundreds fo gun-hung tough guys have been killed in the battles in the Lawder city, Abyan.
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U.S. Secretary Of Defense Leon Panetta has issued an apology for photos that appear to show soldiers posing with dead Afghans, Reuters reports. Panetta called the behavior "foolish" and "unacceptable."
The Los Angeles Times released the pictures on Wednesday, which were given to the paper by an American soldier "on the condition of anonymity."
"This is war, and I know war is ugly, and is violent. And I know young people sometimes caught up in the moment make some very foolish decisions," Panetta told a news conference during a meeting of NATO allies in Brussels. "I am not excusing that."
He added: "My apology is on behalf of the Department of Defense and the U.S. government ... Again, that behaviour is unacceptable." Gen Pershing was unavailable for comment.
#2
I think they all know the Afghanistan strategy is never going to work, and these soldiers just set themselves up to be scapegoats, in a long line of scapegoats.
I've read hundreds of reports that only refer to Afghans. There aint no such thing as an Afghan.
By way of comparison, I lived in Belfast in the 1970s, an arguably less divided society than the Ghan, but there was no term in general use that referred to a resident of N Ireland that didn't also refer to whether they were C or P.
#5
Screw that. Panetta, if the dead cared about themselves, they would have not blown themselves up. DO NOT pander to stupid crap. This is stupid crap and a waste of time.
#8
How do we desecrate pieces? Seriously, they blew themselves up, do we throw half-spleen onto a silver platter and present it like Top Chef?
Posted by: Charles ||
04/20/2012 13:36
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#9
FYI ION LEON + PUTTING-ON-THE-NOT-RITZ-BRITS, CHINESE DAILY FORUM > US PENTAGON CHIEF: WE'RE WITHIN "AN INCH OF WAR" ABOUT EVERY DAY IN EAST ASIA.
IMO will be US-China war iff China doesn't get formal sovereign control over TAIWAN.
* SAME > PYONGYANG'S SETBACK [Rocket Launch] OFFERS OPPORTUNITY FOR US "PIVOT". TO SOME EXTENT, NORTH KOREA HAS BEEN A DANGEROUS AND RESTIVE LITTLE BROTHER OF CHINA.
"Some"???
IIUC Artic, North Korea fears future irrelevancy once the US effec sets up BMD in Asia.
versus
* SAME > IMEPERIALIST UK [unfairly]CEDED THREE IRANIAN ISLANDS [to UAE]: FORMER DIPLOMAT.
* SAME > PHILIPPINES DECIRES NEW ROW IN SOUTH CHINA SEAS DISPUTE.
* SAME > PHILIPPINES ASK CHINA: STOP ALL INCURSIONS IN SOUTH CHINA SEA NOW.
PHIL turn to ask = demand, but China is seemingly ignoring it. IMO BEIJING = CHINA WILL FIRE UPON OR SINK THE PHIL VESSEL(S) IFF ITS WARNINGS CONTINUE TO BE DISSED BY MANILA.
(Sh. M. Network)- Heavily armed faceless myrmidons from the Al-Shabaab ... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda... bully boyz have on Thursday ambushed an Ethiopian convoy alongside Ahlu Sunna fighters, a government-allied Sunni Islamist group control centralSomalia, reports said.
Locals said At least three Ethiopian soldiers were confirmed to have been killed in landmine blast that destroyed an army convoy traveling on a road between Wabho and Daac, two small villages inSomalia's Galgadud region of centralSomalia.
A Senior Ahlu Sunna Waljama'a (ASWJ) Official, confirmed the attack by Al shabab, but denied any casualties on their soldiers and the Ethiopians. He added that The Ethiopian forces and his fighters fought back with heavy artillery fire.
On the other hand, Sheik Abdiasis Abu Musab, the front man of Al shabab faceless myrmidons for the military operations told a rebel-run Radio station based in Elasha Biyaha, south ofMogadishuthat they have inflicted heavy loss upon the Ethiopian troops during their ambush attack.
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04/20/2012
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British police on Thursday tossed in the clink five men on suspicion of posting material on social networking sites which incite racial hatred.
The North-East Counter Terrorism Unit said police have seized computers, laptops and mobile phones from seven locations, the addresses around the country where the men were jugged and two others spots.
Two Chinese Muslim detainees held without trial for years at Guantánamo, were released in El Salvador this week. It was the first prisoner transfer out from Gitmo in over a year.
The detainees, both ethnic Uighurs, had been ordered released by a federal judge several years ago on the ground that, despite their capture in Afghanistan, they were not enemies of the United States.
Sabin Willett, a lawyer who helped represent both men during their habeas corpus lawsuits, said, "Were just happy for them both."
The government didn't identify the men, but Willett said they were Ahmed Mohamed and Abdul Razak. Mohamed wants to become a salesman or merchant in El Salvador, Willett said. He said he was unaware of Razaks plans.
Willett said Salvadoran officials interviewed Mohamed and Razak at Gitmo more than a year ago. At one point, the pair grew frustrated and fired their legal team, although the lawyers continued to help informally.
Taliban leaders are appealing to Moslems worldwide to support their war effort and have set up fundraising hotlines for donations.
Whatever happened to their cut from the opium trade?
In a rare move for the cloistered leadership of the group, Taliban leaders posted telephone hotlines and e-mail addresses where sympathizers in the Moslem world can donate money, according to recent news reports.
The contact and donation information was posted on one of the group's websites on Wednesday, according to Agence La Belle France Presse.
Moslems across the globe are "duty-bound to join the Jihad" against U.S. and coalition forces fighting in Afghanistan, according to the website.
"[The Taliban] are still waging legitimate Jihad single-handedly with mere help from common sincere Islam-loving masses and is in dire need of financial assistance from the Moslem brothers worldwide for its military and non-military expenditures," it added.
The new plea for funds comes less than a week after Taliban and other bad turban groups launched a series of coordinated attacks against American and NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... positions, including targets in Kabul.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Barely 24 hours after James Ibori bagged a 13-year jail term in the United Kingdom for money laundering, jubilation has turned to anger following reports of planned repatriation to Nigeria of the $250 million stolen by the former governor of Delta State.
Nigerians both at home and in the Diaspora are protesting over plans to return the money to Delta State where the current governor, Mr Emmanuel Uduaghan, is Ibori's cousin and "stooge".
A statement by the UK-based Anioma Diaspora, a Nigerian socio-cultural and good governance campaign group, said that "returning Ibori's loot to Delta State would be senseless and counter-productive in the light of the fact that the present governor of Delta State, Emmanuel Uduaghan, is a blood relation of Ibori.
They say the money would be stolen again from the poor people of Delta State by the same corrupt officials that Ibori brought in to succeed him or it will be in safe-keeping to be handed over to Ibori by his cousin the moment he walks out of the UK prison.
According to the front man of Anioma Diaspora, Mr Clement Ofodu, the money would not be used for the benefit of the long-suffering people of Delta State .
He added that the that the new governor has previously been indicted as Mr Ibori's tag-team partner, having served for several years in Ibori's cabinet first as Commissioner for Heath; then catapulted to a more strategic position of Secretary to State Government (SSG) and finally imposed on the poor people of Delta State as Ibori's successor".
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Mexican security forces killed four armed suspects in a firefight near a remote mountain community in extreme southeastern Nayarit state Thursday morning, according to Mexican news accounts.
The incident took place in La Yesca municipality, which is 10 kilometers north of the Nayarit-Jalisco border, where Nayarit state Policia Estatal Preventiva (PEP) agents encountered 40 armed suspects travelling aboard a convoy of 10 SUVs at about 2210 hrs near Las Carboneras.
Police agents at the scene initially requested additional support. PEP agents were in the area because, apparently a number of passenger buses had been attacked recently. Police reinforcements including an elite police unit arrived during the firefight to set up blocking positions near Jala, Ahuacatlan and Ixtlan del Rio, along Mexico Federal Highway 15D. Highway 15D is a four lane highway that runs between Guadalajara, Jalisco in the southeast and Tepic, Nayarit to the northwest.
The firefight lasted until first light at about 0400 hrs when the suspects fled the scene, leaving behind four dead.
Meanwhile, security forces went on higher alert following a counterambush by Jalisco state police agents, which killed 6 armed suspects Wednesday evening at about 1700 hrs near the border with Michoacan state in southeastern Jalisco state.
According to reports, a police patrol was travelling along a highway between Ahuijullo, Jalisco to Tepalcatepec, Michoacan when the patrol came under small arms fire.
Police counterfire killed six suspects, while the remainder fled the scene. Two unidentified villagers were also killed in the gunfight, and two unidentified police agents were wounded.
Police seized one AK-47 rifle, a handgun and eight weapons magazines following the firefight.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
[An Nahar] The CIA is seeking permission to launch more airborne drone strikes in Yemen, even when there is a risk the victims might not always be terrorists, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.
The targets would be chosen based on intelligence reports indicating suspicious behavior, such as images of snuffies unloading explosives or gathering at al-Qaeda compounds.
If President Barack Obama I inhaled. That was the point... 's administration gives the CIA permission for the strikes, it could represent a politically dangerous escalation of U.S. military activity in Yemen, the Post said.
There have been at least eight U.S. Arclight airstrikes in Yemen in the past four months, the Post reported.
The B.O. regime has tried until now to limit its drone operations in Yemen to avoid being drawn into internal conflicts that could turn local snuffies into al-Qaeda recruits, the Post reported.
The Post quoted an unnamed B.O. regime official saying that "there is still a very firm emphasis on being surgical and targeting only those who have a direct interest in attacking the United States."
However, alcohol has never solved anybody's problems. But then, neither has milk... disputes have arisen over the number of civilian deaths from drone strikes.
A U.S. drone accidentally killed the teenaged American son of al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki ... Born in Las Cruces, New Mexico, zapped in Yemen, al-Awlaki was a dual citizen of the U.S. and Yemen. He was an Islamic holy man who was a trainer for al-Qaeda and its franchises. His sermons were attended by three of the 9/11 hijackers, by Fort Hood murderer Nidal Malik Hussein, and Undieboomer Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. He was the first U.S. citizen ever placed on a CIA target list... last year, despite the fact he never was accused of terrorist activity.
Some critics of the drone program say killings of innocent victims could become more common if the strikes are expanded.
The CIA proposal for the "signature strikes" is awaiting a decision by the National Security Council, the Post quoted unnamed U.S. officials as saying.
The CIA has been flying drones in Yemen since last year from a secret base on the Arabian Peninsula, the Post reported.
The agency has been building networks of informants in Yemen to assemble intelligence reports that could guide the signature strikes, similar to its drone attacks against al-Qaeda in Pakistain, the Post reported.
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#1
The agency has been building networks of informants in Yemen to assemble intelligence reports that could guide the signature strikes, similar to its drone attacks against al-Qaeda in Pakistain, the Post reported.
These networks were key enablers to victory in Afghanistan. [angry snark off]
Bring the CIA's clandestine Air Force and Army home! They get us into trouble we absolutely don't need.
#3
Try flying one over the mother f'ining compound of the family supporting terrorists killing our troops and fry the mothers! Makes a lot of sense huh!?! We can't touch them will get sent to the principals office wahhhhhh!
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04/20/2012 19:47
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[Yemen Post] Media Secretary of President Abdu Rabo Mansour Hadi has said that significant decrees will be issued during the upcoming week, pointing out that all Yemen's problems will be resolved through peaceful ways and dialogue.
Yahya Al-Arasi revealed that all Yemeni political sides agreed on the success of the GCC-brokered initiative and its implementing mechanism, indicating that there are some differences and that they will be overcome.
In an interview with the Kuwaiti Al-Rai Newsapaper, Al-Arasi said Hadi has not accused any part of rebellion or refusal of his decrees, asserting that Haid has the full legitimacy to conduct changes of senior military commanders.
He anticipated that decrees of forming a national dialogue committee will be issued in the next week, expressing hope that Commander of the Air Force will hand over the command to the newly-appointed commander Rashid Al-Janad, stressing that the refusal of the handover is merely an attempt hamper Hadi's boldness,
The UN Envoy Jamal Binomar arrived in Sana'a on Wednesday to discuss with the top government officials and army commanders the obstacles facing the GCC-brokered power transfer deal.
The visit of the UN Envoy came after some relatives of Saleh refused to abide by the deal and refused decrees issued by Hadi.
Yemeni analysts reiterated that Benomar's visit aims at convincing rebellious Saleh's relatives to change their minds about Hadi's decrees.
Media sources said Benomar is to meet the elderly son of Saleh who runs the Republican Guard, Ahmed 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... , to inform him that the countries overseeing the GCC deal are discontented about the involvement of the Republican Guard in supporting rebellion of some military commanders against Hadi's decrees.
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#1
Birthday/Daily Gam Shot
Nina Foch (Dutch Born) aka Erica Martin (Nominated for AW) in "Executive Suite (1954)" aka Helena Glabrus in "Spartacus (1960)" aka Milo Roberts in "An American in Paris (1951)" aka Bithiah in "The Ten Commandments (1956)" aka Evelyn McEvoy in "Sliver (1993)" aka Maude Kennard in "Cash McCall (1960)" aka Ellen Miles in "Illegal (1955)" (Died in 2008 at age 84)
Now is the time when Pakistani complaints of national humiliation are entirely justified.
[Dawn] The Lahore High Court chief justice on Wednesday issued notices to federal and Punjab governments on a writ petition of Jamatud Dawa chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed ...who would be wearing a canvas jacket with very long sleeves anyplace but Pakistain... and his deputy Hafiz Abdur Rehman Makki seeking government's protection against United States' act of announcing bounty on their (petitioners) heads.
What can the Pakistani government do? Declare the American bounty nonexistent? That won'qt work. Or perhaps provide him bodyguards? They could put someone on the roof to announcing incoming Predator missiles, and provide bodyguards to call the police as the SEALs' helicopters fly away...
Chief Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed asked a deputy attorney general and the Punjab advocate general to assist the court on a point whether a country had the power to announce bounty on the heads of citizens of any other sovereign country.
Go ahead, Chief Justice Saeed -- declare the United States of America out of order. That'll do the trick.
The counsel argued the US was acting on the instigation of India and the act of announcing head money while visiting India spoke for itself. He mentioned that Pak courts, including SC and LHC, had already exonerated Saeed from all charges levelled against him by India and the US.
No evidence presented by unbelievers can possibly be valid, after all, no matter how true. It's in the Koran somewhere.
He argued the head money was always announced for those who were hiding in mountains and caves and were not traceable, but the petitioners were available and were ready to face any investigation.
He said the Foreign Office made it clear to the US that concrete evidence be provided against the petitioners and even Interior Minister Rehman Malik Pak politician, current Interior Minister under the Gilani administration. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. He later joined the Pak Peoples Party and was chief security officer to Bhutto. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. said there was no evidence against the petitioners.
The counsel said the minister also stated the US violated international laws by attacking Pakistain's illusory sovereignty.
He said the prime minister, addressing a joint sitting of parliament, had also said the Saeed issue was an internal one and it concerned Pakistain only.
Therefore, the announcement of bounty was liable to be withdrawn and the petitioners needed to be protected being citizens of Pakistain, said Advocate Dogar.
He prayed to the court to direct the government to protect the petitioners and make arrangements for their security under Article 9 of the Constitution.
He prayed that the government be directed to seek withdrawal of the bounty announcement by the US. The counsel also sought an order against any possible adverse action against the petitioners or their families on the part of the Pakistain government or any agency without taking prior permission from the high court.
After hearing the arguments, the chief justice sought replies from both federal and provincial governments through their law officers and adjourned hearing till April 25.
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(Sh.M.Network)--Turkeyis mediating betweenSomalia's government and the bad turban Al-Shabaab ... Harakat ash-Shabaab al-Mujahidin aka the Mujahideen Youth Movement. It was originally the youth movement of the Islamic Courts, now pretty much all of what's left of it. They are aligned with al-Qaeda but operate more like the Afghan or Pakistani Taliban... group to help bring an end to the years-long conflict in the Horn of Africa nation.
"Through the years,Turkey, the only Moslem member in NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization.... , andSomaliahave maintained a pleasant relationship," Abdihakim Aynte, an independent Somali researcher, said.
He saidAnkarahas notable advantages in mediating between the Somali rivals to end the bloody conflict.
Turkeyhas spearheaded efforts to provide aid to millions of Somalis ravaged by the years-long conflict in their country.
Last year,Ankaracontributed $201 million to the humanitarian relief efforts to help Somalis affected by a severe drought in the Horn of Africa.
Many Somalis considerTurkeyas their only "true Moslem friend", citing a visit by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyib Erdogan during last year's drought and the resulting famine.
Besides sharing the same Islamic values,Turkeyis also viewed as a country that lacks local proxies or other incentives to meddle in the internal politics ofSomalia.
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Several bombs were found near the Carmel settlement south of Mount Hebron. A bomb squad has arrived on the scene and began neutralizing the explosives. The road leading up to the town has been closed .
IDF forces operating in the West Bank overnight apprehended a Paleostinian in the village of Azoun after four pipe bombs were found in his home. The bombs were neutralized by sappers.
Soldiers also apprehended five wanted Paleostinians in Hebron and in the Jericho and Tulkarem areas.
A very telling bit of site selection criteria: Pilgrim, who is also Ferris State's vice president for victimization prostilization diversity and inclusion, initially considered giving his collection to a historically black college, but he wanted to be "near it enough to make sure it was taken care of".
[An Nahar] An FBI agent testifying in the trial of the suspected Bali bomb-maker said Thursday the accused had been identified as an explosives expert by other Islamic beturbanned goons and had planned to kill U.S. troops.
Indonesian prosecutors accuse Umar Patek, who was locked away last year in the same Pak town where U.S. commandos later killed al-Qaeda chief the late Osama bin Laden ... who was laid out deader than a mackerel... , of constructing the bombs that killed 202 people, mostly Westerners.
Frank Pellegrino, a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation who interrogated many Islamic beturbanned goons following the 9/11 attacks in the United States, arrived in Bali shortly after the October 2002 nightclub bombings on the holiday island.
Pellegrino said he interrogated around 20 Islamic beturbanned goons, most from the al-Qaeda-linked Southeast Asian terror network Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), of which Patek is believed to be a key member and which was behind the Bali attacks.
"Many did know Mr. Patek and all described him -- especially after the time of Bali bombings -- as a leader, a bomb-maker, a well-known bomb-maker who knew how to mix chemicals and knew how to teach people how to mix chemicals," Pellegrino testified at the trial at the West Jakarta District Court.
Pellegrino was one of the FBI agents responsible for tracking self-confessed 9/11 criminal mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was caught by Pak authorities on March 1, 2003.
He said the FBI had already been looking into JI because of threats of an attack on the U.S. embassy in Singapore in 2001.
Patek's name was quickly known by the FBI after the Bali attacks, Pellegrino said.
"A very famous sketch was drawn of what he looked like," he told the court. "We realized pretty quickly it was Jemaah Islamiyah," he added.
Pellegrino said he had many discussions with Indonesian police following the Bali attacks about Patek's activities in Afghanistan, where the suspected bomb-maker is known to have trained.
"He continued being a terrorist, he continued making bombs and was planning to attack U.S. troops in the Philippines," he testified.
Patek, 45, went on trial in February, charged with murder, bomb-making and illegal firearms possession. Prosecutors say they will push for the death penalty.
Three JI members -- ringleader Imam Samudra and the brothers Mukhlas and Amrozi -- were executed by firing squad in November 2008 for their roles in the Bali bombings.
According to the indictment, Patek was involved in assembling the bombs for the attacks and also strikes on churches in Jakarta on Christmas Eve 2000.
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AFP - A US general who once blasted the work of military spies in Afghanistan as "only marginally relevant" has been nominated to take over the Pentagon's intelligence agency, officials said.
The decision to name Lieutenant General Michael Flynn suggests a possible shake-up of the sprawling Defense Intelligence Agency as the general has earned a reputation for pushing for dramatic change in his work with special forces.
Flynn was a scathing public critic of military intelligence in Afghanistan, where he served as a top intelligence officer in 2010, saying it failed to provide decision makers with a clear picture of conditions on the ground.
He chose to publish his critique through a Washington think tank, the Center for a New American Security, instead of sticking to customary channels within the Pentagon bureaucracy.
"Eight years into the war in Afghanistan, the US intelligence community is only marginally relevant to the overall strategy," his report said.
"Having focused the overwhelming majority of its collection efforts and analytical brainpower on krazed killer groups, the vast intelligence apparatus is unable to answer fundamental questions about the environment in which US and allied forces operate and the people they seek to persuade," it said.
Flynn is credited with playing an influential role during his tenure at Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), the secretive headquarters that oversees elite commandos like the team that killed the late Osama bin Laden ... who is no more... in May 2011.
At JSOC, Flynn reportedly persuaded special forces to place a higher priority on scooping up intelligence while carrying out targeted attacks on bad boys.
His nomination reflects the ascendancy of special forces in policy making both within and outside the American military, a trend reinforced by the successful operation against Bin Laden.
Flynn, whose nomination must be approved by the Senate, currently serves as the assistant director of national intelligence for partner engagement at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
#1
At JSOC, Flynn reportedly persuaded special forces to place a higher priority on scooping up intelligence while carrying out targeted attacks on bad boys.
Easy to be a hero if your budet is unlimited, you have the best and most up-to-date kit, you are providing the suck-up and operator muscle for the CIA, your collection priority trumps everyone else's, you operate with seperate ROE, you receive operational airlift priority, and you generally refuse to disseminate (share intelligence) with the big Army or Marines. Of course everybody but YOU appears ineffective, but that was a goal as well.
#4
It means you get high-vis 'sexy' like the Bin Ladin raid. It does little to improve operational intelligence which is needed to work immediate or short-fuse issues. In other words, the guys actually doing the work on the ground aren't getting any assistance. Anacostia will know the brand of the cigarette a Pak general smokes and what time he calls his mistress. As far as letting a battalion S-2 know that two of the general's majors are directing Taliban operations from two villages over - eh.
Langley can kill any Taliban Number-Three it wants to. Clear and hold a valley and its villages? No.
Note: "Center for a New American Security". In other words, if you crave a return to the wet-dream of a New Cold War, where there's money and work for the academic, a chance for a new tango of words at the diplomatic functions and any politically-detrimental (read "vote losing") deaths are confined to the back alleys like a Tom Clancy novel, this is a great opportunity. Doesn't head off losing or stalemating the hot-wars or even, y'know, actually ending the whole thing.
#5
#4 It means you get high-vis 'sexy' like the Bin Ladin raid. It does little to improve operational intelligence which is needed to work immediate or short-fuse issues. In other words, the guys actually doing the work on the ground aren't getting any assistance. Pappy
Absolutely correct! It also means you have all the political cover and support (money and future funding) you will ever need.
"Much can be accomplished if no concern is given to who gets the credit."
#6
I don't like the fact that he aired his complaints through a think tank. Perhaps he had a reason but it seems as bad as the CIA leaks to the media because they disagreed the policy.
#7
Actually, Flynn has been pushing for the opposite of high-viz sexy ops.
He was and has been a major voice for understanding what is actually going on at the ground level vis a vis various subgroups within Afghan, where the real power influences reside, how to effectively engage them - and when that engagement should be kinetic.
It is true that this emphasis is characteristic of spec ops. But he applied it with a more strategic perspective as well, specifically pushing against a lot of stupid high profile 'agreements' we made with Karzai and the other corrupt boys in Kabul at the expense of traditional tribal leaders. The resulting depowering of those leaders openly, disastrously and (he argued) predictably strengthen the Taliban's support and/or ability to impose itself on local populations. That depowering also was linked to systemic corruption, an issue he kept calling to the attention of senior leadership not only because it wastes our money but also because it undercuts any willingness of most Afghans to support our involvement there.
It's also a mistake to think of Flynn and DIA only in terms of tactical intel. The agency has a lot of missions. Some of them are very tactical ops focused, but others are a bit broader, including military participation in identifying / tracking and possibly interdicting chem/bio/nuke WMD proliferation through various networks.
In the 90s, cooperative threat reduction worked with ex-Soviet WMD specialists because the forms of cooperation offered (employment, transition to civil applications of advanced bio etc. skills) fit their culture and needs. Flynn understands that the equivalent challenge today resides in very different cultures and among very different groups.
#8
but others are a bit broader, including military participation in identifying / tracking and possibly interdicting chem/bio/nuke WMD proliferation through various networks. lotp
Yes, I seem to recall a couple of Saddam's tractor trailers that were investigated at length and were deemed by CIA/DIA to be ..... "mobile WMD manufacturing facilities." All of which, in the final analysis, turned out to be flawed and incorrect intelligence from both CIA/DIA and an embarrassment for Colin Powell who brief the trailers at the UN. In his post inpection report, the contractor and lead microbiologist who headed up the WMD survey team found that the trailers had no connection to the production of WMD. His team's findings were in contradiction to that of the Agency and were summarlily shelved. The microbiologist's preliminary report was met with cold reception even before he departed Baghdad. A few months after his team's finding, he was quietly dismissed.
#10
CIA had the lead on WMD in Iraq. I know one of the players, who left that agency shortly thereafter because of what she perceived (rightly? wrongly?) to be strong pressure from the Bush-Cheney White House to find evidence that Saddam had an active program whether or not it was there. She isn't the only one who felt that their analyses were dictated ahead of time by Cheney and Feith.
Yes, the Klingons and Director George Tennant had the lead. The "fix" was in however, as evidenced by the hostility and comlicit response to the team's finding even before they were wheels up from Baghdad. Much, much easier to kill "the WMD factory" in Iraq than follow the Russians to Syria.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Armed men belonging to Al-Shabaab ... successor to the Islamic Courts... , the radical Islamist movement in Somalia captured the District Commissioner of Eel Adde, about 400 km southwest of Mogadishu, Mr Yahie Hussein Isaq on Tuesday night.
The beheaded body of DC Isaq was found on Wednesday around noon on the outskirts of Eel Adde town.
TFG officials in the district accused Al-Shabaab of perpetrating the beheading.
Colonel Aden Ahmed Hersi alias Rufle, the Spokesman of the TFG in Gedo region, stated that the fanatical snuffies got the DC of Eel Adee off guard.
He added that the Mr Isaq was in a village to deliver humanitarian items offered by the International Committee of the Red Thingy (ICRC).
The colonel added that DC Isaq had earlier instructed his bodyguards to leave the village and go back to eel Adde town.
"He (DC Isaq) had told the guards that he would be fine," Col Hersi told the media. "Unfortunately, we found the DC's headless body lying at an isolated area with his head put on his back," added the officer.
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[An Nahar] Peacekeepers in Sudan's Darfur region are investigating a reported rebel attack near the Central African Republic border, a spokeswoman said Thursday, after Orcs and similar vermin said they killed Sudanese troops.
"We've dispatched a patrol" to the remote Umm Dafog area of South Darfur state bordering the CAR, said Susan Manuel of 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... -United Nations ...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... Mission in Darfur.
"We had reports of Umm Dafog being attacked," she added, but it was unclear which rebel group was involved.
The Sudan Liberation Army (SLA)-Minni Minnawi faction claimed to have carried out the attack on a Sudanese Armed Forces compound on Tuesday.
"In this fighting we used heavy weapons and bombed the area from far away," the group's front man Abdullah Moursal told Agence La Belle France Presse. "This area is now under the control of the SLA."
Moursal said Sudanese troops suffered "heavy losses" and some were taken prisoner but he gave no figures.
Sudan's army front man could not be reached.
Manuel said peacekeepers also had reports of a separate attack by unknown rebels who destroyed a telecommunications tower west of Edd Al Fursan, about 150 kilometers (90 miles) northeast of Umm Dafog.
SLA and other key Darfuri rebels last year joined the Sudanese Revolutionary Front with Orcs and similar vermin from the states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile on the border with South Sudan.
The rebels pledged to topple the Khartoum regime, which they regard as unrepresentative of the country's political, ethnic and religious diversity.
But they have denied fighting alongside South Sudanese troops who on April 10 occupied Sudan's main oilfield of Heglig, hundreds of kilometers (miles) east of Umm Dafog in South Kordofan.
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For a map, click here. For a map of Michoacan state, click here.
By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
A tense situation between two indigent Indian mountain communities in Michoacan state went hot Wednesday as eight individuals were killed in two separate shootings including an ambush, according to Mexican news reports.
Villagers in Cheran municipality were on patrol in Cerro Packjaracua forest Wednesday when they came under small arms fire from masked armed suspects. Six individuals were killed in the ambush! including two who were immolated inside a pickup truck. A second exchange of gunfire took place near Cheran, where five unidentified villagers were wounded and another two were killed.
Six of the dead were from Cerecito, and have been identified as Cristobal Magaña Gabriel, Cristobal Salmeron Magaña, Anselmo Gabriel Talavera, Jorge Magaña Geronimo, Antonio Gabriel Romero and Lorenzo "N".
Two of the dead were from Cheran, and have been identified as David Campos Macias, 45, and Santiago Ceja Alonso, 50.
The conflict in Cheran municipality involves Cheran and the community of Cerecito, but the issues are unclear. Residents of Cheran claim that residents of Cerecito are in the pay of organized crime groups trying to make clearings in Cerro Packjaracua, presumably with the assistance of villagers from Cerecito. They also claim that organized crime groups traffic in lumber taken from nearby forests. Residents have also suffered from years of criminal activity against them by the La Familia drug cartel.
Villagers from Cerecito have previously complained that an independent group in Cheran has set up checkpoints and demanded payment of tolls. Other complaints against residents of Cheran include auto theft, carjacking, fuel theft and failing to pay bus fares.
Residents of Cheran took 15 hostages Thursday including 11 members of an elite Michoacan state police unit and four ministerial officials. Residents have also closed all access to their area in the wake of the ambush, setting up checkpoints.
Cheran is about 10 kilometers south of Mexican Federal Highway 15, and about 15 kilometers north of Urapan on Mexico Federal Highway 37.
According to reports, both Michoacan state police and Mexican Policia Federal units are in the area monitoring the situation. A call has been presumably made for the assistance of Mexican Army forces in the area. Michoacan is one of the most heavily fortified states in Mexico, with 8,000 Mexican Army troops.
Michoacan is also under additional stress as members of the Jalisco Nueva Generacion drug cartel have vowed to move into Michoacan to destroy the Los Caballeros Templarios drug cartel.
The conflict between the two communities came to a head last month when 12 individuals were kidnapped from Cheran by suspects allied with the Cerecito village. The abductions took place, it is said because of the criminal activities by residents of Cheran.
Cheran residents, however, claim that people from Cerecito are allied with organized crime groups and are threatening forests that residents of Cheran want to remain intact.
All 12 kidnap victims were released the following day following negotiations by the Michoacan state government. To read Rantburg.com reports in the March conflict between Cheran and Cerecito, click here and here.
Mexican drug gangs often use indigent Indian mountain communities to grow drugs, treating the residents as serfs if they fail to go along, using threats including arson and murder. The communities are vulnerable because they are so remote.
Chris Covert writes Mexican drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
(Sh.M.Network)-- The attorney for a Somali man accused of piracy told jurors at trial Wednesday that his client never agreed to negotiate the release of four Americans killed aboard a sailing yacht and he was merely acting as a mediator aboard a hijacked German vessel where hostages were tortured by pirates.
Mohammad Saaili Shibin faces piracy, hostage-taking and several other federal charges for his role in the hijacking of a German merchant ship in 2010 as well as an American yacht off Africa in 2011.
Federal prosecutors contend Shibin was a key figure in Somali piracy, acting as a land-based negotiator who researched ships and hostages online after they had been captured to determine how large of a ransom to seek for them once they were brought to lawless Somalia.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin Hatch said during opening arguments that Shibin was able to secure a $5 million ransom for the German ship Marida Marguerite and its 22 member multi-national crew and that he was the person identified by other pirates as responsible for negotiating the release of the Americans onboard the sailing vessel Quest.
The owners of the Quest, Jean and Scott Adam of Marina del Rey, Calif., along with friends Bob Riggle and Phyllis Macay ofSeattle, were the first U.S. citizens killed in pirate attacks that have plagued the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean despite regular international patrols by warships.
They had been sailing around the world when their ship was boarded by 19 men about 400 miles south of Omanand 900 miles away from Somalia. Their boarded yacht was eventually spotted by a plane flying overhead and then the USS Enterprise Strike Group began shadowing the Quest as authorities tried to negotiate the hostage's release over several days.
Hatch said the destroyer USS Sterett was attempting to maneuver between the hijacked yacht and the Somali coast when a rocket-propelled grenade was fired at it, and that gunfire onboard the yacht was heard shortly after. By the time Navy SEALs reached the Quest, all four Americans had been shot, Hatch said.
Shibin's court-appointed attorney, James Broccoletti told jurors during opening arguments that the Americans' yacht never should have been hijacked and what happened to the Americans was a terrible thing. But in the case of the Quest, he noted that Shibin never left Somalia.
That's important because he contends that unless Shibin committed robbery at sea, he can't be convicted of piracy. Prosecutors contend piracy as defined by 'the law of nations' involves a broader definition.
Broccoletti said the multiple conspiracy charges against Shibin don't apply because although Shibin had been contacted about serving as the Americans' hostage negotiator, he didn't agree to do it. Broccoletti said travel documents would prove that Shibin had intended to leave the country to visit his sister when the Quest was hijacked.
In the case of the German ship, Broccoletti said that Shibin had been trying to work as a freelance journalist covering piracy after he had been laid off from an oil company as a translator and dispatcher. He said that's why Shibin had been contacted about helping the hostages. Once onboard the ship, he said Shibin was unable to leave it and that he was treated just as poorly as some of the hostages at times.
Prosecutors say Shibin was part of a sophisticated network of upper echelon pirates connected to wealthy financiers who didn't go out with raiding parties in search of ships to hijack. Instead, they say, he was called in to begin negotiations once a ship had been hijacked and was in Somali waters.
During testimony Wednesday, crewmember Oleg Dereglazov of the captured German ship said that Shibin behaved like a pirate leader, ate heavily while on board the ship and got the first choice of a leafy drug that pirate members chewed on a daily basis called khat.
Dereglazov also said he was tortured multiple times, including being suspended from a meat hook in the ship's freezer. Dereglazov's testimony was expected to continue Thursday.
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An Iranian diplomat has been accused of fondling girls at a local swimming pool in Brazil's capital city, a case testing local perceptions of diplomatic immunity laws.
Accept his diplomatic immunity, then PNG his ass. Any diplomat who forgets When in Rome needs to find another occupation.
Police jugged the diplomat on Saturday at a swim club in Brasilia, where they found the man surrounded by a mob of irate parents, some seeking to thrash him and others pleading for calm until the authorities arrived, police officials said. Police didn't name the accused man, citing his diplomatic status. Police said the man denied wrongdoing.
"She was uncovered meat, your honour. If only she'd been properly veiled, I never would have succumbed to her hair rays!"
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#1
An Iranian diplomat has been accused of fondling girls
A court in Kazakhstan sentenced 47 people to jail terms of up to 15 years on charges related to a spike in terrorist attacks in the Central Asian nation last year, prosecutors said Thursday.
One group of 42 defendants was incarcerated on charges including forming a terror group, financing hard boy activity and organizing a series of attacks. The remaining five defendants, who were tried in a parallel case at a separate location, were linked to specific attacks in the western oil city of Atyrau in October.
[Yemen Post] Spanish military ship set free on Thursday nine Yemeni fishermen along with their fishing vessel from Somali pirates off the International territorial water in the Arab Sea.
Yemen Coastal Guards (YCG) department in Aden confirmed that a Spanish maritime military ship freed the nine Yemeni hostages and their fishing vessel and noted that communications with the Spanish ship are underway in order to hand over the fishermen to Yemen.
Somali pirates took prisoners the fishermen on April 15 whilst they were fishing in the territorial water off the Gulf of Aden.
Piracy has thrived in Somali in the past few years, dealing a blow to Yemen and many other neighboring countries like Nigeria. Many Somalis have beat feet the impoverished conditions of their country by working as pirates.
Hundreds of millions of dollars were paid as ransoms to the pirates by the international community to free their boats and oil tankers.
Many ships have diverted their transit destinations due to the Somali piracy, causing many losses to Yemen.
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#1
So what happened to the Somali pirates that had held the Yemeni fishermen? Did they get away? Or were they set free too? Or have they moved in with bin Laden?
Last year, while Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs publicly asserted it was trying to help a Canadian held for more than two years by the Taliban, it was privately telling the RCMP to stop investigating the crime.
Beverley Giesbrecht, from Vancouver, was abducted in November 2008 while working in Pakistan after she converted to Islam and adopted the name Khadija Abdul Qahaar.
In May 2011, the Department of Foreign Affairs revealed that it believed Giesbrecht had died in captivity sometime in 2010, but a spokesperson added that it was continuing "to pursue all appropriate channels" to find out what happened.
Documents obtained through an access to information request, however, expose that months earlier the department not only thought Giesbrecht was dead, but had told the RCMP it did not need to investigate.
Foreign Affairs wouldn't explain why it asked the RCMP to end its investigation. A department spokeswoman issued a written statement that, "as a matter of policy, DFAIT does not, and cannot, instruct the RCMP on any operational or investigative matter," adding that, "only the RCMP can make a decision to terminate an investigation."
The RCMP issued a terse and confusing statement about its investigation. Although the RCMP's own documents show the investigation was concluded, media relations officer Sgt. Greg Cox wrote "the RCMP does not comment on ongoing investigations."
Cox did not reply to further requests for information, leaving Giesbrecht's friends wondering why her kidnapping was a crime worth investigating, but her death in captivity was not.
#1
The Mounties have been living on their snazzy red coats for a long time.
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04/20/2012 7:45
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#2
Beverley Giesbrecht, from Vancouver, was abducted in November 2008 while working in Pakistan after she converted to Islam and adopted the name Khadija Abdul Qahaar.
It sounds like the woman functionally, if not formally, emigrated to Pakistan. It may well be that the Department of Foreign Affairs, whatever that is, thought she had gone over to the Taliban rather than having been taken against her will -- such things have been known to happen.
[Bangla Daily Star] A top leader of outlawed Purbo Banglar Communist Party ...the Proletarian Party of East Bengal, a Maoist party that has seen better days. It supported independence in 1971 and has periodic shootouts and fisticuffs with the Bangla Jamaat-e-Islami, but has fallen on hard times, with many of its leaders rubbed out by the RAB or indignant citizenry. It is also subject to factionalism, to the extent that it may have more factions than it has actual members... (PBCP-ML) was found dead in Mirpur upazila of Kushtia yesterday morning.
The victim, Motaleb Hossain, 45, was the chief of the Lal Pataka faction, said Assistant Police Super of Kushtia Chokdar Abdul Halim.
Informed by locals, police recovered the bullet-hit body of Motaleb from Jhutiadanga field at Malihad village in Mirpur around 6:00 am, the ASP said.
Quoting victim's relatives, the ASP said Motaleb went missing on Tuesday night. "He might have been bumped off by his rivals," he said.
Hailing from Gaserdia village in Daulatpur upazila of Kushtia, Motaleb was accused in at least 14 cases, including six for murders filed with Mirpur, Bheramara and Daulatpur cop shoppes of the district, police sources said.
Motaleb was accused of killing Abdur Rasul Babu Khan, president of BNP Mirpur upazila unit, in 2005 and Basir Uddin Kachi, an activist of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, in 2003, the sources said.
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(Rooters) - Bolivia could strike 15 vessels linked to the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines off its shipping register just weeks after IRISL found Bolivian replacements for their Maltese and Cypriot flags.
IRISL, its many subsidiaries and their dozens of ships have drawn sanctions from the United States, United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... and the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... for their suspected role in transporting military equipment for Tehran.
Merchant ships need a flag from national ship registries to gain access to most of the world's ports and many fly those of other countries - especially Panama, Liberia, the Bahamas, Malta and Cyprus - to cheat on taxes in their home countries.
Despite a 2010 U.N. resolution on dealing with Iranian government front companies, until recently Maltese flags still fluttered at the masts of 48 of 144 IRISL vessels identified by the EU, while Cypriot colors flew above 12.
Malta delisted one Iranian tanker, the M.T.Tour, after reports the ship had loaded up with sanctioned Syrian crude in late March, and threatened to de-flag others found violating EU rules.
With Malta and Cyprus coming under increased pressure to stop flagging Iranian government-linked ships, there has been a flurry of registrations in the last few months half a world away in landlocked Bolivia by two new front companies.
The head of the Bolivian registry told Rooters the authority was not aware that any of the vessels registered over the last few weeks were Iranian, but if evidence of sanctions-violating vessels emerged, Bolivia would remove them from the list.
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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) cited seniors' love of junk mail in urging passage of a United States Postal Service reform bill. He had to say something...
In his opening speech on Wednesday, Reid called on the Senate to quickly move forward on the passage of S. 1789, the 21st Century Postal Service Act, which restructures pension plans for Postal Service employees as well as allows the USPS to access overpayments in the Federal Employee Retirement System.
"Madam President," Reid said to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), the presiding officer of the Senate, "I'll come home tonight here to my home in Washington and there'll be some mail there. A lot of it is what some people refer to as junk mail, but for the people who are sending that mail, it's very important.
"And when talking about seniors, seniors love getting junk mail. It's sometimes their only way of communicating or feeling like they're part of the real world," Reid continued. "Elderly Americans, more than anyone in America, rely on the United States Postal Service, but unless we act quickly, thousands of post offices ... will close. I've said this earlier today; I repeat it."
On Tuesday, Reid blocked Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) from adding an amendment to the postal service bill that would cut off U.S. funding to Egypt. Reid used a Senate procedure called "filling the tree" to keep Paul's amendment from coming to the floor, arguing that Paul's bill had nothing to do with saving the Postal Service.
Later on Tuesday, Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) both urged their chamber to come to some kind of compromise on amendments to move the legislation forward.
In his speech on Wednesday, Reid signaled that he would be open to adding some amendments to the bill.
"We're gonna offer amendments and we should do that as quickly as possible to move forward on this legislation," Reid said. "If there's no agreement, we'll have to vote on the substitute amendment tomorrow morning. It'll be too bad if we can't get it done."
Reid announced Tuesday evening that the Senate would vote on a motion to proceed on S. 1789 on Thursday.
#1
Congress will do anything to avoid laying off postal workers. Also note that the MSM studiously & consistently avoids even mentioning the no-layoff deal whenever the viability of the USPS is discussed.
#2
"And when talking about seniors, seniors love getting junk mail. It's sometimes their only way of communicating or feeling like they're part of the real world," Reid continued.
In what seems to be a particularly gross demonstration of bad taste,
...but a clear illumination of ideology, goals and character...
a Facebook page affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street protest group sported an anti-Semitic caricature Thursday -- Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The caricature, which features the classic anti-Semitic portrayal of the Jewish stereotype, depicts an elderly man wearing a hat with a Star of David and driving a car whose steering wheel is the United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... emblem, and shifting gear using a stick shift knob in the image of US President Barack Obama Because I won... The post attracted harsh criticism from Jews worldwide, with one saying that "Such a post, and on Holocaust Day, is a humble reminder of why we have to safeguard Israel."
Another remarked that Paul Goebbels, Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany, "Would have been proud of this photo, which has nothing to do with economy and everything to do with anti-Semitism. What a wonderful way to get rid of the American Jews and Israelis who supported this movement."
Occupy Wall Street is a protest movement that began on September 17, 2011 in New York City's Wall Street financial district, under the banner "The 99% Project," meant to protest social and economic inequality.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] The gunman behind Norway's massacres told court on Thursday he had planned an even bigger killing spree, with three car booms and more shootings at targets across Oslo.
Anders Behring Breivik also said he had once spent a year playing video games, including role-playing online game "World of Warcraft", and a shooting game to prepare for what he believed would be a suicide mission.
The far-right jihad boy also testified he had named his murder weapons after terms from Norse mythology, calling his rifle "Gungnir" after Odin's magical spear and his Glock pistol "Mjoelner" after Thor's hammer.
Breivik is on trial for July 22 twin attacks, when he killed eight people with a van-bomb targeting buildings housing the offices of Labour Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, who was not present at the time.
He then travelled to Utoeya island where, dressed as a police officer, for more than one hour he methodically shot at hundreds of people at a Labour Party youth summer camp, taking 69 lives, mostly teenagers.
On Thursday, on the fourth day of his trial, the 33-year-old said that originally "the plan was three car booms followed by a shooting", describing the initial plan as a "very large operation."
He said he had considered placing a bomb near Labour Party headquarters.
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#1
This fellow needs a very painful, fully documented and possibly televised end.
#4
This is the phase when he's doing two things -- telling the investigators everything he thinks they want to hear, and telling them things to fluff up his self-image.
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[Yemen Post] Yemen's Interior Ministry has imposed tight measures around the Saudi Embassy , its offices, residential compounds of its staff and its consulate in Aden.
This move came three weeks after the abduction of a Saudi diplomat, Abdullah Al-Khalid, in the port city of Aden, and Al-Qaeda's claim that it kidnapped the diplomat.
According to the ministry's website, the ministry ordered its security services to be alert and ready to protect the embassy and its staff.
Saudi authorities have said that the Saudi Ambassador to Sana'a received a call from a Saudi Al-Qaeda operative, Mishaal Al-Shadokhi, who is based in Yemen and asked the ambassador to release Al-Qaeda Islamic fascistiin return for the release of Al-Khalidi.
Meanwhile, ...back at the precinct house, Sergeant Maloney wasn't buying it. It was just too pat. It smelled phony... an assistant of the Saudi Foreign Minister Khalid Bin Saud, said that the Saudi Foreign Affairs Ministry will do best to release the Saudi diplomat, stressing that the Soddy Arabia will not bargain or negotiate Al-Qaeda Islamic fascistiwho kidnapped Al-Qaeda.
Saudi officials said Tuesday the terrorist network's regional affiliate, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, claimed the kidnapping in a phone call to the Saudi Embassy in Yemen. They identified the caller as a wanted Saudi terror suspect, Mashaal Rasheed al-Shawdakhi.
The Saudi government said al-Shawdakhi demanded the release of Islamic fascistilocked away in Soddy Arabia and a ransom payment in exchange for the diplomat. It said the caller warned that al-Qaeda will kill the diplomat, attack a Saudi embassy and assassinate a Saudi prince if the demands are not met. Riyadh rejected the threats.
Yemen's turmoil has caused a security vacuum, which al-Qaeda has used to seize large swaths of territory across the restive south.
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[An Nahar] Syria on Thursday signed a preliminary accord outlining a protocol for a U.N. mission to monitor a fragile week-old ceasefire in the strife-torn country, the two sides announced.
Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al-Meqdad signed the deal with a member of a U.N. advance team, the ministry said in a statement.
"This agreement comes within the framework of Syrian efforts aimed at making the Annan plan succeed and to facilitate the U.N. observer mission while respecting Syria's illusory sovereignty," the statement said.
A front man for 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... , who drafted the six-point ceasefire accord, confirmed in Geneva that an agreement had been concluded between the two parties.
"This agreement outlines the functions of the observers as they fulfill their mandate in Syria and the tasks and responsibilities of the Syrian government in this regard," Ahmed Fawzi said in a statement.
"An effective observer team on the ground is vital if the lives of ordinary Syrian families are to slowly return to normal."
He added that discussions were under way with members of the Syrian opposition to ensure they also comply with the ceasefire.
"The hard part lies ahead, a truly Syrian-led and -owned political dialogue to address the legitimate concerns and aspirations of the Syrian people," Fawzi said.
The protocol will pave the way for some 300 U.N. observers to fan across the country to monitor a week-old truce aimed at ending 13 months of violence in Syria that the United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... says has killed well over 9,000 people.
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#5
Congressional outrage indeed. At least the girls in Columbia were providing a useful service. Zero and the Congress are taking our money before we ever see it and providing absolutely NOTHING! They can't even agree upon an operating budget.
#6
Maybe we could replace Congress with Columbian hikers and actually get something useful done? They at least seem to understand a bit about business.
#9
There is the old joke about prostitutes and government here. But what keep nagging me is this: the don't you know who I am, and the sloppiness of it all. I understand boys being boys, but it gets back to overworked. Remember, the recommissioning of equipment to keep up with the schedule and most importantly the personnelle.
"So why did you pick me?"
"Because you are the best of what's left"
Hot Shots! Part Deux
Its not like the people are picked randomly. It makes me want to re-evaluate all the other fubars, such as the high center in Ireland or the other schedule leaks, schedules perhaps a bit more precise than a web search.
"CG, equitorial city.
And the city does know what the city is getting.
One night in CG makes a G-man sloppy.
The bar's your temple but the pearls ain't free."
[Bangla Daily Star] The capital's Nayapaltan area turned into a combat zone yesterday as BNP activists fought with law enforcers who tried to stop the party's procession protesting the missing of its leader Ilias Ali.
Over a hundred people, including BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, RTV news hound Iqbal and cameraperson Emon, were maimed during the clash. According to police, some 27 cops were hurt.
Starting around 5:15pm, the clash continued till the situation was brought under control by police and Rab around 6:00pm.
The angry activists smashed 30 to 40 vehicles and torched three others including a police jeep in areas adjacent to Nayapaltan. Two buses -- one at Farmgate and another at Malibagh -- were seen burning around 8:30pm.
They also damaged cars of television stations RTV and ATN news.
The opposition supporters went kaboom! five handmade bombs near the BNP headquarters at Nayapaltan, witnesses say.
Also yesterday, local units of BNP enforced dawn-to-dusk hartals ... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ... in four districts under Sylhet division.
At noon, a BNP delegation briefed foreign diplomats about the issue centring Ilias, also an organising secretary of the party and the president of its Sylhet district unit.
Another delegation led by Mirza Fakhrul met Home Minister Shahara Khatun at the latter's secretariat office and urged her to take immediate measures to locate Ilias. Sahara assured the opposition leaders of best effort to rescue the BNP leader.
The BNP-led alliance will observe a nationwide hartal on Sunday.
Former politician Ilias along with his driver has remained missing since Tuesday night and his car was found abandoned in the capital's Mohakhali. The BNP alleged the government agencies picked them up.
Kazi Mainul Islam, officer-in-charge of Banani Police station, said yesterday that the abandoned car sustained damages in its back bumper. Experts were now testing what might have happened to the automobile before it was abandoned.
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Ex-Hawthorn president and former premier Jeff Kennett has lashed out at the Australian Football League (AFL) for ruling that all grounds must install prayer rooms.
It comes after Richmond's Bachar Houli said the requirement for Muslims to pray five times a day was preventing many from attending AFL games. Houli said many had to pray in carparks or stairwells at AFL grounds.
But Kennett called the AFL's mandate "ridiculous".
He said, "To put prayer rooms into sporting venues is not part of the Australian lexicon. I think it is an over-reaction. It's not practical, it's stupid, it's political correctness gone mad."
Kennett said the move would also destroy the culture of football and make unnecessary change. He said, "In the old days when you went to a football ground there were very few stands, there was mud on the ground that was real football."
Houli, an observant Muslim who works for the AFL one day a week as a multicultural ambassador, asked the league chief to provide prayer rooms at all grounds. Prayer rooms, for all denominations, have been recently introduced at three major stadiums. But the AFL is now requiring prayer rooms at all other interstate venues.
Houli said few fans knew of the existing prayer rooms and Mr Demetriou said prayer rooms were long overdue.
League chief Andrew Demetriou said, "It was a request from Bachar in his role as a multicultural ambassador and, to be honest, I was genuinely surprised it wasn't thought of before. We will be speaking to all our venues about providing a prayer room, which is, of course, for any denomination. It's again a demonstration of our inclusiveness."
Houli, who prays five times a day,including five minutes before and after games, said many Muslims weren't going to the footy because of a lack of prayer rooms. He said all Muslims would need to pray once while at games, with women in an enclosed area.
#1
Can't see what the problem is as long as they provide a squad of 72 virgins for any wanna be suicide bomber who wants to attend the game as well.
Why should shahids be discriminated against?
Court deems state not liable for chicken coops destroyed in 2006 air attack on terrorist tunnels.
Israel is not liable to pay damages to two Gazoo companies whose property was demolished during a July 2006 IDF aerial raid on the southern Gazoo Strip, the Beersheba District Court ruled on Wednesday.
The air force conducted the raid on July 16, 2006, to destroy the infrastructure of a tunnel intended to be used to carry out terrorist attacks in Israel. Three days later, on July 19, 2006, the IDF bulldozed the tunnels. The army said it carried out these military actions to prevent terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians.
Two Paleostinian companies -- named in the lawsuit as Masri Gabon Ltd and Haprahim L'Efroahim Ltd -- complained that the aerial attack and subsequent IDF bulldozer action in the Gazoo border region destroyed their poultry coops, which had been located on land above the tunnels.
The Paleostinians sued the Defense Ministry for NIS 8 million in damages, arguing that there was no operational justification for destroying the privately owned coops, because they were not a security risk.
Therefore, the Paleostinians' lawyer, attorney Zaki Kamal, contended, the state could not argue that it was not liable for damage claims on the grounds that its actions were carried out within the context of a lawful military objective.
In response, lawyers for the state admitted that the IDF had destroyed the coops, but argued that it had done so as part of an act of war, since there had been no way to destroy the tunnels without also demolishing the property above them.
Therefore, the Defense Ministry argued, the state is not liable for damages.
Judge Shlomo Friedlander examined the Paleostinians' claim in the context of the Torts Law, which stipulates that the state is not civilly liable for an act carried out by the IDF as part of an act of war, which includes any act of war against terrorism or insurrection, or to prevent terrorism or hostilities that endanger life.
Referring to testimony from IDF officers involved in the Gazoo operations and evidence from military logbooks, Friedlander said that the specific acts the army carried out in this case met the definition of an act of war, and that the coops had been destroyed specifically because of suspected tunneling operations beneath them.
Based on this evidence, Friedlander said that "the IDF would not have destroyed the coops, causing damage to civilians, if it had not had authoritative expert intelligence providing a basis for the military need to demolish them."
The Paleostinians also argued that the IDF had been negligent because its decision to destroy the coops, which belonged to innocent civilians, was disproportionate in the context of the risk posed by tunnels in the Gazoo Strip.
Friedlander said the burden of proving the IDF acted negligently in destroying the coops fell with the Paleostinian plaintiffs.
"The plaintiffs have not brought any evidence of negligence on behalf of the defendant," the judge said.
However, by candlelight every wench is handsome... Friedlander noted, the Defense Ministry had brought detailed evidence, including excerpts from operational logbooks and aerial photographs, to support its version and to back up its arguments that the military actions regarding the tunnels were justified.
Friedlander said that there had been a "vital necessity" to destroy the tunnels to prevent terrorist activity, and it had not been possible to do so without also demolishing structures above the tunnels, and therefore the collateral damage had been proportionate.
However, by candlelight every wench is handsome... the judge said, since the coops were private property and the Paleostinian plaintiffs themselves had not been involved in any terrorist activity, the court had deliberated whether they had a claim under international humanitarian law to compensation because Israel had taken their property for security requirements.
Friedlander noted that under international law, civilians who suffer proportional damage as a result of a lawful military attack are left to bear the cost of their losses, despite calls for a change in this policy that would entitle such victims to compensation.
"It is unfortunate for those animals who perished and for those civilians who suffered a severe blow to their property rights, their livelihoods and their hard work," he said.
"However, by candlelight every wench is handsome... the State of Israel is not the correct recipient of [the Paleostinian civilians'] grievances and for their compensation claims. The plaintiffs should direct [these] to the terrorists, their agents and their collaborators responsible for digging the tunnels, and to the prevailing regime
Comments by Volker Kauder, head of Chancellor's conservatives in parliament, draw ire of country's 40 million Muslims.
BERLIN - A leading conservative politician said on Thursday that Islam did not belong in Germany, fueling tension at a conference on integrating Mohammedans that also debated a controversial Salafist campaign to hand out copies of the Koran across the country.
"Islam is not part of our tradition and identity in Germany and so does not belong in Germany," Volker Kauder, head of Chancellor 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 conservatives in parliament, told the Passauer Neue Presse.
"But Mohammedans do belong in Germany. As state citizens, of course, they enjoy their full rights," he added.
His remarks added to a highly charged nationwide debate about a campaign by an ultra-conservative Salafist Mohammedan group to hand out millions of free German translations of the Koran to non-Mohammedans.
The conference was one of a series hosted by the government to improve the integration of the four million Mohammedans living in Germany, about half of whom have German citizenship.
Many came from Turkey in the 1960s and 1970s and their hard work contributed to Germany's post-war economic miracle. Germany has a population of about 81 million.
While some people of Turkish origin have risen to prominent political and public positions, many others live in their own communities and studies show many youngsters struggle to learn German properly, limiting their chances of finding work.
In response to concern about radicalization and aware of the stimulus a well-qualified cohort of young Mohammedans could give to Europe's biggest economy, Merkel set up forums, or conferences, six years ago to improve integration.
Kauder's comments quickly drew fire.
"Volker Kauder is the last crusader for the conservatives. He is putting a bomb in the Islam conference," said senior opposition Social Democrat (SPD) politician Thomas Oppermann. "(He).. is denigrating and marginalising all Mohammedans in Germany. That course is utterly wrong," he said.
Critics say that the campaign is ideological
Participants at Thursday's Islam conference, comprising delegates from the federal and state governments and Islamic groups, discussed the controversial distribution of the Koran by Salafist group "The True Religion" in Germany.
Critics, many from Merkel's traditionally Catholic party, say the campaign is ideological, aimed at recruiting supporters.
"Religion must not be allowed to be misused for ideological claims to power," said Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich.
"We (the conference) agree that Salafist extremism is not acceptable and does not fit in a free society as we have in Germany," he said, adding that 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... did not enjoy the support of the majority of Mohammedans in Germany.
The group has already handed out at least 300,000 copies of the translated Koran at stands on the streets of German cities.
Germany's domestic intelligence agency has described Ibrahim Abu Nagie, who launched the campaign, as a prominent exponent of Salafism, which has its roots in Soddy Arabia, and German authorities view his website as a hub for radical Islamists.
Some Mohammedan groups have also criticized the handouts, though for a different reason. The chairman of the Central Council of Mohammedans in Germany has said the Koran is not a PR pamphlet for mass distribution.
The campaign poses a dilemma as any move to stop the distribution of the Koran - a perfectly legal activity - could be seen as anti-Islamic.
Kenan Kolat, the head of Turkish Communities in Germany, warned against hysteria. "If there is a glorification of violence or an infringement of free, democratic basic values, then there are police measures that can be used," said Kolat.
The Islam conference also discussed gender equality and condemned domestic violence and forced marriage.
Two years ago a painful row erupted over a bestseller by former central banker Thilo Sarrazin, who said Turkish and Arab immigrants sponged off the state and threatened German culture.
Soon after, Germany's then-President Christian Wulff won wide praise from Mohammedans by saying that Islam was part of Germany.
[Yemen Post] Clashes continued Thursday morning between al-Qaeda forces of Evil and army/security troops in the southern war-torn province of Abyan, killing 7 of al-Qaeda operatives and wounding some of others.
In a statement posted on its website, the Ministry of Defense has said that seven bad boyz were potted in festivities with the 111th armored brigade in Lawdar of Abyan. It has noted that 4 of those who were killed are Somali nationals.
Scurity forces together with the local tribal committees launched attacks on myrmidon group's held-posts in the outskirts of Lawdar, which has been the scene of deadly festivities between the two warring sides for the past couple of weeks, a security official said. The festivities lasted for a number of hours and that the government forces and the tribal committees managed to kill 7 forces of Evil and maimed 5 others, added the official. Six soldiers were maimed during the battles, the official noted.
Separately, a jacket wallah on a cycle of violence was killed on the spot when he went "kaboom!" before he reached a military checkpoint in Abyan on Wednesday, local media reported.
Al-Qaeda has intensified its attacks on military posts and brigades since February of last year, taking an advantage of the unrest resulted by the Yemeni revolution. It has managed to take control of some towns in Abyan and Shabwa provinces. US has voiced its concerns of the free activities of al-Qaeda in the southern parts of Yemen, increasing its drones which roam the sky in search for the terrorists. For some reason, the Yemenis don't seem to be bitching about violations of their sovreignty when we zap somebody.
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[An Nahar] Fresh violence raged across Syria on Thursday even as authorities in Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... penned an agreement aimed at putting a stop to 13 months of bloodshed.
The Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said security forces killed four civilians across the country, but the Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, reported a higher corpse count.
The LCC said six people were killed in Homs, four in rural Damascus, two in Hama, two in Idlib, one in Daraa, one in Damascus and one in Deir Ezzor.
The Observatory said one civilian was killed during an assault by government forces in the northeastern oil city of Deir Ezzor and three others died from gunfire in the town of Yabrud, north of Damascus.
The casualties brought to 124 the number of civilians who have died since a U.N.-brokered ceasefire went into effect in Syria a week ago on April 12, said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britannia-based watchdog.
Three civilians were also maimed on Thursday in the assault on Deir Ezzor where fighting was raging between government troop and rebel fighters, the group said.
It also reported festivities in Daraa, south of Damascus, cradle of the 13-month uprising against the regime of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... , and shelling in the flashpoint central province of Homs.
The small advance team of U.N. observers in Syria visited Daraa province on Thursday and met with local residents, according to amateur videos posted online.
Gunfire erupted after their visit, the Observatory said.
One video showed a U.N. vehicle surrounded by a mob in the town of Khirbet Ghazaleh and chanting "freedom, freedom, down with the regime."
Another video showed the head of the team, Colonel Ahmed Himmiche of Morocco, entering a house where a crowd awaited him.
One man tells the colonel how he was shot and maimed while driving with his brother who was killed.
A woman recounted how her two sons, both farmers, were jugged by government forces three months ago with their whereabouts still unknown.
Himmiche asked the crowd whether schools and hospital were open in the region. Residents responded that schools were open but that no one dared seek treatment at a local government-run hospital for fear of staff "finishing them off".
The latest violence came as authorities in Damascus signed a preliminary accord outlining a protocol for a U.N. mission to monitor the fragile week-old ceasefire.
Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al-Mekdad signed the deal with a member of a U.N. advance team, the foreign ministry said.
Although the number of casualties has fallen since the truce went into effect, the violence has continued unabated despite assurances by Syrian authorities they would respect the ceasefire.
Violence on Wednesday killed 30 people, 22 of them civilians, the Observatory said.
In a report to be discussed by the Security Council later Thursday, U.N. chief the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... said he wanted 300 unarmed observers sent on a three-month mission to Syria, adding it was "critical" that Assad's regime adhere to the peace plan.
Ban's report, obtained by Agence La Belle France Presse, said that even though Syrian troops have not been withdrawn from cities and violence has escalated since the ceasefire, "an opportunity for progress may now exist, on which we need to build."
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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.
I will now proceed to embarrass myself with the number of bugs I've introduced into our mostly stable main page. I've moved the new version online. Let me know when the bugs crawl out.
No sooner had Mitt Romney effectively locked up the Republican presidential nomination than President Obama began to sharpen his attacks on former President George W. Bush.
One of the five suspected 
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] A wave of apparently coordinated bombing and shooting attacks in seven different provinces across Iraq killed at least 37 people and 
Pervez 
[Yemen Post] Pakistain announced that they will delay the release of 
...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...
KARACHI: Nearly a dozen people, including two activists of the Awami National Party, were killed in the city on Wednesday as sporadic gun attacks on roadside restaurants and shops continued on a third consecutive day, police said.
cycle of violence
[Yemen Post] Mass demonstrations were staged in Yemeni provinces Taiz and Baidha'a on Thursday urging to fire corrupt officials including govenors and to prosecute the remnants of the former regime. 
U.S. Secretary Of Defense Leon Panetta has issued an apology for photos that appear to show soldiers posing with dead Afghans, Reuters reports. Panetta called the behavior "foolish" and "unacceptable."
Taliban leaders are appealing to 
Barely 24 hours after James Ibori bagged a 13-year jail term in the United Kingdom for money laundering, jubilation has turned to anger following reports of planned repatriation to Nigeria of the $250 million stolen by the former governor of Delta State.
Somali pirates
[Bangla Daily Star] A top leader of outlawed 
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) cited seniors' love of junk mail in urging passage of a United States Postal Service reform bill.
In what seems to be a particularly gross demonstration of bad taste, 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
