WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration's top environmental official in the oil-rich South and Southwest region has resigned after Republicans targeted him over remarks made two years ago when he used the word "crucify" to describe how he would go after companies violating environmental laws.
In a letter to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson sent Sunday, Al Armendariz says he regrets his words and stresses that they do not reflect his work as administrator of the five-state region including Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana.
Actually, they reflect his work perfectly...
Armendariz, who holds a doctorate in environmental engineering, apologized for his remarks last week.
He was sorry if we were offended. That's not an apology.
Whaddya yhave to do to get a doctorate in "Environmental Engineering?" How does an examining board assess an engineered environment?
A senior administration official told The Associated Press that he has since received death threats.
Prove it. Put those threats into the public realm, and have the FBI investigate each and every one. If they prove a single death threat to be real, find and prosecute the person who uttered it. Until I call horse-hockey...
His resignation was effective Monday, when he informed his senior staff.
"I have come to the conclusion that my continued service will distract you and the agency from its important work," Armendariz wrote in the letter, which was obtained by The Associated Press.
Because even the Obama administration has its limit for the number of quality of doofuses it can employ. And they already have Biden...
He's six or seven of them...
Republicans in Congress had called for Armendariz' firing, after Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe highlighted the May 2010 speech last week as proof of what he refers to as EPA's assault on energy, particularly the technique of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
At a town hall meeting in Washington on Friday, Jackson had said only that she would continue to review the case, calling Armendariz' words "inflammatory" and "wrong". President Obama appointed Armendariz in November 2009, at the urging of Texas-based environmental groups. He is one of a few Latinos in senior leadership at the EPA.
But he's part of the usual gang of leftie environmentalists who canoodle their way into power.
The regional administrator's words "don't comport with either this administration's policy on energy, our policy at EPA on environmental enforcement, nor do they comport with our record as well," Jackson said.
The EPA, perhaps more than any other agency, has found itself in the GOP's crosshairs over its regulation of the gases blamed for global warming, steps it has taken to limit air pollution from coal-fired power plants, and its increased regulation of fracking, which is responsible for a gas drilling boom. Republicans, including presidential contender Mitt Romney -- who has called for Jackson herself to be fired -- have blamed the agency for high gasoline prices and clamping down on American energy.
Get used to it boys and girls, at least until President Romney and new EPI Administrator Palin cleans the house...
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04/30/2012
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#1
Crucifixion is a very slow, horribly agonizing, form of death by asphyxiation. It could take DAYS. It would definitely be in violation of the Eighth Amendment.
HOUSTON -- ATP Oil & Gas Corporation and its wholly-owned subsidiary ATP East Med B.V. ("ATP East Med") have initiated drilling at the Shimshon well in the Levant Basin of offshore Israel with the Ensco 5006 drilling unit. The Shimshon well is in a water depth of 3,622 feet with a target depth of 14,764 feet. After spudding, several protective casing strings will be set until the well has penetrated the salt layer. A full set of electric logs will be run at total depth to assist in evaluation of target reservoirs. ATP expects to announce results during the third quarter of 2012. Most of the ATP drilling has been in the Gulf of Mexico but the company realized last year that they needed to drill in less politically risky areas.
"With the recent discoveries in the Levant Basin already exceeding 35 Tcf, the Basin is a prolific area for natural gas exploration efforts," said T. Paul Bulmahn, ATP Chairman and CEO. US consumption of natural gas is about 25 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) per year
Posted by: lord garth ||
04/30/2012
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They seem to be moving awfully fast, but really I don't know. What's normal for such things?
Al Qassam Brigades mourns the death of the Mujahed Ahmed Abu Warda
As Al Aqsa Intifada against the occupation assault on the Gaza Strip continues, Ezzeddeen Al-Qassam Brigades has its best men to be in the playground of death to defend their people from any attack by the enemy ... Today, Al-Qassam Brigades mourn the death of the Mujahed:
[Ahmed Ramadan Abu Warda,24, years old]
Jabaliya refugee camp -- North of Gaza Strip
The Mujahed martyred during his duty. He was martyred on Monday morning April 30th, 2012. He was martyred after a long bright path of jihad, hard work, struggle and sacrifice.
Al Qassam Brigades mourn the death of the Mujahed, reaffirms the commitment and determination to continue the resistance against the belligerent occupation forces.
Al-Resalah reports that the jihadist was blown up during a training mission in Rafah, and three other Hamas members were injured in the incident.
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04/30/2012 8:57
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was blown up during a training mission in Rafah, and three other Hamas members were injured in
So this was a 'work accident' - and maybe his three playmates will get sepsis.
China is considering sovereign guarantees for its ships to enable the world's second-biggest oil consumer to continue importing Iranian crude after new EU sanctions come into effect in July, the head of China's shipowners' association said.
Tough new European Union sanctions aimed at stopping Iran's oil exports to Europe also ban EU insurers and reinsurers from covering tankers carrying Iranian crude anywhere in the world. Around 90 percent of the world's tanker insurance is based in the West, so the measures threaten shipments to Iran's top Asian buyers China, India, Japan and South Korea.
#1
Apropos nothing, it occurs to me that if we had an import tarriff equal to the US corporate tax rate it would put companies thatmake stuff here on a more equal footing with those who export their manufacturing capacity to certain particular east asian countries.
#6
Free trade doesn't work well when one party manipulates the currency exchange for their own interests and is allowed to continue the game for any extended period of time at the expense of others in the system.
#7
P2K: It's more than "currency manipulation" per se; they basically increase their money supply enough to cause some 15% inflation per year and make that available as a subsidy to that part of their manufacturing sector (based in a narrow geographical region) that services the export market, at the direction of their central government.
#8
The subsidy is provided in the form of "loans" that pay for the raw materials used as input for the manufacturing process that don't have to be repaid.
#9
It's basically an enourmous money laundering scheme, that works because a) people aren't used to thinking of inflation as a tax levied by the banking system, and b) because it's laundered through the export system, which lets them spread blame around: the average person gets screwed over, but they can blame those darn Americans or Japanese for debasing _their_ currency and not paying their debts. I guess they're waiting for some sort of crisis that will affect their economy less than it affects ours, at which point they hope to be able to make everything good or good-ish.
#10
Crude theories say inflation hurts everyone, but if you're using it to generate money that you're distributing unequally, some people still benefit.
Say you increase the money supply 10%, but you're giving that 10% to only 10% of the population, they're suddenly much richer even if everyone started out with the same amount of cash on hand.
Now if that wealthy 10% is using that money to run their business, able to use that extra money to go into tangibles or capital goods that they can use in their business and shield the value of that from the devaluation caused by the inflation... you have a feedback loop. There are still suckers in the taxed-by-inflation regions inland from the coast, but they can come work in the factories and live on the on-site dorms.
#11
Meanwhile, the US has the most socialist economy I have seen in my lifetime, run by hardcore redistributionists with a determined grudge against extraction and manufacturing industries.
There is a huge body of literature about how free trade is good for everyone, that seems to use as starting axioms relatively well-capitalized free-market societies trading in spherical cows, neither one of which really exists at the moment.
#12
One final comment before I leave for the night... if they set up a special tax for everyone living in an arc from roughly Chengdu down through Yunnan to Guangxi, to go to a "making certain select Shanghai tycoons richer," there'd be a civil war and a massive political purge. If they do that through inflation, they can hope that something happens to stop the game of musical chairs before the inflationary spiral gets too bad. (BTW, that's a big reason the nationalists collapsed; they eventually reached the hyperinflation point).
Hence their support of people like Pakistan and Iran, who they think can do what it takes to damage our economy more and theirs not at all.
At least eight people, mostly Syrian military personnel, were killed and about 100 injured in bomb blasts at security buildings in Idlib. Two explosions blasted the fronts off nearby buildings and left craters in roads, according to images on state television. State television said both explosions were suicide bombings.
A local activist said they appeared to target the area headquarters of intelligence services for the air force and the army. He put the death toll at over 20.
A bomb explosion injured at least 20 people in the eastern Nigerian city of Jalingo on Monday, a day after two deadly attacks in other parts of the country. Ibrahim Farinloye, local head of the National Emergency Management Agency, said, "The blast was between the state ministry of finance and police headquarters."
A witness said the bomb could have been targeting the police commissioner who drove past the spot shortly before. He said he saw dead bodies and that at least 20 people were taken to hospital.
The medievalism of the Ummah as opposed to that of Christendom. One forgets to think that they were different, though contemporaneous.
Medievalism in this context is the return of tribal, religious and sectarian political formations and other political forms to replace the nation-state order and its institutions.
#2
Clinton had a great deal to do with the housing bubble which popped and led to what we have been going through. He pushed for increased home ownership with low to no downpayment and shaky financial positions. Obama has added to our country's problems by spending without restraint. Come November, remember the donks are the party of spending other people's money.
Why is Turkey still allowed to be a member of NATO?
Ankara says it will block EU participation in an upcoming NATO summit unless the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is also allowed to be present.
To be fair, NATO is a military organization -- what business have EU bureaucrats there?
This is a win-win to me...
EU member states had proposed participation by some of the top EU bureaucrats, including European Commission President José Manuel Barroso and President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy, who are now unsure whether they will be able to attend the summit taking in Chicago on May 20-21 as representatives of the union due to the objections from Turkey, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Friday. Raising the EU's commitment to a NATO peace mission in Afghanistan, EU member countries including France had argued that the EU should be represented, while Turkey is maintaining that there should only be member state participation in the summit, the WSJ claimed.
"If non-NATO members will also participate, the OIC should be represented [in the Chicago summit] first and foremost," Turkish diplomatic sources said in explaining Ankara's position, speaking to Today's Zaman on Sunday. The sources claimed that the OIC's commitment exceeded the EU contribution in the Afghanistan peace mission.
The EU has exerted efforts for the reconstruction and democratization of Afghanistan in preparation for the post-NATO-mission period in the country. The EU launched a rule of law mission (EUPOL) under the banner of the European Security and Defense Program (ESDP) in June 2007. The union has also initiated a program for justice reform and is helping to fund civilian projects in NATO-run Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs).
Meanwhile, the OIC, a bloc of 56 countries, is also taking a growing interest in the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and in 2010 it accepted a proposal by member states Turkey and the United Arab Emirates to appoint an OIC permanent representative for Afghanistan.
The US administration has joined the push for greater OIC involvement in Afghanistan for the last couple of years, which would bring benefits in efforts towards reconciliation between the Afghan government and the Taliban.
The Turkish diplomatic sources also noted that the different proposals coming from NATO members on who will participate are still being discussed and there is not an ultimate decision yet. They added that there are also objections from other non-EU NATO members to the proposed EU participation in the Chicago summit.
The background to Turkey's objection to EU participation in NATO activities involves a more long-standing dispute. Greek Cyprus, representing the entire island as a full member of the EU, blocks Turkish participation in European defense institutions such as the European Defense Agency (EDA). Turkey, a NATO member, has responded by obstructing the EU's integration in NATO activities.
Rejection of Israeli partnership in NATO
Turkey has also blocked Israel's participation in the summit in a sign of Turkey's determination to prevent its new foe from cooperating with the alliance following a deadly ship raid.
Al Gore at Hampshire College. It don't get any better than this...
AMHERST -- Former Vice president Al Gore on Friday refuted claims that global warning is a myth, saying that 97 to 98 percent of the worlds' scientists attest to its veracity. Oh, at least...
Which translates to 107% when measured by those who are numerate.
Gore was the keynote speaker at the inauguration of Hampshire College President Jonathan Lash Friday. The theme of Lash's inauguration was "Educating for Change: critical thinking in a critical time." I figured it would be "Passing The Bong To A New Generation"...
"Now there are some talk radio show hosts, they say that (global warming is) not (real)," Gore said. "It's up to you; my point is we must respond. What the scientists tell us is going to take place if we do not is too awful to contemplate." I may have to sell the big place in Montecito! And I love that place!
Just before Gore spoke, he was he introduced by Hampshire alumnus Gary Hirshberg, co-founder of the New Hampshire-based Stonyfield Farm, who announced a $1 million donation to the college for its commitment to the environment. Wow, a graduate of Hampshire College found a job? And a million bucks? Probably has some of those "special crops" growing in the middle of his cornfield that the Staties haven't found yet.
Gore, who spoke for about 20 minutes before the more than 2,000 people who packed the tent on the campus lawn, told stories about growing up in Nashville, Tenn., at a time of the civil rights movement and the need to address injustice. He spent just a few minutes addressing the environment and global warming. In 2007, Gore won the Nobel Prize with the U.N Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. "An Inconvenient Truth," a film about his campaign to educate people about global warming, won two Oscars in 2006. Since then some have contested the veracity of the claims that climate change is caused by humans. Yeah..."some".
Which translates to "a great many" when measured by the numerate.
Gore said that some claim environmental change is caused by sunspots or volcanoes. "That's not true. It's an urgent problem that requires urgent attention and must be addressed," he said. It's caused by...everything! Cow farts! Light bulbs! SUVs! Hotel masseuses with big mouths! Keith Olbermann!
Gore told students that some doubted the wisdom of President John F. Kennedy saying in the early 1960s that the United States would land on the moon within a decade. "You will have the opportunity to do things greater than you can possibly imagine," Gore said. "And now is the time. We need an American spring this spring. We need to occupy democracy." How am I doing?
You're killing them, Al! Killing them!
Those remarks drew wild applause. See? Hampshire College will never let you down. You're among friends, Al.
Gore did not take questions or meet with the media. According to campus officials, he was on a tight schedule. And questions can get "messy"...
In his remarks following officially becoming the sixth president of Hamphire College, Lash also spoke of his concern for the environment. "I think what we are doing to our earth is stupid, wrong, short-sighted and completely unnecessary," Lash, who described himself as a "card-carrying greenie," said. No shit...
Lash referred to this time as belonging to the Anthropocene era, which some scientists are calling a new geologic era."Part of my role at Hampshire will be to be relentless and ambitious about what our community can do to live, and prepare our students to thrive in the Anthropocene," Lash said. "How can we link our farm and our food, our curriculum and our operations, our understanding of culture and art, and our notion of humankind's place on earth to make a difference in the course of events." Hampshire College: Preparing Lefty Rich Kids for...sumthin
The Obama administration is refusing to say whether blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng is under United States protection in Beijing.
However, he has been declared the winner of the Jose Feliciano Lookalike Contest...
A Chinese human rights group has claimed Mr Chen is now "under United States protection" after escaping house arrest and travelling to the Chinese capital.
Mr Chen had been jailed for four years and then spent 19 months under house arrest after he exposed forced abortions and sterilisations in the Chinese countryside. He was under 24-hour guard and could barely move without being watched.
But somehow the blind activist has escaped from his home prison, apparently by pretending to be asleep for extended periods of time and lulling his captors into a false sense of security.
How many times have I seen that in movies? You'd think the modern prison guards would be wise to that one, just like the one where the con pretends to be sick so that the guards will open the cell door and get jumped. But NO-o-o-o-o, once again the Keystone Koppers fall for it. Cheeez...
According to one report in a Singaporean newspaper, Mr Chen is now being harboured inside the US embassy in Beijing. Embassy staff have refused to confirm or deny the report.
Analysts say it is inconceivable that the US would agree to hand Mr Chen back to the Chinese authorities.
Oh really? I can certainly see Champ doing it.
But the Obama administration's top counter-terrorism adviser, John Brennan, is not giving anything away. "I'm confident that the president and others within the US government are going to be able to find the right way forward," he said.
Another way to report that is that Mr. Brennan has no idea what to do and is stalling for time...
The incident forms an unwelcome backdrop to the visit of US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who will arrive in Beijing for talks this week.
Hi. How are you all doing?
We are not happy, Mrs. Crinton!
I know. It's the blind guy, right?
Mr Chen has released a message to the Chinese government on YouTube, asking authorities to protect his family and arrest the groups of men who have been assaulting his relatives. His wife, daughter and mother are thought to be still in their home in the town of Dongshigu, which remains a no-go zone for foreign reporters.
"I am finally free but I'm worried that my mother, my wife and my child are still under their control," he said. "They'll keep on persecuting them and since I'm now free, they'll look to take out revenge on my family".
That's generally what communists do...
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Jeddah Gov. Prince Mishaal bin Majed highlighted the role of parents and family members in encouraging their children to memorize the Holy Qur'an as well as in conducting Qur'an competition among themselves in front of family members.
"Memorization of the holy book would enable kids to develop their intellectual capacities and enhance their grasping power to a great extent. This would also help them to acquire qualities like sound judgment, ability for time management and using it judiciously," he said while urging parents to motivate children to memorize the Qur'an from the early stages of their lives.
The kiddies might do better in life memorizing Objective C. Or car repair manuals. Or protocols in molecular biology. Just sayin'...
The governor was speaking at the concluding ceremony of the Holy Qur'an competition for students of King Abdulaziz University (KAU). He gave away prizes worth a total of SR 1 million to the winners at the function held at KAU's King Faisal Conference Hall. Three hundred and eighty students, both boys and girls, participated in the four categories of the competition, organized by the university's Qur'an Studies Department.
And what do we have for our winners, Johnny?
It's a...new Koran!
The governor also opened an exhibition on Qur'an on the sidelines of the competition and toured various pavilions, the Saudi Press Agency reported. Prince Mishaal watched a documentary film featuring the department's activities and achievements. Several university officials, including its President Osama Tayeb attended the event.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
No wonder yoot unemployment is so high in the Majic Kingdom.
If French Muslims are largely left-leaning in their voting preferences, there are exceptions. France24.com spoke to three French Muslims of Arab descent, all of whom vote for the far-right National Front party. Here are their testimonies.
SEOUL -- North Korean leader Suet Face Kim Jong-un observed a combined arms exercise to mark the 80th anniversary of the Korean People's Army (KPA), a media report said Saturday.
The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) picked up in Seoul said without specifying the date of the exercise that Fat Boy Kim, who has been made the supreme commander of the KPA, "guided" the military maneuver. The anniversary of the North Korean armed forces fell on Wednesday. Ah! What does this thing do?
Point it the other way, sir.
The exercise involving aircraft, tanks, armored personnel carriers, artillery and infantry from combined unit 655 was aimed at conducting retaliatory strikes against imperialists and enemies of the communist country by devastating the source of the threat, the KCNA said. It said that the unit was ready and able to immediately strike at the heart of the enemy who had attacked the integrity of the regime.
The media report said ranking officers of the KPA such as vice marshals Choe Ryong-hae, Ri Yong-ho and Kim Jong-gak were present at the exercise.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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Various Perts believe that the DPRK is FULLY intent on building bigger + more tech-saavy Rockets irregardless of its pervasive food problems [starvation].
IMO read, UNLESS CHINA DOES SOMETHING TO STOP IT.
* FYI CHINA DAILY FORUM > VIETNAM NEEDS AGNIS [Indian LRBMS = ICBMS].
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > BARAK WARNS: EGYPT + TURKEY [+ even the KSA] WILL JOIN [Regional = ME] ARMS RACE, iff Iran goes nuclear, + wid the KSA likely getting theirs, or at least working samples therein, from Pakistan.
ARTIC > Close US ally the KSA don't want to appear as procuring NucBomb/NucWeaps Techs from Pakistan, whom is also rival Iran's BFF, whereas Pakistan doesn't want to to be stereotyped [again] as a propagator/proliferator
of Nuke Techs to anyone.
#2
First twas the Chinese Army = CPLA, now cometh the Chinese Navy = CPLAN ...
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [Scarbough Shoal = Senior PLAN CDR. ADM. Li Shihong]CHINESE NAVY: WE WILL TAKE ACTION WHENEVER THE GOVT IS READY, + gives the Military the formal order to strike.
* CHINA DAILY FORUM > [Xinhua] CHINA DISMISSES JAPAN'S SHELF CLAIMS [to UN], as per UN recognition of "sole" Japanese sovereignty oer the Pacific UW seafloor to north of Okinotori Atoll.
CHINA = Iff anything, its our UW Continental Shelf, not wily Japan's.
* SAME > JAPAN PLAN TO BUY ISLANDS [China = Daoyus Islands/Daoyutai] "UNACCEPTABLE".
Nippon asking for Military trouble/confrontation wid China???
* WORLD MIL FORUM > CHINESE EXPERT QU XING: IT IS ALL BUT ABSOLUTELY IMPOSSIBLE FOR THE US TO SUPPORT THE PHILIPPINES AGZ CHINA OVER HUNAGYAN ISLAND [Scarborough Shoal, PHIL = Panatag].
versus
* WORLD MIL FORUM > US ECONOMIST: CHINA TO DOMINATE THE WORLD IN 20 YEARS [Year 2030, or verys hortly thereafter].
Various Ratios and Trends, etc. say it will be so.
Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, head of Egypt's ruling military, has told parliament speaker Saad al-Katatni that he will reshuffle the government, the Muslim Brotherhood website said on Sunday.
"Field Marshal Tantawi tells Katatni said he will reshuffle the government in the coming hours," the site said.
The move came after the Islamist-dominated parliament decided to suspend sessions for a week in protest at the military refusing to sack the government and name the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) to head a new one.
A marathon election which ended in January saw Egypt's two main Islamist parties catapulted to the centre stage of politics, clinching nearly three quarters of the 498 seats in parliament. The FJP, political arm of the powerful Muslim Brotherhood, has been pressuring the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces ever since to sack the government and name it to lead a new cabinet.
But the SCAF, which took over when president Hosni Mubarak was ousted on February 11 last year after a popular uprising, has continued to back Prime Minister Kamal al-Ganzuri's government. Ganzuri was a minister under Mubarak and is accused by the Islamists of stalling the revolution.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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OTOH, anything or anyone that opposes the Muslim brotherhood has my tacit support. If it means Egypt in flames (or for that matter the whole middle east in flames - let them live out their medieval fantasies) I can't see how that would be our concern. It has far more upside than downside.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
04/30/2012 11:26
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With the first full month of campaigning about to conclude, the Partido Accion Nacional (PAN) presidential campaign of Josefina Vazquez Mota is showing all the signs of a campaign that has imploded. What the Instituto Federal Electoral (IFE) gave last week, PAN internal politics take away.
Troubled before it even began, the Vazquez Mota camp took some measures to counter those troubles, but waited two weeks after the start to try to bolster its position in the polls. Among the measures was adding several PAN stars to its lineup of advisers including former Mexican finance minister Ernesto Cordero, former Jalisco state governor Francisco Ramirez Acuña and current PAN president Gustavo Madero.
Accompanying those additional advisers was a series of negative campaign ads which accused Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) presidential candidate Enrique Pena Nieto of lying about his record while governor of Mexico state. The ads were greeted with accusations from PRI party leaders, such as PRI president Pedro Coldwell and Nuevo Leon governor Rogelio Medina de la Cruz as acts of desperation.
The ads were actually very mild and fact based. The IFE voted last week that the ads do not adversely affect democracy in Mexico, which wound up a huge win for Madero.
The one sure sign of the campaign's implosion came last week as a Durango senatorial candidate distanced himself from the attack ads, a sure sign of an internal and potentially disastrous revolt in the party.
But the most stunning sign was the announcement made last Thursday that Madero was to return to the senate, while continuing to serve as PAN president. Somehow, Madero had hoped to convince the Mexican press that he could run PAN, advise the Vazquez Mota campaign and be a senator, all at once.
Proceso, the leftist news weekly last week expressed its doubts, as have other Mexican writers that Madero is actually going to do all that. The hint now is that Madero exited the PAN presidency just before his replacement is found. No one in PAN nor the Comite Ejecutivo Nacional or National Executive Committee are talking about the news yet. As in everything else having to do with national politics, PAN is coming off in the press as weak and flat-footed in its politics. This is a very bad sign, not just for Vazquez Mota's campaign, but for its hopes in the Chamber of Deputies and in the senate as well.
A writer publishing an opinion piece entitled "Josifina's Boat" last Saturday in El Siglo de Durango news daily put PAN's problems most succinctly:
The keel of the vessel is attached to the bottom, rudder strokes are of little use. They need high tide (perhaps "a miracle" as Fox puts it) because they do not move, but the boat is "leaky." The sailors jump ship, either by choice or by orders of the port.
The reference to Fox is former president Vicente Fox, who in the first days of the campaign said the Vazquez Mota would need a miracle to defeat Pena Nieto.
That barb didn't prevent PAN from a very public display of affection as well as unity when Vazquez Mota received a hug and a kiss from Fox last week, who later declined to aid her campaign. The display was so genuine that Madero could not forebear but to protest the affection Fox displayed was real.
But it is the affection that Mexican president Felipe Calderon Hinojosa has for the Vazquez Mota campaign that could be the most telling of all. While Calderon, by virtue of his post as president is not allowed to conduct a campaign on behalf of Vazquez Mota, giving a campaign advisor, Ramirez Acuña, an ambassadorship in Spain in the midst of an election campaign of an ally is a most telling sign of his disdain for Vazquez Mota.
Vazquez Mota was not Calderon's first choice for president. It was Cordero, but Vazquez Mota had the support of Madero throughout her campaign and in fact defeated him and Santiago Creel. a former interior minister under Vicente Fox, and cousin to Madero.
Meanwhile leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador filed his complaint against the campaign of Pena Nieto, charging he had evidence the campaign overspent their IFE imposed limit. The amount overspent is a reportedly MX $39 million (USD $3,008,284.50).
Lopez Obrador was told at the time the IFE would rule on the case after the July 1st election.
It was not all bad news, as a poll by the Reforma news daily released midweek put Lopez Obrador three percentage points ahead of Vazquez Mota. But the bad news is that both Vazquez Mota and Lopez Obrador are still 20 percentage points behind Pena Nieto, where they have been from the start.
Last week, Pena Nieto spoke to farmers in Tlaxcala state and government workers in Puebla state where he promised additional federal support for municipalities.
Said Pena Nieto: "...my interest is to establish a very strong strategic alliance with all local governments, with state governments bringing resources and effort..."
Understanding the nature of Mexican federalism, his promise had more the tone of a threat.
In Mexico state, his home state, Pena Nieto promised to start an unemployment insurance program.
In Guerrero state Vazquez Mota promised to rescue Guerrerans from kidnapping and murder, promising to be not only the president of education, but also of peace. In Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, she promised to improve government support for tourism.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
Assailants attacked demonstrators gathered outside the Defense Ministry in Egypts capital to call for an end to military rule with rocks and firebombs, killing one protester and wounding 30, security officials said on Sunday.
They said the clashes broke out late Saturday when the unidentified assailants set upon the protesters, also hurling fireworks and empty glass bottles. Neither army troops or police attempted to stop the three-hour street battle, witnesses said. They also reported hearing gunshots.
The officials said the dead protester was a supporter of ultraconservative politician Hazem Salah Abu Ismail. Many of those outside the ministry were Abu Ismail supporters angered by his disqualification from running in next months presidential election. He was thrown out of the race because officials ruled his late mother had dual Egyptian-U.S. citizenship in violation of eligibility rules.
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The Islamic jihad movement will hold elections for a new leadership for the first time since it was established in the 80s, London newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat reported. The elections will be held in the next few weeks in the same method the Fatah and Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, movements held their elections.
According to the report, the main reason for the election announcement is serious arguments between the movement's leaders in Gazoo over general policies, relations with Hamas and Fatah and "resistance" to Israel.
KHARTOUM/JUBA: Sudan said it had arrested a Briton, a Norwegian and a South African on Saturday, accusing them of illegally entering a disputed oil-producing border area to spy for its enemy South Sudan.
South Sudanese officials denied the allegations and said the men were working with the United Nations and aid groups clearing mines and had got lost in the remote territory close to the boundary between the two countries.
The real problem for these fellows is the ownership of the mines they were clearing. That's why they were nabbed and taken to Khartoum. If they had been clearing certain other mines they would have been nabbed and taken to Juba. It's simple, really...
Sudanese army spokesman Al-Sawarmi Khaled said the three were arrested in Heglig - the scene of recent fighting between Sudan and South Sudan - traveling with a South Sudanese soldier in vehicles carrying military equipment.
It is now confirmed without any doubt that South Sudan used the help of foreigners in their attack on Heglig. These foreigners were doing military work such as spying out the areas ... They had military equipment ... They have a military background, Sawarmi said.
The group had been flown to Khartoum, he added.
A Reuters witness saw four men arriving on a civilian plane at Khartoums military airport.
One of the men, a Westerner, was wearing a t-shirt marked with the slogan Norwegian Peoples Aid. Mine Action South Africa. Reporters were not allowed to talk to the men who were swiftly driven away in an unmarked white van.
South Sudanese Information Minister Barnaba Benjamin dismissed the Sudanese account as nonsense, telling Reuters the men were workers for aid groups and the United Nations and had been clearing mines.
Again, that was precisely the problem...
South Sudans army spokesman Philip Aguer said military sources had told him a UN truck had got lost after leaving Paryang, just north of Bentiu, the capital of South Sudans Unity state, and was caught by the Sudanese Armed Forces.
Britains Foreign Office in London confirmed the Britons arrest and Norwegian Peoples Aid (NPA) South Sudan director Jan Ledang said one of its staff members had been detained.
We are trying to confirm the nationalities of the three and the aim and motivation of the three, Norways ambassador to Sudan, Jens-Petter Kjemprud, told Reuters.
MECHEM, a demining company and an arm of South Africas state arms company, Denel, said two of its employees, a South African and a South Sudanese, were arrested along with a United Nations employee.
We are working on a UN demining contract and our employees have full UN immunity, MECHEMs chief executive officer, Ashley Williams, said in a statement e-mailed to Reuters.
The United Nations mission in South Sudan said one of its officials had been taken to Khartoum with three other men, without going into further detail.
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A Turkish friend of mine who has lived in the United States for many years once told me an amusing experience of hers. After more than a decade in the land of freedom, she came back to Istanbul for a few weeks. While strolling the streets, she inadvertently smiled at people with whom she came face to face. In return, though, she did not get the polite response that she was used to. Instead, the women she smiled at looked surprised, and worse, the men she smiled at looked aroused.
"I realized that those men took my smile as a sexual hint," my friend told me. "One of them even began to follow me in a very excited mood!"
Soon, my friend wisely adapted to the Turkish manners: In this country, you don't smile at strangers. You simply look the other way, and, if you come eye to eye, you try to look tough.
For a while, and as a sociologist-wannabe, I have been wondering why this is the case. Gradually, I have become convinced that this no-smile attitude tells us a lot about the nature of Turkish society: As surveys also prove, this is one of the places on earth in which people trust each other the least. Hence, they can easily see other members of society as potential threats or even enemies.
But why? Are Turks inherently rude, antisocial or nasty people?
Not really. Quite the contrary, Turks are famous for their hospitality and generosity, and they are also known to be very loyal to their friends.
But there is a catch here: Turks are very good to people that they know well, such as their family and kin. Yet, for the people with whom they are less familiar, their attitude dramatically changes. In other words, if they see a familiar face on the street, they go out of their way to show affection. For unfamiliar faces, however, they have nothing but suspicion.
This social reality of Turkey seems to tell us a lot about the nature of its politics as well: Here, every political camp is filled with contempt and paranoia for the other camps. (In the 1970s, this led the country to near civil war; luckily, there is much less violence today.) In political arguments, sides blame each other for being not only wrong and misguided, but also treacherous and devious. Quite amusingly, pundits in every political camp argue that the opposing camp serves some evil foreign power that is cooking up malicious plans against the beloved homeland. They are bitterly opposed, in other words, without realizing how similar they are.
But then again, why? Why so much distrust and hate?
My short answer to this big question is that, first, Turkey is a "transitional society," one that is in the critical middle of a long transformation from a traditional (rural, agrarian and communal) to a modern (urban, technical, and societal) nation. So, traditional mores are eroding, whereas new ones are not fully matured. (Your grandfather knew how to say "salamun alaikum" to his familiar neighbors; you don't know what to do with all those unknown individuals in colossal cities.)
Secondly, the brutal authoritarianism of the Turkish state has made matters much worse, by constantly suppressing large segments of society and explaining away every trouble in the country as the product of "enemies within and without." While most Kemalists still believe in that lunacy, the conservatives who oppose them seem to have taken their share as well.
So, is there no hope for the future?
No, there is. In fact, things are much better now than they were a few decades ago. Moreover, they will probably improve as democracy brings more openness, and free market capitalism breaks communitarian barriers. In a few decades, therefore, I think you will see more Turks with a smiling face.
#1
Sounds like yet another example of the medievalism of the Muslim world mentioned in the other post. With the defeat of the non-sectarian Kemalists Turkey seems to be moving back into the sectarian, tribal and ethnic divisions that Ataturk tried to wean the country from.
#2
Turks are very good to people that they know well, such as their family and kin. Yet, for the people with whom they are less familiar, their attitude dramatically changes. In other words, if they see a familiar face on the street, they go out of their way to show affection. For unfamiliar faces, however, they have nothing but suspicion.
Big deal. you can say the same thing about the Northeast US.
The wife of an imprisoned Bahraini activist and hunger striker said he was being drugged and force-fed, but officials denied the accusations, saying the man had agreed to receive medical treatment.
Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, one of 14 men sent to jail on charges of leading an uprising there last year, has been fasting for more than two months.
After her first visit to her husband in two weeks, Khadija al-Mousawi said, "I went to see my husband today and he told me that he was drugged last Monday. After he woke up he found two IV (intravenous) injections in his arms and a feeding-tube down his nose. It was done against his will."
In an e-mailed statement, Bahrain's Defence Forces Hospital said, "We want to be clear that the patient has not been force-fed or treated against his will. He has been taking limited nutrition supplements voluntarily, but when his blood sugar dropped significantly today, his doctors asked for and received his consent to insert a naso-gastric tube for nutrition. At no time was he drugged or restrained."
Abdulhadi al-Khawaja's wife said a doctor had told her husband it was his duty to begin force-feeding, but her husband saw the act as a violation of his rights. She said, "My husband told them he will only accept (the intravenous feeding) until his trial on Monday and depending on the outcome will decide what to do next."
Abdulhadi al-Khawaja was given a life sentence for demanding the creation of a republic. An appeal hearing is to be held this week in the case of Khawaja and 13 others jailed for their role last year's protests.
KHARTOUM/MOSCOW: Sudan declared a state of emergency along its border with South Sudan yesterdday, in a move that imposes a trade embargo on the South and suspends the constitution, official news agency SUNA said.
It's certainly an emergency to them...
President Omar Bashir issued a resolution declaring the emergency in the border states of South Kordofan, White Nile and Sennar, it said. The measure follows a month of border fighting with South Sudan, which separated last July after a peace deal ended one of Africa's longest civil wars.
An emergency has already been in effect for almost a decade in Darfur, along the western border with South Sudan, while a similar status took effect in Blue Nile state last September when an ethnic insurgency began.
Trade across the frontier has unofficially been banned since South Sudan's independence but the emergency formalizes that prohibition. Bashirs resolution "gives the right to the president and anyone with his mandate" to establish special courts, in consultation with the chief justice, SUNA said.
This means South Sudan needs to build a pipeline to the Indian Ocean via Kenya. Start talking...
The measures come amid heightened nationalist feelings in Sudan after South Sudan occupied the north's main Heglig oil field for 10 days, a move which coincided with Sudanese air strikes against the South. It was the most serious fighting since the South's independence, and raised fears of a wider war.
Sudan declared on April 20 that its troops had forced the Southern soldiers out of Heglig, but the South said it withdrew of its own accord. During the Heglig occupation Bashir threatened to overthrow South Sudan's "insect" government.
Separately, Sudan's foreign minister meets his Russian counterpart today in hopes of securing the traditional ally's backing in its bloody territorial and oil dispute with the newly independent South.
In return Russia gets the oil concession. Nice...
The talks follow Sudan's rejection on Saturday of an African Union decision to ask the UN Security Council to endorse its call for the two Sudans to quickly halt hostilities and complete a peace pact within three months.Russia, which wields veto power on the Security Council, generally resists any sanctions against sides involved in regional or internal conflicts such as the one now raging in Syria.
But the United States submitted a draft resolution last week providing for additional steps that include sanctions should the two sides fail to abide by the African Union plan.
Analysts said Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali Karti will be keen to win his counterpart Sergei Lavov's support at the United Nations should the US resolution go to a vote.
"Russia will speak out against sanctions. It made its position clear quite a long time ago," said Greater Middle East Conflict Analysis Centre director Alexander Shumilin."But speaking out against sanctions does not necessarily mean vetoing them," he said in reference to Russia's possible abstention in a move that would let the sanctions pass.
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Ummmmmmmmm...what?
Wind farms can cause climate change, according to new research, that shows for the first time the new technology is already pushing up temperatures.
Usually at night the air closer to the ground becomes colder when the sun goes down and the earth cools.But on huge wind farms the motion of the turbines mixes the air higher in the atmosphere that is warmer, pushing up the overall temperature.
Satellite data over a large area in Texas, that is now covered by four of the world's largest wind farms, found that over a decade the local temperature went up by almost 1C as more turbines are built. This could have long term effects on wildlife living in the immediate areas of larger wind farms. It could also affect regional weather patterns as warmer areas affect the formation of cloud and even wind speeds.
Liming Zhou, Research Associate Professor at the Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences at the University of New York, who led the study, said further research is needed into the affect of the new technology on the wider environment. Johnson! Where's that grant paperwork!
Got it right here, doc...
"Wind energy is among the worlds fastest growing sources of energy. The US wind industry has experienced a remarkably rapid expansion of capacity in recent years, he said. While converting winds kinetic energy into electricity, wind turbines modify surface-atmosphere exchanges and transfer of energy, momentum, mass and moisture within the atmosphere. These changes, if spatially large enough, might have noticeable impacts on local to regional weather and climate.
The study, published in Nature, found a significant warming trend of up to 0.72C (1.37F) per decade, particularly at night-time, over wind farms relative to near-by non-wind-farm regions. The team studied satellite data showing land surface temperature in west-central Texas.
The spatial pattern of the warming resembles the geographic distribution of wind turbines and the year-to-year land surface temperature over wind farms shows a persistent upward trend from 2003 to 2011, consistent with the increasing number of operational wind turbines with time, said Prof Zhou. However he pointed out the most extreme changes were just at night and the overall changes may be smaller.
Also, it is much smaller than the estimated change caused by other factors such as man made global warming. Phew! Thank God for that. The Gravy Train rolls on!
Overall, the warming effect reported in this study is local and is small compared to the strong background year-to-year land surface temperature changes, he added.
#2
So does this mean that UW sea turbines will be causing sea levels to rise???
No worries, JosephM. The sea turbines work by capillary action, so the risen sea water will just fall back into the sea when it reaches the top, with no net impact. ;-)
#3
So does this mean that UW sea turbines will be causing sea levels to rise???
No Joe. They will just sit there until all the government grant money is used up. Then it will just rust away.
#4
But.. but... rust promotes algae growth which eats up C02 in the planet's air sequestering it in the sea. That cools the planet and promotes ice ages.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
04/30/2012 7:38
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#5
So does this mean that UW sea turbines will be causing sea levels to rise???
Nah, we'll just pump the extra water over the side of the earth and down to the other side.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/30/2012 8:02
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#6
Those darn unintended consequences really bite ya in the ass every time, don't they?
#8
Bring 'em on! It will reduce the need for polluting coal to heat northern homes and keep the snowbirds home, reducing the glut of elderly drivers on the golf courses of Florida.
#9
this is all based on a misreading of the physics;
yes, the wind farms cause a very localized redistribution of temperature in the vertical and, on the coldest winter nights, it causes a small increase in the temperature at the surface and small decrease in the temperature at the elevation of the wind blades again for the same localized area
this has been known for decades and used by some farmers to reduce frost damage
.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
04/30/2012 14:31
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#10
>this is all based on a misreading of the physics
The whole of AGW seems to be, so why should it stop us having a laugh.
VIENNA: Libyas former top oil industry official, Shokri Ghanem, has died in Austria of an apparent heart attack, the foreign ministry in Vienna said on Sunday.
Your call: arsenic poisoning or acute cirrhosis?
Ghanem, 69, had been chairman of Libyas state-owned National Oil Corporation (NOC) before defecting last June during the uprising that toppled leader Muammar Qaddafi.
As NOC chairman since 2006, Ghanem helped steer the countrys oil policy and held the high-profile job of representing Libya at OPEC meetings. He defected in Rome, citing daily bloodshed, and was believed to have been living in Europe since then.
Perhaps he knew too many account numbers...
Asked about rumors that Ghanem had died of arsenic poisoningacute cirrhosis a heart attack in Austria, a foreign ministry spokesman said: We have been able to confirm that it is true.
The spokesman said he could not give any more details.
"I can say no more! Please don't kill me!"
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#1
At age 69, heart attack sounds plausible.. Or suicide after having lost your career, home country, and patron.
Posted by: American Delight ||
04/30/2012 7:41
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The BBC adds: Former Libyan oil minister Shukri Ghanem died by drowning, according to preliminary post-mortem results in Austria.
Mr Ghanem's body was found in the River Danube in Vienna on Sunday.
A police spokesman, Roland Hahslinger, said there appeared to be no outside involvement and there were no indications to suggest suicide.
PARIS: French President Nicolas Sarkozy challenged former IMF boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn on Saturday to take legal action over his allegation that political enemies scuppered his presidential bid last year by ensuring his sexual encounter with a New York maid was made public.
Strauss-Kahn, who was the runaway favorite for the Socialist partys presidential nomination before his arrest last May on sexual abuse charges, told Londons Guardian newspaper he was convinced his political downfall was choreographed by his political enemies.
The Guardians website said that while Strauss-Kahn does not believe his opponents set up the encounter with hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo, he believes operatives linked to Sarkozy played a role in making sure that she went to the police, sparking a major international scandal.
I say to Mr.Strauss-Kahn, explain yourself with judicial authorities and spare the French people your comments, Sarkozy told a rally in the central French town of Clermont-Ferrand ahead of next weekends presidential second round.
In the midst of an electoral campaign, Mr.Strauss-Kahn starts to give morality lessons and indicate that I am the one responsible for what happened to him, its too much!
Amid frustration at economic stagnation and with unemployment running at a 12-year high, Sarkozy trails his Socialist rival Francois Hollande by around 10 percentage points in opinion polls.
Strauss-Kahns dramatic arrest last May as he boarded a plane bound for Europe shattered his hopes of winning the presidency and forced his resignation from the IMF days later.
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Keith Olbermann apparently didn't take too kindly to Jimmy Kimmel's ribbing of him during the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner Saturday, hitting back at the comedian's digs afterward on Twitter. Kimmel's emceeing a Big Shot dinner with the President of the United States and every celebrity in America and Olbermann's on...Twitter.
Winner: Kimmel
Kimmel had joked that he'd "like everyone to look under your seats, under each one you will find a copy of Keith Olbermann's resume." Who says it was a joke?
"Is Keith here tonight? Limo wouldn't pick him up?" Kimmel asked -- a reference to the former Current TV host's reported complaints about his drivers. He's a busy man. I think one of the wheels on the shopping cart he uses to collect empties broke and he had to get it fixed.
"The thing about Keith Olbermann is, he's so likeable. Al Gore launched Current TV in 2005 and it took off like a North Korean rocket. To be honest I didn't even know Current TV was still on the air, but then I don't get channel 1,000,000." That's why I've never seen it...
In response, Olbermann tweeted: "Funny that Jimmy Kimmel ripped me after his people desperately wanted me to fly to LA to be on his show this past Wednesday." Ummmmmmmm...why?
He added minutes later, "I'm not complaining about the Kimmel jokes -- I'm fair game. I'm complaining about the revenge element. It reminds me of O'Reilly." Yeah, but they're both working. So what's next, Keith? Greeter at the homeless shelter? It'll cover your room and board.
At least five Taliban bully boyz were killed and 21 others were captured in joint Afghan, 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... security troops' operations in the past 24 hours, the Afghan Ministry of Interior (MoI) said Sunday.
The operations were launched in Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. , Kunar, Kapisa, Kandahar, Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... , Khost, Ghazni, Pashtun-infested Logar, Zabul and Farah provinces to clear areas of turbans, the MoI said in a statement.
During the operation, the security forces also seized weapons and defused 14 anti-vehicle mines, the statement said.
It did not mention whether there were any casualties among the Afghan or coalition security forces.
#1
TW- The "pulling in different directions..." is the part of the NATO Mission Statement that has always bothered me...
It's a prioritization and leadership thingie. -cz-
[An Nahar] Major General Robert Mood, head of the U.N. observer mission in Syria, called on all sides to "stop the violence" upon his arrival in Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... on Sunday.
"To achieve the success of the 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... plan, I call on all sides to stop violence and help us continue the cessation of armed violence," Mood told news hounds.
"We will work for the full implementation of the six-point Annan plan which the Syrian government agreed to. To achieve this, we now have 30 monitors on the ground, and in the coming days we will double this figure," he said, adding that the number would "rapidly" increase to 300.
The veteran Norwegian peacekeeper's arrival came as at least eight people were killed in violence across Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
A putative truce, which technically came into effect on April 12, has taken a daily battering.
The European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... on Friday expressed extreme concern about the persistent bloodshed in Syria, which has killed more than 9,000 people since March 2011, according to U.N. estimates.
Also on Friday, Amnesia Amnesty International said it had received the names of 362 people reportedly killed in Syria since the U.N. observers first deployed on April 16 to monitor the peace deal.
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[Dawn] Syria has derided UN chief the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... as biased and called his comments "outrageous" after he blamed the regime for widespread cease-fire violations, the latest sign of trouble for an international peace plan many expect to fail.
In new fighting Saturday, activists said regime forces battled army defectors near Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Supressor of the Damascenes... 's summer palace in a coastal village and shelled a Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... suburb in pursuit of gunnies. State media said government troops foiled an attempt by gunnies in rubber boats to land on Syria's coast, the first reported attempt by rebels to infiltrate from the sea.
The regime's verbal attack on the UN secretary general raised new concerns that Assad is playing for time to avoid compliance with a plan that could eventually force him out of office.
Under special 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... 's six-point road map, a cease-fire is to be followed by the deployment of as many as 300 UN truce monitors and talks between Assad and the opposition on Syria's political future. The head of the observer team, Norwegian Maj Gen. Robert Mood, is to arrive in Damascus on Sunday to assume command, said front man Neeraj Singh.
Annan's April 12 cease-fire deadline has been widely ignored. The regime continues to attack opposition strongholds, while rebel fighters keep targeting security forces with roadside kabooms and shooting ambushes. Defying a major truce provision, the Syrian military failed to withdraw tanks and soldiers from the streets.
Ban and Annan have cited violations by both sides, but generally portrayed the regime as the main aggressor. On Friday, Ban said Syria's repression of civilians reached an "intolerable stage" and demanded that the regime "live up to its promises to the world." His comments came just hours after a suicide kaboom the regime blamed on anti-government "terrorists" killed 10 people in Damascus.
An editorial Saturday in the state-run Tishrin newspaper said Ban has avoided discussing rebel violence in favor of "outrageous" statements against the Syrian government. The editorial said the international community has applied a double standard, ignoring "crimes and terrorist acts" against Syria and thus encouraging more violence, according to excerpts carried by the state-run news agency ...and if you can't believe the state-run news agency who can you believe?... Sana.
Mass protests against Assad erupted in March 2011, but gradually turned into an insurgency in response to a violent regime crackdown. Assad's regime denies it faces a popular uprising, claiming it is being targeted by a foreign-led terrorist conspiracy.
Saturday's comments were the regime's harshest against the UN since Syria announced last month it would abide by the Annan plan. The Syrian opposition and its Western backers argue Assad is not sincere and just buying time to consolidate his hold on Syria.
The regime "wants to make the UN a party to the conflict, rather than a mediator, and to stretch out the process to prevent any kind of serious change," Rami Khoury, an analyst at the American University of Beirut, said of Saturday's editorial.
However, a person who gets all wrapped up in himself makes a mighty small package... the regime and its supporters argue that the world intentionally ignores rebel cease-fire violations, such as assassinations of security officials, said Peter Harling of the International Crisis Group think tank who has traveled in Syria.
"In the regime's narrative, its use of force is only a reaction to such assaults," he said. "Officials and sympathizers cling to the idea that they are fighting a legitimate struggle against a fifth column of beturbanned goons."
Russia, Syria's main ally, repeatedly has demanded that more attention be paid to rebel violations of the Annan plan.
In fighting Saturday, government troops exchanged fire with about 30 soldiers after they defected at a military base near Assad's summer palace in the coastal village of Burj Islam, according to Syria-based activist Mustafa Osso and the Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group.
The shooting, described as intense, lasted for 15 to 30 minutes, the activists said.
Syrian troops also intercepted gunnies trying to land on the Syrian coast in rubber boats, the Syrian news agency said. The agency said the navy forced the boats to flee, but some Syrian service members were killed or maimed. The battle took place 30 to 35 kilometers from the Turkish border, Sana said.
Syrian authorities have said in the past that they clashed with rebels trying to cross from neighboring Leb or Turkey.
In Leb, authorities confiscated weapons found aboard a ship intercepted off the Lebanese coast and jugged 11 crew members.
The ship reportedly sailed from Libya and stopped in Egypt and the port of Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of thich is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... , Leb, en route to Syria. Lebanese media reported that the weapons were intended for Syrian rebels.
The Lebanese army said the "Lutfallah II" carried a Sierra Leone flag and had three containers filled with "large amounts of weapons and ammunition" on board.
[An Nahar] An Islamist group calling itself Al-Nusra Front has grabbed credit on the Internet for a deadly suicide kaboom in Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... this week, the SITE Monitoring Service said on Sunday.
Al-Nusra Front named the bomber as Abu Omar al-Shami, and said he detonated his payload when members of the Syrian security forces who had assembled for Friday prayers in the Midan neighborhood had peaked to 150.
The U.S.-based SITE, which tracks jihadi websites, said the Islamist group posted its claim on the Shumoukh al-Islam site which is generally used by al-Qaeda for posting its statements.
The Front said the attack was carried out at a place where Syrian security members had gathered to pray, and not next to the Zein al-Abidin mosque as reported by official media.
Syrian state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
reported that 11 people were killed and 28 maimed in the suicide kaboom, and broadcast footage of the scene filled with smoke and people shouting as they ran.
Anti-regime activists accused the authorities of staging the bombing.
The Al-Nusra Front had previously claimed the February 12 twin bombings in Syria's northern city of Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... and the January 6 bombing in Damascus, SITE said.
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Al-Qaeda on Sunday freed dozens of Yemeni soldiers they captured during battles with the army in the southern province of Abyan, most of which is held by the jihadists, a provincial official said.
Why would they do that, if they had the upper hand?
"Al-Qaeda has released 73 soldiers they seized in the south in early March," said the official in the militant stronghold of Jaar. The soldiers were "driven in two buses from Jaar to Aden," the main southern city, the official said, adding that religious and tribal mediators had secured their release.
On March 4, militants from the Yemeni-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, fighting under the banner of the Partisans of Sharia (Islamic law), attacked an army camp near the provincial capital Zinjibar, killing 185 soldiers and capturing scores.
In a statement claiming responsibility for the assault, Al-Qaeda said it was holding 73 soldiers. The announcement of their release came as rumours circulated the soldiers might be executed.
The Partisans of Sharia have expanded their control over Yemen's lawless southern and eastern provinces, taking advantage of a weakened central government in Sanaa and months of political upheaval.
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A class on conflict resolution that was set to be given by an Israeli lecturer in Manchester next week was canceled by the British National Health Service, after trade union members who were supposed to take part in the class objected to participating in a workshop with an Israeli expert.
Moty Cristal, an Israeli expert on negotiating skills and crisis-management, was to have taught a class as part of a workshop for health-trust managers and union officials. He has worked in the past with Palestinian groups and human-rights organizations, and has lectured on numerous occasions in Britain, including a lecture to the Muslim Council of Britain.
Despite all this, he received an e-mail on Friday from Manchester Mental Trust chief executive saying that his expertise was no longer required, following pressure by members of UNISON, Britain's largest trade union, which represents 1.3 million public service workers. The message said the class was being canceled "on the grounds that it is [the union's] policy and also that of the Trades Union Council to support the Palestinian people."
The Israeli Embassy in London said in response that "the cancelation of a private expert simply due to his citizenship or ethnic identity is a racist policy in every way. What is even more shameful is the fact this was supposed to be an NHS-sponsored workshop dealing, ironically, with negotiating and conflict resolution. It seems that those who canceled it are in urgent need of such training."
[Dawn] The beheaded body of a kidnapped British doctor working for the International Committee of the Red Thingy was found by the roadside on Sunday in Quetta, police and Red Thingy officials said.
Khalil Rasjed Dale, 60, was kidnapped by suspected hard boyz on Jan 5 while on his way home from work.
"The ICRC condemns in the strongest possible terms this barbaric act," ICRC Director-General Yves Daccord said in a statement. "All of us at the ICRC and at the British Red Thingy share the grief and outrage of Khalil's family and friends."
British Foreign Secretary William Hague also condemned the killing.
"This was a senseless and cruel act, targeting someone whose role was to help the people of Pakistain, and causing immeasurable pain to those who knew Mr Dale," Hague said in the statement.
The foreign office has promised to hold the killers accountable.
"The Government of Pakistain condemns this barbaric act in the strongest terms and is determined to bring the perpetrators of this heinous crime to justice," a statement from the Foreign Office said.
"Pakistain is committed to combat terrorism and the death of Mr Dale has only strengthened our resolve to eliminate this scourge," it added. Really? When did that happen? Was it in the papers?
A senior police officer said the Pak Taliban had grabbed credit for the killing, saying a ransom had not been paid.
Police discovered Dale wrapped in plastic near a western bypass road. His name was written on the white plastic bag with black marker.
"A sharp knife was used to sever his head from the body," said Safdar Hussain, the first doctor to examine the body. "He was killed about 12 hours ago."
Dale is only the third Westerner killed in such a fashion in Pakistain. The others include Wall Street Journal news hound Daniel Pearl in 2002 and Piotr Stanczak, a Polish geologist, in 2009.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
You get no thanks for helping muslims.You are a Kuffr/infidel at the end of the day and must be killed as taught in the holy Koran.
Please note he was a convert too and they still beheaded him!
Twenty-seven Orcs and similar vermin were killed, including commanders, during two operations in Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... province launched by Afghan special forces, Ministry of Interior (MoI) said Sunday.
Of those killed, seven were found to be citizens of Pakistain and Soddy Arabia, MoI front man Sediq Sediqqi said.
The operation in two districts landed a severe hit against the Taliban, Sediqqi said.
"Our special police were able to give the biggest blow to the Taliban," he said.
"The operations were launched in Fulad area of the Washir district and the Hyderabad area of the Grishik district in Helmand province in which 27 Taliban were killed and three others were jugged."
During the operations the Afghan special police also seized many weapons, he added.
He did not say if there were any casualties on the part of the Afghan special forces, nor if there were any Isaf soldiers involved in the operations.
[Dawn] Three Orcs and similar vermin were killed and two others maimed in a dronezap in Pakistain's restive tribal region near the Afghan border on Sunday, security officials said.
The drone fired two missiles targeting a jihad boy compound in Miranshah ... headquarters of al-Qaeda in Pakistain and likely location of Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Haqqani network has established a ministate in centered on the town with courts, tax offices and lots of madrassas... , the main town in North Wazoo, known as a stronghold of Taliban and al Qaeda-linked jihad boys, they said.
This was the first drone strike since the parliament last month approved new guidelines on relations with the United States, which included a ban on transporting weapons through the country to Afghanistan.
"A US drone fired two missiles on a compound, killing three Orcs and similar vermin and wounding two others," a security bigshot told AFP.
He said that the compound in the market area of Miranshah was once a girls' school that was occupied by the jihad boys.
Another security official, who confirmed the toll, said the compound was used mainly by Uzbek and Tajik jihad boys.
So nobody cares what happens to them.
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#1
Yesterday this attack was reported to have killed four, not three. One of them 'got better?' Or they have poor math skills? Or they figured there had to be more than three dead to account for all the pieces and parts?
Iraq will receive the first 24 of 36 F-16 fighter jets it has ordered from the United States at the beginning of 2014, a senior official told Reuters on Sunday.
Under deposed dictator Saddam Hussein, Iraqs air force was one of the largest in the region with hundreds of mainly Soviet-designed jets. Its military was disbanded after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Last July, Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki doubled the number of warplanes Iraq had initially planned to buy to strengthen an air force neglected during a protracted period when the country relied on U.S. air support.
Iskander Witwit, the deputy head of parliaments security and defence committee, said that the first 24 planes would make up two air force squadrons.
Iraq intends to have equipment which is more developed than neighboring countries have. Small neighboring countries like Kuwait even have five squadrons, Witwit said.
Iraq would be in the market for more planes in the future, Witwit said. Pilots are already training to fly the new F-16s.
Wonder if they'll hold an open competition or whether the fix is in?
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/30/2012
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A portable meth lab exploded in an Oklahoma man's pants Friday during a scuffle with a state trooper. Talk about Hot Pursuit!
David Williams ran from a police officer who noticed a chemical smell as he was issuing a speeding ticket to the driver of the SUV that Williams was a passenger in, KOTV reported. "It's just a new cologne, Officer"
The officer caught up with Williams and in the ensuing struggle, an "active meth lab" he had been hiding in his pants burst, Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper Shiloh Hall told the station. Exploding pants. Now where have I heard that before?
Police closed 221st Street in Okmulgee County, about 90 miles east of Oklahoma City, to clean up the scene. Hazardus chemical release. Gotta get the HAZMAT team. That stuff is dangerous. Bugwits. Sounds like the "shake-n-bake" recipe I've been hearing so much about during the news hour on LameStreamMedia-TV. All you need is pseudoephed, a plastic one-liter soda bottle and a couple of other things. Thanks to local newscasters everywhere for spreading awareness of this cheap and easy process! Of course, there is always the potential of uncontrolled explosions when doing the "shake" but so what?
Although meth was dripping down Williams' leg, he was uninjured. He was arrested on a complaint of manufacturing a controlled and dangerous substance. Are they certain he didn't piss his pants? Gotta put out the fire, dontcha know.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/30/2012
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In a bare concrete room in a far-flung corner of Central African Republic, U.S. special forces and Ugandan soldiers map out the hunt for one of Africa's most wanted rebel leaders hiding in an area the size of California.
The building belonged to the town of Obo's doctor until he was murdered last year by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) while transporting medicines by road. Now it serves as an operational centre in one of America's latest military ventures in Africa.
"(The) focus is the removal of Joseph Kony and senior Lord's Resistance Army leadership from the battlefield," said Captain Ken Wright, a navy SEAL in command of the roughly 100-strong force which deployed in October.
The troops are armed but do not patrol the surrounding forests and are allowed to engage the LRA only in self-defence. Instead, their focus is on improving intelligence on LRA positions gathered both electronically and from tip-offs. By meshing stories from hunters and nomadic cattle herders of encounters with the rebels together with sophisticated surveillance imagery, allied forces chart suspected rebel activity and coordinate the regional armies' pursuit of Kony.
"You look at patterns to see where LRA might be moving, historic areas where they might operate, so we can predict where they're going and try and head them off and most effectively use the forces on the ground," Captain Gregory, a 29-year-old Texan hidden behind sunglasses and a wide brimmed hat told Reuters.
For many of the U.S. troops who have recently served in Afghanistan and Iraq, the humid jungles of central Africa are unfamiliar territory. Their deployment raised expectations locally that U.S. drones would be unearthing Kony. They are not, and this hostile environment is throwing up unforeseen challenges. "Some of the gear we have here is affected by the vegetation ... and acts differently from in the desert. "Vegetation absorbs signals and sounds," said Gregory.
U.S. military officials are reluctant to bet on if and when they might snare Kony. "The global effort to try to find Osama bin Laden took 10 years with an extraordinary level of effort ... the highest priority for the international intelligence community, and it still took 10 years to find him," General Carter Ham, commander of the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) told a media briefing in Germany ahead of the tightly controlled trip."So this is a tough mission."
#1
LRA and Kony - why are we spending money chasing them? Sure, they are a-holes, but 3rd world a-holes are a dime a dozen, and there are surely better targets out there than this bunch. Which Obama contributor/controller makes money from this? Is there a way Soros can make a buck from it?
#2
Or is this an excuse to tune up jungle fighting for stabilization ops in Venezuela once Oogo collapses and his Iranian IRG "guests" turn into fair game?
#6
Terrorist? Yes. International? Not really. Very minor as far as his ability to be a terrorist any place outside his tribal area.
The more I look at this, the more I think it was na Obama sop thrown to the do-gooder liberals, and SOCOM decided it would be as you guys indicated above: good jungle training, and an initial entry into the area as "good guys" (getting to know who you can and cannot trust).
As Walter Russell Mead notes, just another example of "the increasing polarization along Africas Christian-Muslim divide", though I'd call it a little more than a 'divide', I'd call it by its proper name, the "New(est) Christian-Muslim War in Africa".
NAIROBI: At least one person was killed when a grenade was thrown into a Nairobi church on Sunday, the latest in a series of attacks in Kenya since it sent troops into Somalia to try to crush Islamist militants blamed for cross-border raids and kidnappings.
Nairobi has correctly blamed Al-Shabab militants, who formally merged with Al-Qaeda earlier this year for the surge in violence that has threatened tourism in east Africas biggest economy and wider regional destabilization.
Police said it was too early to say who was behind the blast at the Gods House of Miracle Church, made of corrugated iron sheets and located in a busy market and residential area known as Ngara a few km (miles) away from downtown Nairobi.
Way too early, of course, to know which group of crazed Islamic killers done it...
Somebody must have come and lobbed a grenade into the church congregation that was by then going on, Moses Ombati, the Nairobi deputy police chief, said at the church. So far we have confirmed 16 (casualties), that is, one dead and 15 admitted to hospitals. Five are confirmed to be in critical condition.
The blast resembled two separate attacks at different bus stations and a bar in the capital that killed a total of 10 people and wounded many more last month and in October, a week after Kenyan troops swept into southern Somalia.
We have seen similar attacks before, where people throw grenades and run, deputy police spokesman Charles Owino said. These are not die-hards. They know they can safely throw a grenade and run away during the confusion, they know it will not kill (the attacker) and that they can get away without being seen.
In late March, one person was killed when a grenade was hurled at an open-air Christian gathering near the port city of Mombasa, a major tourist destination. Minutes later a grenade went off at a bar near Mombasas main stadium but no casualties were reported.
A grenade explosion at a Nairobi bus station earlier in March killed at least nine people and wounded 40. Four people were arrested but later freed pending further investigation.
There have been similar attacks near the border with Somalia since Kenyas military incursion.
Al Shabab has not claimed responsibility for the various attacks but in a statement a month ago said Kenyas security depended on its military activities in Somalia.
The more Kenyan troops continue to persecute innocent Muslims of Somalia, the less secure Kenyan cities will be; and the more oppression the Muslims of Somalia feel, the more constricted Kenyan life will be, it said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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[An Nahar] A French television journalist went missing in Colombia on Saturday following a leftist rebel attack on an army column that claimed four lives in the country's south, military officials said.
The news hound, identified as Romeo Langlois who works for La Belle France 24, was accompanying a military and police patrol in Caqueta province, where the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia FARC or FARC-EP, is either a Marxist-Leninist revolutionary guerrilla organization or a narco mob based in Colombia. It claims to represent the rural poor in a struggle against Colombia's wealthier classes, and opposes United States influence in Colombia, neo-imperialism, monopolization of natural resources by multinational corporations, and the usual raft of complaints. It funds itself principally through ransom kidnappings, taxation of the drug trade, extortion, shakedowns, and donations. It has lately begun calling itself Bolivarian and is greatly admired by Venezuela's President-for-Life Chavez, who seemingly fantasizes about living in the woods and kidnapping people himself. He provides FARC with safe areas along the border. (FARC) are active, the officials said.
Three soldiers and one police officer were killed in the attack and five others remain missing, the military officials said. The missing, in addition to the journalist, include four Colombian soldiers and one police officer.
"The French journalist was accompanying the army unit in the course of an anti-drug operation when the unit came under attack from FARC forces," said a French embassy official.
Colombian authorities have launched a search operation for the missing, the diplomat said.
The FARC has been at war with the Colombian government since 1964 and is believed to have some 9,000 fighters in mountainous and jungle areas, according to government estimates.
Their deadliest attack this year was committed last month when the rebels killed 11 soldiers in the town of Arauquita, near the border with Venezuela.
FARC leader Timoleon Jimenez earlier this month denied that proposed negotiations with the government imply the guerrillas intend to surrender any time soon.
The FARC leader said the rich-poor divide in Colombia needed to be one of the issues on the table for future talks.
Earlier this month, the FARC released the last 10 coppers and soldiers they were holding hostage.
But Olga Gomez, president of the Free Country Foundation, estimates that the FARC is still holding more than 400 civilians hostage. The FARC says the foundation's numbers are false and biased, but has released no figures of its own.
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According to a senior Turkish official, the Turkish-American bilateral relationship is enjoying a "golden era." "Despite some disagreements on certain issues, our cooperation with Washington is satisfactory; we understand each other's differences and concentrate on how we can further help each other to contribute to the regional and global peace," the official said.
Roughly speaking, there were two separate developments that made Ankara and Washington come closer in such an unprecedented way. The first, Turkey's acceptance of stationing NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... 's early warning radar system in its territories; the second, the stance it has taken regarding the Arab Spring, even from the very early days of this wave of reforms that has shaken the entire Arab World.
Turkey's joining of NATO's military operation against Libya's Muammar Qadaffy ... who is now deader than a rock... and leading the international community in both Egypt and Syria to topple their defiant tyrannical leaders were very positively received by the United States. Last but not least, a change in Turkey's language vis a vis Iran's nuclear program could also be added to this list. The two countries are also closely working in international efforts to stabilize Afghanistan.
Cementing economic and political ties with Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani ... hereditary head of the Kurdish Democratic Party, maybe a little too close to the Medes and the Persians for most people's tastes... in line with Washington's decade-old advice should also not be underestimated when citing reasons why the U.S. favors Turkey as a credible, regional ally.
Many recall how tense the dialogue was between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and U.S. President Barrack Obama at their June 2010 meeting in Toronto. "That meeting was the turning point," official remembered, "Obama was astonished to see an outspoken, self-confident leader who was very much capable of defending the causes he believed in, but apart from everything Erdoğan's honesty amazed him."
No doubt there is a good sense of dialogue between Obama-Erdoğan and Clinton-Davutoğlu, the two countries' foreign ministers.
Every good thing has an end though: presidential elections are looming and there is no guarantee that Obama will stay in power for another four years. "Not only Turkey, but the entire world should work for Obama," the official said on condition of anonymity. "This is very important for the world's peace."
In the event of the election of a Republican candidate, probably Mitt Romney ...whose real first name is actually, no kidding, Willard, was governor of Massachussetts and is currently the front-runner for president on the Publican ticket. He is the son of the former governor of Michigan, George Romney, who himself ran for president after saving American Motors from failure, though not permanently. Romney's foot is in an ideological bucket because of Romneycare, a state-level experiment that should have been a warning against Obamacare if anyone had been paying attention. Romney's charisma is best defined as soporific, which is probably why he is leading the Publican field... , a drastic change in Washington's foreign policy is very likely, away from Obama's non-interventionist multilateral understanding. For many, an Israeli attack against suspected Iranian nuclear sites would be much more likely in such an event, which would put Turkey into a very risky position as well. (It is also interesting to see the change: Traditional Turkish foreign policy always preferred a Republican president, an attitude which was challenged by George W. Bush.)
However, we can't all be heroes. Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by... under a Republican President, the real risk is on the bilateral scale. It is no secret that Republicans are very much annoyed with Ankara's growing relations with the Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,, its defending of Iran's nuclear program and its isolating of Israel and Armenia in the region. That's why these days Ankara is considering reaching out to some prominent and influential Republican groups to explain the government's policies in an explicit way.
#1
Debtors prisions are back!. I have very little faith in the Turks. When they work here they send most of their money back home. Family power groups.
#3
""Despite some disagreements on certain issues, our cooperation with Washington is satisfactory; we understand each other's differences and concentrate on how we can further help each other to contribute to the regional and global peace," the official said."
Translation from the Turkish: "He closes his eyes,puts his hands over his ears and goes 'la-la-la'"
#4
Well it was partially the shift from Turkey's secular government to one a bit more Islamic combined with a similar change in the US. No wonder the countries got along poorly during the transition but get along better now.
Egyptian security forces in Sinai placed in long-term storage 2 members of Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,'s military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Egyptian newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm reported on Sunday.
They were picked up by security forces while traveling in a taxi near a security checkpoint in Sinai.
The two suspects confessed to having crossed illegally into Egyptian territory through smuggling tunnels between the Gazoo Strip and Sinai, an Egyptian Interior Ministry source told the Egyptian newspaper. They were referred to the military prosecutor, he added.
The two Paleostinian men, Bassam Mahmoud, 34, and Haitham Ibrahim Shehta, 37, are from Ramallah in the West Bank, according to the report.
[An Nahar] At least eight people were killed in violence in Syria on Sunday, including four soldiers who died in a blast at a military center in the northern province of Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... , monitors said.
Two civilians were rubbed out by snipers in the district of Juret al-Shayah of the city of Homs, the symbol of revolt in central Syria and where two U.N. observers are permanently based, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The Observatory said that government forces killed one civilian and maimed three others in the central province of Hama.
Another civilian was killed by regime forces in the eastern city of Deir Ezzor, where authorities were reportedly conducting raids, the Britannia-based Observatory added.
The latest bloodshed comes as Norwegian General Robert Mood arrived in Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... on Sunday to take charge of the U.N. observer force.
On Saturday, violence across Syria left at least 32 dead, including 22 civilians killed by government forces.
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[Dawn] In what may take an already hot political temperature to the boiling point, 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. accused the Sharif family on Saturday of 'robbing' 31 banks, development finance institutions and non-bank financial institutions of over Rs6 billion to build "their industrial empire".
The allegations, mostly rehashed version of old charges, came a day after PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... asked Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ... to step down after conviction by the Supreme Court and threatened to use all options to send the government packing if the demand was not met.
Speaking at a presser at his office, Mr Malik alleged that the Sharif family had forced banks and other financial institutions to arrange the "staggering sum for their 19 industrial units".
With a pile of files lying in front of him, the minister claimed that he had in his possession all documentary evidence and threatened to file a reference with the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) next week.
He suggested the NAB as well as the apex court to take note of what he called fraudulent extraction of money by the Sharifs. "I will be pleased to appear before the Supreme Court with all relevant documents."
Throwing the challenge of a live debate to Sharif brothers, he said he would offer himself to be hanged if he was proved wrong.
In reply to a question, Mr Malik said his life was under threat and he might be attacked, adding that copies of the documents were with his lawyers and 'the mission' would continue even if anything happened to him.
He said that although he had tried to avoid taking steps which could vitiate the political atmosphere, he had no option but to release the "first instalment of evidence of corruption involving the Sharif family".
Mr Malik said the People's Party was not "allowing me to bring this evidence" for the sake of promoting reconciliation, but alleged that Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, wanted that the Sharif brothers be exposed. "He (Chaudhry Nisar) has won and I have lost.
"I came to the rescue of my party after the other side started maligning the PPP leadership."
He alleged that the Rs6 billion default had forced Nawaz Sharif to join hands with former president Farooq Ahmed Leghari to dislodge the Benazir government. The deal had been finalised between the two during investigations into the Mehran Bank scam as both were beneficiaries, the interior minister claimed.
He alleged that Mr Leghari had sold his "barren land in Dera Ghazi Khan for billions of rupees".
Mr Malik accused the Sharif family of defaulting on payment of $32 million for paper manufacturing machinery leased from a British-based firm, Altowfeek Company, in Feb 1995.
The amount was paid after the High Court of Justice, Queen's bench division, ordered the British authorities to charge four properties owned by the Sharif family in Britannia. He alleged that the Sharif family was involved in money laundering and had deposits in 10 banks in Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... . "I will shortly make public the trail of money laundering," he added.
In reply to a question, he claimed that Benazir Bhutto ... 11th Prime Minister of Pakistain in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996. She was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founder of the Pakistain People's Party, who was murdered at the instigation of General Ayub Khan. She was murdered in her turn by person or persons unknown while campaigning in late 2007. Suspects include, to note just a few, Baitullah Mehsud, General Pervez Musharraf, the ISI, al-Qaeda in Pakistain, and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who shows remarkably little curiosity about who done her in... and Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... never had a bank account in Switzerland and no document in the Swiss case was genuine. He said the much-talked about necklace allegedly owned by Ms Bhutto also did not belong to her. The interior minister said he had with him an affidavit of the jeweller concerned to prove this.
About the PML-N's threat of long march to unseat the prime minister, Mr Malik said the PPP could also arrange such a march from Sindh to Lahore.
He agreed that the tiff between the People's Party and the opposition was harmful to democracy, but said that despite signing the Charter of Democracy, the PML-N wanted to take every possible step it believed could help topple the government.
"There were 8,000 NRO (National Reconciliation Ordinance) cases; why they (PML-N) didn't become party in the rest of the cases," he wondered.
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Philippine troops captured three gunmen in a battle with a notorious gang tied to the kidnapping of an Australian national in the southern Philippines.
Officials said the troops raided the hideout of Waning Abdulsalam in the town of Naga, but the man, previously implicated in the kidnapping of Warren Rodwell, escaped.
Army Colonel Gerry Barrientos, commander of the 102nd Infantry Brigade, said, "We were not able to get Waning, but we captured three of his followers in a clash that lasted over 30 minutes. There is no report about Rodwell."
.
Abdulsalam was a former commander of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front which is currently holding peace talks with Manila. Aside from Abdusalsalam, officials have also linked another MILF leader Barahama Ali to Rodwell's kidnapping.
The Afghan Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock will distribute 65,000 kilograms of saffron to Afghan farmers, the head of the Saffron Department, Mohammad Mohmand ... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar... , told TOLOnews.
The Ministry plans to buy saffron plants from farmers with surplus saffron on their lands and distribute it to the farmers in provinces with less cultivation of the plant. It will pay up to 350Afs per kilogram of saffron plants, he added.
The plan will help promote cultivation of saffron all over the country.
According to the Ministry, an acre of land has the capacity to yield up to 800 kilograms of saffron plant. The government will give farmers receiving the distribution up to 400 kilograms of saffron plant each.
Beside technical help, the Agriculture Ministry will also provide tools to cultivate saffron, fertilizer, insecticides and fungicides.
The price of one kilogram of processed saffron in Afghanistan is up to US$3,000 and regionally it can reach as high as $6,000. The international price of saffron reaches up to $8,000 dollars.
How does that compare to the price of opium? More importantly, what is the yield of each per acre? A higher price does no good if the yield is significantly less, right?
Any extra production anywhere cuts into the persian monopoly.
There is no reason safron couldn't grow well in the southern US (it probably does; safron comes from a type of crocus). However, to do so we would have to invent a mechanical harvesting machine. It takes about an acre to grow 2 pounds of the safron currently. With scientific breeding this could probably be improved a lot.
Posted by: lord garth ||
04/30/2012 14:14
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#2
I'm just wild about Saffron, Saffron's wild about me.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/30/2012 17:05
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[An Nahar] A governor in a Sudanese border state has set a one-week deadline for 12,000 ethnic South Sudanese gathered south of Khartoum to leave the country, state news agency SUNA reported on Sunday.
"The wali (governor) of White Nile state, Yusuf al-Shambali, confirmed that he has set May 5 as the deadline for the Southerners waiting in Kosti," a way station south of the capital, it said.
"The presence of Southerners in Kosti threatens the security and the environment for Kosti citizens," he said.
Some South Sudanese have been living in the town for months, in makeshift shelters or barn-like buildings, while they await a trip by barge down the White Nile River to South Sudan.
They are among an estimated 350,000 ethnic Southerners who the South Sudanese embassy estimates remain in the north after an April 8 deadline for them to either formalize their status or leave Sudan.
Jill Helke, chief of the local International Organization for Migration (IOM) mission, told Agence La Belle France Presse the governor's order is the latest delay in plans to empty Kosti.
She said the IOM has funding to move 7,000 people by barge to South Sudan down the White Nile River, "and we think if we get going quickly we can get the funding for the other 5,000."
Despite the governor's order, movement of the South Sudanese is an issue under federal jurisdiction.
South Sudan's charge d'affaires, Kau Nak, told AFP the barges still need a "green light" from the Khartoum government.
"Of course, there is an element of mistrust between South and north," he said.
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[Dawn] Two members of a peace committee were killed in a roadside blast in Mohmand ... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar... tribal region on Saturday.
Sources said that Inyatullah and Jehanzeb alias Peer were travelling on a cycle of violence to attend a jirga when they met the fatal incident in Pandiali tehsil of Mohmand Agency.
Both the dear departed were members of Dawezai Peace Committee. Sources said that an improvised bomb, planted by suspected forces of Evil along the roadside, went kaboom! when the volunteers reached there. The bodies of the peace committee's volunteers were shifted to their native village.
According to APP, a woman was critically injured when an improvised bomb planted by unidentified persons in a field in Boshera Hamime, Parachinar, went off, political authorities said on Saturday.
They said that the wife of Haji Bab was going to the nearby field when a bomb planted in the field went kaboom!. Soon after the blast, people rushed to the site and shifted the injured woman to a hospital in Parachinar.
A doctor at the hospital said that the woman lost both her legs in the kaboom. She was referred to Peshawar for treatment.
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[Dawn] Five people including two CID officials have been killed on Sunday while two cameramen and eight coppers were among around two dozen injured amid rocket and grenade attacks in the troubled 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.... neighbourhood of 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... , DawnNews reported.
The injured including two cameramen of local news channels were taken to the Civil Hospital Bloody Karachi.
More contingents of law enforcers were summoned to control the violence in Lyari which remained highly tense as the operation against criminals continued on the third consecutive day.
Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch, Butch and the Kid finally brought their horses under control... police faced stiff resistance from the gang war criminals who fired rockets and hurled hand grenades to stop the law enforcers from entering the narrow lanes of the area.
The two deceased Central Investigation Department's (CID) officials were identified as Faiz Ahmed and Asghar.
DSP Haji Razzaq and DSP Nawaz were among the injured.
More than 20 people including officials from different law enforcement agencies have been killed in the past three days of the operation.
Despite tough resistance by the myrmidons, the police got control of some areas and was able to establish posts on rooftops of buildings there.
Officials of CID, FC and area police were taking part in the operation while all units were given under the control of SSP CID Chaudhry Aslam.
Police have claimed killing of accused Suhail, brother of a wanted criminal Mulla Nisar, during the operation besides arresting of several accused and recovering arms.
Police say the operation would continue till wiping out all gangsters from the area.
Moreover, the Sindh Home Ministry has issued warrants for the arrest of eight people including the outlawed People's Amn Committee chief Uzair Baloch, Habib Jan Baloch, Taj Mohammad aka Taju, Noor Mohammad alias Baba Ladla. Law enforcement agencies have been directed to capture the men dead or alive.
Local residents complained of the informal curfew that has been imposed as they say it has left them confined within their homes with a shortage of food, water and other essentials and the electricity outage that has continued since Friday.
The unrest began in Lyari after a local leader of the Pakistain People's Party was killed on Thursday while leading a protest rally against the conviction of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ... The police began a 'Grand operation' in Lyari on Friday which has entered its third day today and the area still remains under the grip of panic and fear. Eight people bit the dust in an exchange of gunfire during the ongoing operation on Friday.
On Saturday nine people were killed including three police men. Among the coppers killed was the SHO of Civil Lines, along with two constables who died when unknown culprits hurled a hand grenade and opened fire on them at Kalakot.
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On Friday Vice President Joe Foreign Policy Whiz Kid Biden The former Senator-for-Life from Delaware, an example of the kind of top-notch Washington intellect to be found in the World's Greatest Deliberative Body... ...and a clear demonstration that the Framers were wrong in that not every small state has two qualified citizens to send to the Senate... offered Turkey's Islamist government a leading role in the Middle East, despite its recent crackdown on dissidents, expansion of Islamic culture and education, and regional conflicts with Greece and Israel.
"We're looking for Turkish leadership in the rest of that entire region," Biden declared at a fundraiser attended by roughly 200 people from the Turkish and Azerbaijani communities, according to a White House pool report.
"It's a model as to how you can have an Islamic population, an Islamic state and a democracy, something the rest of the region is groping to figure out how to do," he told the audience, who paid up to $2,500 each to attend the fundraiser. I recall GWHB saying nice things about Ferdinand Marcos when he was in the Philippines on a diplomatic mission. Being VP does that to you, and then it comes back to haunt you...
Turkey's ability to moderate the Islamist revolution is limited because Islamists in Egypt and nearby countries distrust Turkey's government. They fear Turkey will seek a dominant role in the region, as it once had when its Ottoman Empire governed the region from the 1300s until 1923.
Still, Biden and Obama are backing Turkey.
"Turkey is such an incredible model," Biden told his fundraiser audience Friday.
[An Nahar] Attackers armed with bombs and guns shot up outdoor church services at a Nigerian university Sunday, killing around 20 people as worshippers tried to flee, witnesses and officials said.
A powerful kaboom and gunfire rocked Bayero University in the northern city of Kano, with witnesses reporting that two church services were targeted as they were being held outdoors on the campus.
Officials were unable to confirm casualty figures, but an Agence La Belle France Presse correspondent counted six bullet-riddled bodies near one of the two sites.
At least another dozen bodies could be seen on a roadside by the university, but the exact number was unclear.
Musical instruments and half-eaten meals could be seen at the site of one of the services.
An army front man confirmed the attack but could not provide a casualty toll. Lieutenant Iweha Ikedichi told AFP that it appeared the attackers used bombs and gunfire in the assault.
Witnesses said the attackers arrived in a car and two cycle of violences, opening fire and throwing homemade bombs, causing a stampede. They said worshippers were bumped off as they sought to flee.
"They first attacked the open-air service outside the faculty of medicine," one witness said. "They threw in explosives and fired shots, causing a stampede among worshippers. They now pursued them, shooting them with guns. ... They also attacked another service at the sporting complex."
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, although the attack was similar to others carried out by the Islamist group Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. Currently wearing a false nose and moustache and answering to Jama'atu Ahlus-Sunnah Lidda'Awati Wal Jihad, or Big Louie...
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[Dawn] A remote-controlled car boom in a troubled Pak tribal region near the Afghan border on Sunday killed two people and maimed five others, officials said.
The explosive was planted underneath a car in the Jamrud area, two kilometres northeast of Landi Kotal, the main town of the Khyber tribal region, in northwest Pakistain.
"The kaboom killed two people and maimed five others," a senior local administration official Muhammad Jameel Khan told AFP, adding that nobody so far had grabbed credit for the blast.
Another local official, Ismat Ullah, also confirmed the incident and casualties.
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A British Muslim imam has been filmed advocating female genital mutilation. Mohammed Abdul, the imam of a mosque in Bristol, was caught on camera urging a follower to take women and girls abroad so they can be circumcised legally.
The practise was banned by law in 2003, and it is illegal to assist or encourage anyone to carry out the barbaric procedure overseas.
An undercover reporter who posed as a Muslim seeking advice was told during a meeting with Mohammed Abdul at his mosque, "In this country, it is not possible, we cannot do that. (For) any other Muslim who likes to practise the way of Prophet Muhammad, the best way is to go to other countries.
"Some families, they go to Africa or Arab countries. In this country you have to fight for your religion, your cultures, They (the British) don't like your Muslim cultures."
[Dawn] Federal 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. claimed on Sunday that he had proof against Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... and Shahbaz Sharif's involvement in the Mehran Bank scandal, DawnNews reported.
Speaking to the media, Malik said that he will present the evidence against the brothers in the courts.
He further advised the Sharif brothers not to throw stones while sitting in a glass house. He said that before demanding the prime minister to resign, Nawaz Sharif should first prove that he didn't make money from the Mehran Bank scandal.
Malik further said that if Nawaz Sharif had reservations against him then he could file a defamation case.
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A top Palestinian militant on hunger strike for nearly two weeks has been transferred to the hospital wing of an Israeli prison near Tel Aviv, a Palestinian MP said Sunday.
Ahmed Saadat, secretary general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), began refusing food on April 17 as part of a mass hunger strike which is now being observed by least 1,350 prisoners held by Israel.
Ahmed Saadat was transferred to the hospital wing of Ramle prison but we dont have any details about his condition, said Khalida Jarrar, one of the PFLPs three serving MPs.
She said Saadat, who was being held in Rimon prison in the southern Negev desert, had been refusing food for 13 days after starting an open-ended hunger strike along with some 1,200 other prisoners, a number which has since grown.
Israel is responsible for his life because he is in an Israeli prison, she said.
Israel serves three halal meals a day to his prison cell door. If he doesn't eat them that's his problem. Ms. Jarrar should reflect on how Saadat would be doing if the Israelis really were as evil as she believes them to be...
A spokeswoman for the Israel Prisons Service (IPS) confirmed that Saadat had been transferred to Ramle prison on Friday, saying it was a cautionary measure and describing his health as good.
He was transferred to the prison medical facility due to his advanced age, in order to enable closer supervision, Sivan Weizman told AFP. He is in good condition.
Saadat, who is in his late 50s, is serving a 30-year sentence on charges of heading a terror organisation.
He was initially accused of masterminding the killing of Israeli tourism minister Rehavam Zeevi in October 2001, but prosecutors later dropped that charge.
Last October, he was rushed to hospital after collapsing following 21 days without food.
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#1
Woah, those things go all the way up.
Jimmy Cagney said Joan Blondell had the best ass in Hollywood. Oh my god, I sound like Milton Berle on Merv Griffin...
Corinne Calvet (French) aka Colette in "On the Riviera (1951)" aka Yvonne Le Tete in "When Willie Comes Marching Home (1950)" aka Charmaine in "What Price Glory (1952)" aka Renee Vallon in "The Far Country (1954)" aka Suzzane Sorrel in "So This Is Paris (1955)" (Died in 2001 at age 76)
Taylor Cole aka Erica Kessen in "12 Rounds (2009)" aka Desiree Cartier in "April Fool's Day (Video 2008)" aka Jennifer in "An American in China (2008)" aka Alex in "Loaded (2008)" aka Kaitlan in "All You've Got (2006)" (age 28)
Jessica Alba aka Nancy Callahan in "Sin City (2005)" aka Sue Storm in "Fantastic Four (2005)" aka Invisible Woman / Susan Storm in "Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)" aka Morley Clarkson in "Valentine's Day 2010)" aka Andi Garcia in "Little Fockers (2010)" aka Sartana in "Machete (2010)" (age 31)
#6
One of the most beautiful moms ion the planet, Jessica Alba. 31? Now I feel positively ancient. I remember feeling old when she was first on TV in Dark Angel a long time ago.
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.
HOUSTON -- ATP Oil & Gas Corporation and its wholly-owned subsidiary ATP East Med B.V. ("ATP East Med") have initiated drilling at the Shimshon well in the Levant Basin of offshore Israel with the Ensco 5006 drilling unit. The Shimshon well is in a water depth of 3,622 feet with a target depth of 14,764 feet. After spudding, several protective casing strings will be set until the well has penetrated the salt layer. A full set of electric logs will be run at total depth to assist in evaluation of target reservoirs. ATP expects to announce results during the third quarter of 2012. 
From Hamas '
At least eight people, mostly Syrian military personnel, were killed and about 100 injured in bomb blasts at security buildings in Idlib. Two explosions blasted the fronts off nearby buildings and left craters in roads, according to images on state television. State television said both explosions were suicide bombings.
Rejection of Israeli partnership in NATO
The Obama administration is refusing to say whether blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng is under United States protection in Beijing.
Assailants attacked demonstrators gathered outside the Defense Ministry in Egypts capital to call for an end to military rule with rocks and firebombs, killing one protester and wounding 30, security officials said on Sunday.
A Turkish friend of mine who has lived in the United States for many years once told me an amusing experience of hers. After more than a decade in the land of freedom, she came back to Istanbul for a few weeks. While strolling the streets, she inadvertently smiled at people with whom she came face to face. In return, though, she did not get the polite response that she was used to. Instead, the women she smiled at looked surprised, and worse, the men she smiled at looked aroused.
The wife of an imprisoned Bahraini activist and hunger striker said he was being drugged and force-fed, but officials denied the accusations, saying the man had agreed to receive medical treatment.
VIENNA: Libyas former top oil industry official, Shokri Ghanem, has died in Austria of an apparent heart attack, the foreign ministry in Vienna said on Sunday.
PARIS: French President Nicolas Sarkozy challenged former IMF boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn on Saturday to take legal action over his allegation that political enemies scuppered his presidential bid last year by ensuring his sexual encounter with a New York maid was made public.
Keith Olbermann apparently didn't take too kindly to Jimmy Kimmel's ribbing of him during the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner Saturday, hitting back at the comedian's digs afterward on Twitter.
...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...
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
A class on conflict resolution that was set to be given by an Israeli lecturer in Manchester next week was canceled by the British National Health Service, after trade union members who were supposed to take part in the class objected to participating in a workshop with an Israeli expert. 
Iraq will receive the first 24 of 36 F-16 fighter jets it has ordered from the United States at the beginning of 2014, a senior official told Reuters on Sunday.
In a bare concrete room in a far-flung corner of Central African Republic, U.S. special forces and Ugandan soldiers map out the hunt for one of Africa's most wanted rebel leaders hiding in an area the size of California.
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
Massoud Barzani
Nawaz Sharif
Asif Ali 
Philippine troops captured three gunmen in a battle with a notorious gang tied to the kidnapping of an Australian national in the southern Philippines.
Mohmand
Joe 
[An Nahar] Attackers armed with bombs and guns 
[Dawn] A remote-controlled 
A British Muslim imam has been filmed advocating female genital mutilation. Mohammed Abdul, the imam of a mosque in Bristol, was caught on camera urging a follower to take women and girls abroad so they can be circumcised legally.
A top Palestinian militant on hunger strike for nearly two weeks has been transferred to the hospital wing of an Israeli prison near Tel Aviv, a Palestinian MP said Sunday.
