Former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, a pediatric surgeon turned public health advocate, died Monday. He was 96.
Koop served as surgeon general from 1982 to 1989, under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He was a good one. Pediatric surgeon and Surgeon General.
Rolled over because it was posted late in the day.
-- trailing wife
Hagel, at Obama's bidding, plans to send troops to Judea and Samaria (the "West Bank") where they would soon be victims of Hamas terror. It's in writing. An investigative report.
#1
I don't believe the Israelis + Paleos, E-T-A-L. want or need US Troops to be in the West Bank - its just going to make thingys more complicated unecessarily than they already are.
THE UNHAPPY + ANGRY GOVT-WIDOUT-ANY-TERRITORY PALEOS ARE GOING TO BE MORE SO.
Rolled over from yesterday because it was posted late in the day.
-- trailing wife
Since Hossam Taleb Yaacoub, a Lebanese-Swedish man, confessed to membership in Hezbollah last week in a Cypriot criminal court proceeding, close observers of the radical Islamic group have been warning of new dangers if the group is not sanctioned.
"Terrorism is terrorism. But where it concerns the terrorist organization Hezbollah, Europe has been, and still is, a giant ostrich," Wim Kortenoeven, a former Dutch MP and one of the Netherland's leading Middle East experts, told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday. "I fear that the European citizens are going to pay a very heavy price for this dangerous policy."
Kortenoeven added that Hezbollah and its terrorist Iranian masters are not only the enemies of the Jewish people and the Jewish State, but also of Europe and Western civilization as a whole.
Rolled over because it was posted late in the day.
-- trailing wife
Maj.-Gen. Sami Turgeman, outgoing head of the IDF's Ground Forces, sat at his desk at General Staff Headquarters in Tel Aviv last week, and spoke of the satisfaction he felt at what he had achieved over the past three-and-half years.
When Turgeman took over the Ground Forces in 2009, the army was still reeling from its performance during the 2006 Second Lebanon War, a conflict that served as a painful reminder that it had grown too accustomed to counter-terrorism and security missions in the West Bank, and had neglected preparations for ground operations against Hezbollah.
Turgeman oversaw a process aimed at getting the Ground Forces back in shape for an effective and speedy maneuver in southern Lebanon in case of renewed hostilities, based on the premise that only a ground offensive would decisively defeat the Shi'ite terrorist organization, which is armed with over 60,000 rockets. The same preparations will serve the army in case it is ordered to retake the Gaza Strip, if Hamas and Islamic Jihad renew rocket attacks on Israel.
Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan has a proposition for the members of Chicagos gangs and it doesnt even involve getting them to put down their guns.
Farrakhan, 79, gave an address at the annual Nation of Islam (NOI) Saviours' Day convention on Sunday, and during his remarks he made a plea to the citys gang members. Amid an epidemic of violent crimes in the Windy City, Farrakhan tried to recruit those responsible to protect his group.
"All you gangbangers, we know you love to shoot, but you're killing yourselves," Farrakhan said at the University of Illinois Chicago Pavilion. "All your weapons are illegal and you're using them like savages."
During his address, Farrakhan told a crowd of more than 7,000 that the re-election of a black president did not necessarily equate to a victory for African-Americans, and encouraged the audience to pool together money and buy land in order to "control means of production.
"Even though one of our own has reached the highest pinnacle of the American political system, his presence has not, cannot and will not solve our problems," he said.
The Nation of Islam already owns more than 1,500 acres of farmland in Georgia, and the groups national assistant minister confirmed to the Associated Press this week that the group is looking to buy thousands more acres in the Midwest region of the United States. Should the religious movement look to establish a self-sufficient community, Farrakhan implored gangbangers to provide protection.
You are the natural warriors to defend, he added. And the science of war must be taught to us, so that we will protect whatever God allows us to buy or to build. We have to protect what is ours from any thief or robber."
America is for sale, Farrakhan said. But we are not owning it. We helped build this. Our sweat and blood was used to protect it. Shouldnt we be co-owners of it? Youve got to think like that now. I dont want to walk streets that we dont own.
#1
"All you gangbangers, we know you love to shoot, but you're killing yourselves," Farrakhan said at the University of Illinois Chicago Pavilion. "All your weapons are illegal and you're using them like savages."
That quote should start with every call for gun control. But of course, that would be racist.
Canada's first military satellite is headed into orbit alongside six other satellites that were all launched aboard a single Indian rocket Monday morning.
The 'Sapphire' will increase Canada's ability to protect its "assets and interests" in space and track man-made objects in orbit to avoid collisions, according to the Department of Defence.
A second Canadian satellite will help scientists keep track of meteors, asteroids and other space debris that could be heading towards earth.
The NEOSSat (Near-Earth Object Surveillance Satellite) will also track space debris in orbit, to better understand their movements.
The NEOSSat and the Sapphire are among seven satellites that were put into orbit aboard a single rocket scheduled to launch from the southern Andhra Pradesh state in India Monday morning.
Also launched was a French-built satellite that will study the world's oceans, along with two satellites from Austria, which were developed in Canada, and one each from Denmark and Britain.
The Globe and Mail science reporter Ivan Semeniuk said this is the first time that so much Canadian hardware was launched aboard a single rocket.
"The French-Indian satellite is the main payload, but it's often the case with these launches that there's enough room for a few other small passengers," Semeniuk told CTV's Canada AM on Monday.
He described Sapphire as being the size of a dishwasher while NEOSSat is comparable to the size of a suitcase.
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#1
Our Northern Cousins are advancing to the big leagues, just as we seem to be withdrawing, thank goodness.
#3
Remember its government accounting. It doesn't include future obligations already committed (ie pensions)*, because they're only reporting what's due today and on the debt interest (treasury bonds, etc). * not much different than today's state and cities who've now hit that big black hole, but don't have the means to 'legally' (inflate) money.
#5
Not as big as Obama's lies about it, he wants to scare everybody to death, so he can raise taxes ON'T LET HIM.
Impeach Obama.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/25/2013 16:20
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#6
Its so massive the LeftMedia has begun showing on TV only debt figures that are already outdated, + had been for a time.
GOP-DEM Congresscritters also want to copy or adopt France's method of temporary raises in the debt ceiling, which other EU States are repor also mulling to adopt.
Finally, there's the "write-off", its-not-fudging-the books-iff the-Govt-does-it method the Soviets used just before their USSR imploded + collapsed, i.e. where THEY ROUTINELY JUST ERASED THEIR GOVT-PUBLIC LIABILITIES FROM THE ACCOUNTING + BUDGETING BOOKS, ETC.
I can see the Bammer telling JAPAN now - "We in the USA rly rely Really REALLY RRRREEEEEELLLLYY,
D *** YOU, WANT TO INTERVENE ON YOUR BEHALF AGZ CHINA OER THE DISPUTED SENKAKUS/DIAOYU ISLANDS BUT UNFORTUNATELY AMERICA CAN'T AFFORD IT - WE'RE WITH YOU IN SPIRIT, THOUGH".
An Indian rocket carrying seven satellites- the Indo-French satellite SARAL, world's first smart phone-operated nano satellite, a space telescope satellite and four other foreign satellites - on Monday blasted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, around 80 km north of Chennai.
A little after 6 p.m., the rocket - Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-C20 (PSLV-C20) - standing 44.4 metres tall and weighing around 230 tonnes hurtled towards the skies ferrying seven satellites to sling into orbit.
President Pranab Mukherjee and scientists at Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) rocket mission control room intently watched the rocket's progress towards the heavens, escaping the earth's gravitational pull with a one way ticket.
ISRO officials are hoping that the agency's 101th space mission and also the first of the 10 planned for 2013 will turn out to be a grand success.
The PSLV-C20 rocket is expected to deliver its main luggage - the 407-kg SARAL (Satellite with ARGOS and ALTIKA) and six other foreign satellites 794 km above the earth.
Former Director of the CIA and NSA Gen. Michael Hayden and report author Robin Simcox will speak at the event being held 10:00 11:00 a.m. at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), 1800 K Street, N.W. The report is the most in-depth study of al-Qaeda terrorism in the United States ever to be published and similar reports from the Henry Jackson Society focused on the U.K. have been used by the British government in formulating national counterterrorism and counter-radicalization strategy.
Moscow: Syria is ready to hold talks with its armed opponents, foreign minister Walidal-Moualem said on Monday, in the clearest offer yet of negotiations with rebels fighting to overthrow President Basharal-Assad.
But Moualem said Syria would continue its fight "against terrorism", a reference to its conflict with anti-Assad rebels in which the United Nations says 70,000 people have been killed.
"We are ready for dialogue with everyone who wants it... Even with those who have weapons in their hands. Because we believe that reforms will not come through bloodshed but only through dialogue," Russia's Itar-Tass news agency quoted Moualem as saying.
He was speaking in Moscow, a staunch ally of Assad, where he was meeting foreign minister Sergei Lavrov.
Did he say it in Arabic? Was it broadcast on Syrian TV? Will he say it again when he gets home? And most importantly, when does Pencilneck say it, in Arabic, on Syrian TV?
Moaz al-Khatib, head of the opposition Syrian National Coalition, told reporters in Cairo he had not yet been in contact with Damascus about any talks, but said he had postponed trips to Russia and the United States "until we see how things develop".
Syria's government and opposition have both suggested in recent weeks they are prepared for some contacts - softening their previous outright rejection of talks to resolve a conflict which has driven nearly a million Syrians out of the country and left millions more homeless and hungry.
But the opposition has said any political solution to the crisis must be based on the removal of Assad, whose family has ruled Syria since 1970. The government has rejected any pre-conditions for talks aimed at ending the violence, which started as a peaceful pro-democracy uprising.
The two sides also differ on the location for any talks, with the opposition saying they should be abroad or in rebel-held parts of Syria. Assad's government says any serious dialogue must be held on Syrian territory under its control.
In an embarrassing slip of the tongue, Mr Kerry last week praised US diplomats working to secure "democratic institutions" in the Central Asian country, which does not exist.
The newly minted diplomat was referring to Kyrgyzstan, a poor, landlocked nation of 5.5 million, which he appeared to confuse with its resource-rich neighbour to the north, Kazakhstan.
...why, its in the reference book with the 56th and 57th states. If the government can maintain magical accounting books, why not magical World Almanacs? /rhet question.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/25/2013 16:15
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Is 'flag of convenience' what one reaches for when there's no more toilet paper in the head?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/25/2013 16:55
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#18
Kerry's a dumfuk, leave it at that
Oh no, the journalists now describe him as merely playing the genial New England windbag, while actually being one of the sharpest negotiators around. They're said to be simply thrilled to have him as their Secretary over at the State Department.
#19
merely playing the genial New England windbag, while actually being one of the sharpest negotiators around.
Well, he DID manage to marry a very rich widow...
I did not think the UAE was a heavy manufacturer. I don't know but possibly NIMR is an assembler and they get their parts from somewhere else like China. Vehicles yet to be battle-tested?
Libya has taken delivery of 49 armoured support vehicles from Jordan. Some 120 of the UAE-designed and built NIMRs, in two variants, have already been in service with the Libyan army.
The spokesman for the Libyan General Staff. Ali Shiekhi was quoted by Chinese news agency Xinhua today as saying that the new NIMRs had been supplied as a result of an agreement made last year, between the Ministry of Defence and Jordan. The new armoured vehicles are to be deployed immediately on border patrol duties.
More than 500 NIMRs have been sold, mostly in Jordan, Lebanon, Libya and the UAE, and the firm says that it has a further 1,800 orders. The composite ceramic-armoured NIMRs, which come in four and six-wheel variants and a range of configurations, are according to the manufacturers, the first such military vehicles to be designed specifically to operate in extreme desert conditions. NIMR Automotive which conceived and makes the armoured vehicle, is a part of the UAE's Tawazun conglomerate, which specialises in defence equipment. Algeria was last year seeking to establish a local plant to build and assemble NIMRs.
If your goal is to control your own population the NIMR is just the thing, and it's cheap.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/25/2013 20:48
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JohnQC is probably closest. Indigenous design, Chinese manufacture of parts (like there aren't any other heavy equipment or auto companies doing that) and assembly (I prefer 'construction'). Big deal.
Still I wouldn't rule out the UAE having the capability. The Israelis screwed up the last time they invaded Lebanon, because they "misunderstimated". They damn near lost a ship as well.
[Ynet] Compañero Raul Castro ...Fidel's little brother... announced Sunday that he will step down as Cuba's president in 2018 following a final five-year term, for the first time putting a date on the end of the Castro era. He tapped rising star Miguel Diaz-Canel as his top lieutenant and first in the line of succession.
The 81-year-old Castro also said he hopes to establish two-term limits and age caps for political offices including the presidency, an astonishing prospect for a nation led by Castro or his older brother Fidel since their 1959 revolution.
#1
I was hoping to find a pithy and erudite statement regarding this posting. The best I can muster is to say screw this lying bastid muslim cleric, the AMJA, and the camels they rode in on!
#1
that many of her wealthy and powerful customers use pseudonyms.....
A discreet look at Menendez's last Security Clearance periodic reinvestigation (PR) might be interesting. I believe the use of "pseudonyms"
is a question asked on the PR. Losing a Security Clearance for making false statements would be a real bitc*.
#3
She also said Buchyk was very involved with bad Russians in New York City who traffic drugs, weapons and girls through Caribbean ports to the United States. Melgen owns a company that is attempting to force the Dominican Republic to honor an exclusive contract for X-ray equipment to inspect shipping containers in the nations busy seaports. Traffickers in illicit goods and human cargo, Beth speculated, would go to any length to keep the Dominican Ports unprotected. She said Buchyk may have unwittingly fed information to her Russian associates, who then exposed Menendez and Melgen through the Peter Williams documents.
We can only for a very happy ending to his girlfriend experience, in particular, nonconjugal visits for all inprison, when the dots are all connected. Another Dem, or 2 or3, down, would make me ecstatic!
After the Arab Spring revolution the Islamist Ennahdha Party took control of the once moderate Tunisia. But after recent clashes and unrest Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali resigned this past week. In response, Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki asked Interior Minister Ali Larayedh, a hardliner from the main Islamist Ennahda party, to form a government within two weeks. Ali Larayedh was picked as prime minister by his party.
That's where things get interesting. The new Tunisian prime minister has been embroiled in a gay prison sex video scandal.
It is possible, apparently, that this is a photoshop, or even merely a man with a physical resemblance to the new PM. Or not. All sorts of links at the link.
#2
I heard it was the Bulgarians. You can bet the KGB (or whatever they call themselves now) have said videos stored safely in their Library of Sexual Congress.
#1
Now John Brennan, the chief scriptwriter of that narrative, is about to become the head of the CIA. What kind of objective intelligence can we expect in the future?
Same as we had under Panetta and Petreaus, little to NONE !
[VOA News] A sect of the Nigerian myrmidon group Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... myrmidon group has denied involvement in the kidnapping of a French family of seven in neighboring Cameroon.
Sheik Abu Mohammad Ibn Abdulazeez told news hounds on Saturday that the Islamist myrmidon group had been hearing reports suggesting it was linked to the Tuesday kidnappings. He said Sherlocks should "look elsewhere" because it would be a "waste of time" to continue assuming that his sect was involved.
On Tuesday, gunnies on cycle of violences kidnapped a couple, their four children and an uncle as they vacationed in a town in northern Cameroon, near the Nigerian border. Investigators believe the kidnappers took the family into Nigeria.
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[Dawn] Militants bumped off six laborers on the coastal highway in Pasni's Shadi Kor area in Gwadar district of Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... province on Sunday.
Six laborers, believed to be natives of Zhob, were shot at by unknown cycle of violence-riding gunnies. All the laborers was struck down in his prime after which the assailants escaped , according to Levies sources who also claimed that it was a 'murder' incident.
The bodies were shifted to Pasni hospital where arrangement were underway to shift the bodies to Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... In another unrelated incident FC troops conducted raid operations in Killi Norak and Gulistan Karez areas arresting four susoects accordind to a front man of the FC. However on their way back the raiding team was ambushed by local myrmidons and an exchange of gunfire ensued.
At least one of the attacker was killed and another was critically injured whereas one FC personnel was injured as well.
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[Dawn] Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh flew Sunday to Hyderabad to visit some of the 117 injured in twin bombings last week which also killed 16 people.
"The prime minister is going to visit the injured in hospital and then he will be briefed by the (Andhra Pradesh state) chief minister," Singh's front man Pankaj Pachauri told AFP by telephone from the southern city.
Singh is also scheduled to visit the blast site in Dilsukh Nagar, where two bicycle bombs went kaboom! within a few minutes of each other outside a cinema and a bus stand on Thursday evening, according to the Press Trust of India.
The premier has vowed to bring to justice the perpetrators of what he called a "dastardly" attack, the first major bombings in India since 2011.
The government was criticised in parliament on Friday by the opposition, which said the bombings had exposed systemic security failures at a time when India is on heightened alert.
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[THEWILLNIGERIA] Many people were reportedly killed in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, with several others sustaining varying degrees of injuries as the deadly Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... confrontation with the military Joint Task Force (JTF) entered its third day on Friday.
The town had witnessed two suicide kabooms targeted at the JTF on Wednesday and Thursday which left about 10 persons dead and several others injured.
The town also came under heavy bombardment with sounds of kabooms and sporadic gunshots on Thursday night as soldiers and the sect members were involved in another deadly battle that lasted for over five hours.
Though the front man of JTF, Sagir Musa, could not be reached for official confirmation on the number of casualties, it was gathered that scores were left dead on both battle lines.
The battle erupted between the combatants at about 10pm on Thursday when suspected members of the sect attempted to take over a cop shoppe but were repelled by the military and police.
A security said the Death Eaters numbering about 20 at about an hour into the daily curfew at 10pm attacked the Taiwo Ibrahim Police Station with all sorts of ammunitions.
The attackers were said to have been dressed in military camouflage as they engaged the security in exchange of gunfire for several minutes.
They however had no option than to flee because of the superior fire power of the JTF.
The battle it was learnt shifted from the cop shoppe to the Ummarari and Jajeri areas were the hard boy fled.The battle which raged for another four hours saw many houses set ablaze and recorded scores of deaths battle which raged from between 10pm and 3am made many residents of the town sleepless as the sound of bombs and gunfire rent the air.
.As many were settling down to Friday's business, the exchange of gunfire resumed at about 9am in the same vicinity making many to desert the streets, fleeing home for solace.
Many businesses were closed including the banks on Baga road where many customers who were bold enough to come out were turned back by stern looking coppers.
Some residents of Jerusalem, who spoke to journalists said they have not had it rough as that in a year as they were compelled to keep vigil.
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Richland, WA aka The Atomic City -- Six and possibly 140 or so underground tanks holding bubbling WWII radioactive goo and toxic waste are leaking for 50-60 years at America's most contaminated nuclear site in Washington, federal and state officials say, posing an eventual risk to people groundwater and rivers, but creating a most interesting species of 3 eyed fish in the Columbia River...and thousands of high paying clean-up contract jobs. Some folks in the Tri-Cities have never worked anywhere else!
The leaking materials at Hanford Nuclear Reservation are no immediate threat to public safety or the environment because it would take perhaps years for the chemicals to reach groundwater, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, Democrat, said Friday. So far, nearby monitoring wells haven't detected higher radioactivity levels. But the leaks have renewed discussion over delays for emptying the tanks, which were installed decades ago and are long past their intended 20-year life span.
"None of these tanks would be acceptable for use today. They are all beyond their design life. None of them should be in service," said Tom Carpenter of Hanford Challenge, a Hanford watchdog group. "And yet, they're holding two-thirds of the nation's high-level nuclear waste."
#9
I hav never commented on rant?? Those tanks have been leaking for many years
Welcome to the conversation, willford! That was my take on the article, too. Still, it's good to remind the community that the longer they avoid taxing themselves to pay for replacement tanks, the greater the health risk to themselves and the greater the accrued cost of cleaning up the mess.
#10
"None of them should be in service," said Tom Carpenter of Hanford Challenge, a Hanford watchdog group. "And yet, they're holding two-thirds of the nation's high-level nuclear waste."
There's something deeply incompetent happening there. It sounds as if they don't have any answers that don't cost at least a million dollars.
#11
Well the answer a few years back was to solidify the stuff into giant popcicles and store in Yucca Mountain, but as bigjim-CA indicated, the Yucca Mountain plan hit the NIMBY firewall. Not sure wat 'Plan B' is or was.
#13
Alyeska Pablo, the problem here is managers. Managers manage the problem, and they manage to see that it never does manage to go away. 'Cause who knows if they'd manage to find another job.
Have you noticed what happened to the gross cancer rate since the American Cancer Society got ahold of it?
Nothing.
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Dhaka, Feb 23 (UNB) - At least 20 people, including three cops, were injured, mostly with bullets, as the pro-hartal activists clashed with police in old part of the city on Saturday evening.
Witnesses said the activists of several Islamic parties brought out a procession in favour of Sundays hartal from Patuatuli under Kotwali police station at about 6:45 pm. When the procession reached Noabazar, police tried to resist it, triggering a clash.
At one stage, police fired teargas shells and sprayed rubber bullets to disperse the procession, leaving 20 people injured. However, officer-in-charge of Kotwali police station AB Siddique said 10 people, including three policemen, were injured in the incident.
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SEOUL, Feb. 23 -- More than 11,000 North Koreans have been cited for their contribution to the country's nuclear test earlier this month, the country's media said Saturday.
The North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a report that a total of 11,592 scientists, technicians, workers and officials have received state decorations for their roles in the test. The report, monitored in Seoul, gave no further details, including the identify of any awardees.
The English-language report also said that "100 were awarded the title of Hero of the DPRK with a gold star medal and Order of National Flag First Class."
Following its December long-range rocket launch, North Korea had earlier honored a total of 101 scientists and engineers with the Hero of the DPRK titles, according to the KCNA. An additional 5,700 were cited for their contribution to the launch, it said.
Reminds me of a story from the Gulag Archipelago: a man in the late 1920s receives an award as a heroic worker at a factory in the Soviet Union. There is a ceremony on the factory floor where the local party apparatchik pins a medal on the worker's jacket in front of all his coworkers. The worker is invited to say a few words, and in doing so he asks whether, instead of the shiny medal, he could instead have a loaf of bread for his family.
You can guess how that turned out.
Wonder how many shiny medals, versus how many loaves of bread, they gave out in North Korea?
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11,000 N. Koreans awarded for playing roles in nuclear test
Targets? Or human sponges?
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[An Nahar] The jihadist al-Nusra Front on Sunday grabbed credit for a suicide kaboom earlier this month on an army factory in the central province of Hama that reportedly killed at least 60 people.
"Thank God, your brothers in al-Nusra Front... carried out a martyrdom (suicide) operation that targeted an army factory in the town of Tal Baraq in Hama province," on February 6, the jihadist group said in a statement posted on the Internet.
According to its account, one of its fighters "drove a bus loaded with 2.5 tonnes of explosives" towards a group of "shabiha" or pro-regime bully boyz as they gathered outside the factory to receive their pay and went kaboom!.
Al-Nusra said the attack was "in Dire Revenge™ for the Mohammedan children of the Sunni community who suffered from the crimes of the Alawites and their collaborators."
The majority of Syria's rebels -- like the population -- are Sunni Mohammedan, while Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. If he'd stuck with it he'd have had a good practice by now... belongs to the minority Alawite community.
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Suspected terrorists militants have launched a wave of reprisal attacks for the failed raid on a military base in Narathiwat province earlier this month, with near-simultaneous attacks recorded in six districts of Pattani province.
29 locations were targeted in the attacks, which took place between 7:30 p.m. and midnight Saturday. They included several bomb explosions and arson attacks. Seven defense volunteers were wounded in one of the bomb blasts.
A security source said a group of terrorists militants led by Masore Dueramaethe is believed to have carried out the attacks. His group is also blamed for multiple bombings and arson attacks in Pattani's provincial center on Feb 16, which caused major property damage.
Col Pramote Prommin, spokesman for the 4th Region Forward Command of the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc), said the attacks were a concerted attempt by militants to retaliate after the deaths of 16 terrorists militants in a failed attack on a military camp on Feb 13. Col Pramote said the terrorists insurgents would want to strike back after the failed raid, particularly because key militant leader Maroso Chantharawadee was among the 16 who were killed.
Several terrorist insurgent leaders had also been arrested during the past several months, he said.
Of the 29 attacks, eight occurred in Yarang district, seven each in Muang and Yaring districts, four in Nong Chik, two in Sai Buri, and one in Khok Pho.
Meanwhile, police yesterday released security video footage of the suspects involved in twin bomb blasts in Narathiwat's Rangae district on Saturday. The blasts wounded three people, including a three-year-old child.
One of the suspects was shown parking a motorcycle loaded with explosives in front of a convenience store. Another suspect on a motorcycle then stopped nearby and dropped a bag into a rubbish can near the store. The two suspects then fled. Soon afterwards, the bomb in the rubbish can exploded, followed by the motorcycle bomb.
[Dawn] Police have so far tossed in the clink Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! 50 members of defunct Defunct normally implies that something is dead or out of business or something, which ain't the case... Lashkar-e-Jhangvi ... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ... in a crackdown across the province in the last few days.The arrests have been made in the wake of recent Quetta suicide kaboom and a direction issued by the interior ministry.
A senior police officer told Dawn that the members, including leaders, had been put under arrest for a month under 3-Maintenance of Public Order. He said the crackdown would continue.
Nine members who taken into custody by Lahore police have been identified as Abdur Rau Moawaia, Muhammad Shafique, Asif Moawia, Mirza Masood Baig, Hafiz Ahsan Saeed, Irfan Moawia, Muhammad Shafique, Rustam Khan Moawia and Aamir Ali Malik.
A senior jail official said as many as 27 members had been received in different provincial jails.
He said the government had not issued orders for specific number of detentions.
TOBA TEK SINGH: Police placed in durance vile Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! two men allegedly linked to the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ) here on Saturday, reports our correspondent.
Hafiz Muhammad Kashif of the Ravi Town locality of Kamalia and Maulana Muhammad Nadeem, administrator of the Madressah Hussain Bin Ali in Chak 256-GB, Philour in the Rajana police precincts, were shifted to some holy man's guesthouse an undisclosed location.
A police official said both men would be sent to jail for a month, as they had been arrested under the Maintenance of Public Order act.
Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat which is the false nose and plastic mustache of the murderous banned extremist group Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain, whatcha might call the political wing of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi... district president Maulana Muhammad Awais, general secretary Irfan Azhar Naz and Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam ...Assembly of Islamic Clergy, or JUI, is a Pak Deobandi (Hanafi) political party. There are two main branches, one led by Maulana Fazlur Rahman, and one led by Maulana Samiul Haq. Fazl is active in Pak politix and Sami spends more time running his madrassah. Both branches sponsor branches of the Taliban, though with plausible deniability... -Fazl Kamalia leader Pir Yousaf Bukhari condemned the arrests and said they had never been associated with the LJ. They said the arrested men were activists of the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat and their detention was an attempt to please the rival sect.
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#1
Were they wearing CK Anderson Cooper wants to know?
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02/25/2013 0:08
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[Egypt Independent] The parliamentary elections law that the Shura Council passed last week cannot be appealed, the Freedom and Justice Party said, because its procedures are legal and conform to the Constitution.
The FJP said that an opposition boycott of the elections would not affect their legitimacy.
The president's office set 22 April as the date for the House of Representatives elections to start, amid criticism and opposition group's calls to boycott them, claiming the law on seat distribution was unfair and does not guarantee election integrity.
Saad Emara, member of the party's supreme body and the Shura Council -- the upper house of Parliament -- said the new law cannot be appealed, adding that council members considered all the notes compiled by the Supreme Constitutional Court, which reviewed the law's constitutionality and adopted the court's suggestions before passing the law.
Emara told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the new House of Representatives would amend the list-based and single-winner systems, and cancel the 50 percent quota allocated for workers and farmers.
The decision to hold elections in four phases is to guarantee judicial supervision, Emara said.
Judicial supervision will not be canceled, he said, denying reports of plans to exclude judges from supervision over elections.
Emara also said an opposition boycott would not make the elections lose their legitimacy. He said boycotting is a right and a political stance for any party, expecting parties that have called for a boycott to step back from their decisions.
"A majority of these parties will step back from their stance and take part in the elections," he added.
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[Dawn] Maulana Fazlur Rehman Deobandi holy man, known as Mullah Diesel during the war against the Soviets, his sympathies for the Taliban have never been tempered by honesty ... , the JUI-F chief, said on Saturday that a grand jirga constituted by tribes of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas wanted to meet national leaders in order to have their support for peace efforts in Fata.
"During (the proposed) meeting with the politicianship, the jirga will discuss proposals for bringing peace to Fata," the JUI-F leader told newsmen after meeting the Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... leadership at Mansoora.
He invited the JI leadership to an all-party conference (APC) being organised by his party in Islamabad on Feb 28 to discuss ways for restoring peace in Fata.
Maulana Fazl said law and order was the biggest issue in the country and Fata was on fire. Houses were being razed and innocent people were being killed in drone attacks, he added.
"If the national leadership did not take (corrective) steps, someone else might take the lead for vested interest," he warned.
He said his party wanted to bring peace to Fata and urged the politicianship to come forward and join hands with it.
Speaking on the occasion, JI Amir Syed Munawar Hasan said that his party would attend the APC.
He said the prevailing situation called for a decisive dialogue with the Taliban. He said the government's attitude ignoring the Taliban's offer and taking it as a sign of weakness was a worst example of indifference.
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LONDON - The U.S. is frantically trying to salvage a Syrian opposition conference set for this week in Rome that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry plans to attend. A senior Obama administration official says Kerry has sent his top Syrian envoy to Cairo in hopes of convincing opposition leaders that the conference will be critical to securing additional aid from the United States and Europe.
It's doomed...
Some members of the sharply divided Syrian Opposition Council are threatening to boycott Wednesday's meeting.
The official says U.S. envoy Robert Ford will say the conference is a chance for foes of Syrian President Bashar Assad to make their case for new and enhanced aid -- especially to Kerry. He's on his first overseas trip as secretary of state.
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#2
The key question is: would the Syrians be better off humiliating Kerry or asking him for help? My guess is they would get most out of him by asking him to beg to help them, and not by begging. This administration only behaves nicely to those who treat us like dirt.
#3
Guess that depends on which assad opposition teams. And perhaps Team Jihad Quest, Sporting Club AQ/MB, Local Boyz United might be a bit apprehensive of the PR of travelling to Rome to be paid to fight in islamland.
[An Nahar] Prime Minister Najib Miqati on Sunday condemned the cross-border shelling from Syria into border towns in northern Leb.
"We denounce the death of Lebanese citizens in incidents they have nothing to do with and we call on the relevant Syrian authorities to take the appropriate measures to prevent the recurrence of such incidents," said Miqati in a statement distributed by his office.
"I have asked the minister of foreign affairs (Adnan Mansour) to officially inform Syrian authorities of our rejection of this behavior and our demand that its recurrence be prevented," Miqati added.
Fierce fighting erupted during the night on the Syria-Leb border between Syrian troops and unknown gunnies, leaving a Lebanese man dead and four maimed, a Lebanese security source told Agence La Belle France Presse on Sunday.
The violence was triggered by the death hours earlier of another Lebanese man, who was killed on Saturday in gunfire coming from the Syria side of the border near a river separating the two countries, the security source said.
Members of his clan took part in the festivities against Syrian troops during the night in the Buqayaa region of northern Leb, a Lebanese official told AFP.
The Syrian army used artillery, mortars and automatic weapons fired from the Syrian village of Mcherfe as they clashed with the gunnies, according to the security source, who said a Lebanese man was killed and at least four others maimed in the fighting.
He was unable to say whether the gunnies were Lebanese or Syrians opposed to the regime of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa...
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[Egypt Independent] A group of unknown assailants carrying knives attacked and maimed demonstrators protesting against the president in the city of Mahalla Sunday.
The demonstrators had been blocking the railways and setting fire to rubber tires on the tracks when the assailants attacked them.
The attackers took the demonstrators' megaphones, and set a hospital in Shoun Square on fire.
Sources who did not wish to be identified told Al-Masry Al-Youm that shop owners whose businesses were affected by demonstrators' blocking of the road had hired the attackers.
Mahalla, a city in the Delta, has been a main focus for protests against the Moslem Brüderbund and the president after the 25 January revolution, along with cities along the Suez Canal, such as Suez, Ismailia and Port Said.
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The US Sunday condemned the attacks on Maldivian journalists after three of them were attacked in capital Male. The US embassy here urged Maldivians to refrain from violence, and asked protesters and police to respect the right of all media outlets who cover demonstrations or other public events, reported Xinhua.
There, that's handled. Tea?
'Freedom of expression is a fundamental democratic right, and we strongly condemn these attacks,' the embassy said.
Three journalists were attacked in Male Friday night. One of them is said to be in critical condition, the Maldivian Journalists Association said.
Raajje TV journalist Ibrahim Waheed was attacked near 'Artificial Beach' with an iron rod by an unidentified man. He received serious head injuries and was flown to Sri Lanka Saturday for urgent medical treatment, officials said.
Meanwhile, Maldives media reported that during an opposition Maldivian Democratic Party protest Friday, two state television journalists were injured when a packet filled with paint thinner was thrown at them from the crowd. Both suffered serious body and facial injuries.
President Mohammed Hassan Waheed has condemned the attacks.
Former Maldivian president Mohammed Nasheed, who left the Indian High Commission Saturday after seeking asylum inside the premises for 11 days, also condemned the attacks. He called upon authorities to conduct a 'swift and thorough investigation' to bring the perpetrators to justice, regardless of their political affiliation.
So all the pols are in favor of bringing the perps to justice, but no one knows who the perps are or whose side the perps are on...
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Top|| File under:
#1
Attacking three journalists is in some circles considered to be a good start.
#2
Yeah - why don't you attack, sodomize and kill the U.S. Ambassador instead?
That's allowed, even encouraged, under the Obama Regime!
Heck he'll even blame some unknown video editor for you!
[Dawn] Two suspects managed to escape from the city courts premises following the dismissal of their pre-arrest bail applications in as many murder cases on Saturday.
Javed alias Kalia and Shahid, said to have political affiliations and booked separately by the Pakistain Bazaar police in two murder cases, had moved pre-arrest bail applications in court through their lawyers.
On previous hearings, the court granted them interim pre-arrest bail and directed them to appear in court on Feb 23 for confirmation or otherwise.
Additional District and Sessions Judge (west) Irfan Ahmed Meo dismissed the pleas after hearing arguments from both sides.
However, corruption finds a dozen alibis for its evil deeds... both the suspects walked away from the court premises in the presence of investigation officers without facing any resistance shortly after the court pronounced the orders.
According to the prosecution, Javed along with his accomplices was booked for allegedly killing Nazish in January last year since her father Habibullah, running a business, refused to pay protection money.
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SEOUL, Feb. 23 -- North Korea said Saturday it sent the usual threats and blabber a message to the top American military commander in South Korea, warning that upcoming joint military exercises between South Korea and the U.S. would amount to "igniting a war" on the divided Korean Peninsula.
Pak Rim-su, the North Korean military's representative at the truce village of Panmunjom, sent the telephone message to Gen. James Thurman, the commander of U.S. Forces Korea, saying the peninsula is facing "a grave situation where a war may break out any moment," according to the North's official Korean Central News Agency.
"If your side ignites a war of aggression by staging the reckless joint military exercises Key Resolve and Foal Eagle again under the cover of 'defensive and annual ones' at this dangerous time, from that moment your fate will be hung by a thread with every hour," said the message in English.
"You had better bear in mind that those igniting a war are destined to meet a miserable destruction while a great victory is in store for the guardians of justice," it said, according to the KCNA.
Pak also accused "the U.S. and its allied forces" of attempting to "isolate and stifle" the North, "taking issue with its just satellite launch and underground nuclear test for protecting its sovereignty," according to the KCNA.
North Korea has issued such harsh rhetoric ahead of military exercises in South Korea, denouncing them as a rehearsal for an invasion of the communist nation. Seoul and Washington have repeatedly said the drills are purely defensive in nature.
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#1
See also WAFF > [The Atlantic Wire] NORTH KOREA PHONED AND DIDN'T HAVE ANYTHING NICE TO SAY.
and
* RELATED DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > NORTH KOREA ISSUES THREAT TO US MILITARY.
* TOPIX, FREEREPUBLIC > NORTH KOREA MAY ACTUALLY BELIEVE A WAR IS COMING.
CVN USS "GEORGE WASHINGTON" I'm alookin' at you.
Wehell, gee whizzz, whats CHINA gonna do - desire unchallenged or unopposed strategic access into WESTPAC via the Okinawa-Taiwan Straits???
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [SCMP.com]JAPAN PM ABE FAILS TO WIN OBAMA SUPPORT ON DIAOYUS ROW.
RELATED KYODO NEWS > ABE SNUBBED BY OBAMA ON SENKAKUS ISSUE: CHINESE MEDIAS.
* CHINA DAILY FORUM > ABE FAILS TO GET FULL US BACKING ON ISLANDS.
As seemingly affected by ...
* WORLD MILITARY FORUM > WHITE HOUSE SPOKEPERSON JAY CARNEY CLAIMS TO NOT KNOW OF FORMER SECRETARY OF STTAE HILLARY CLINTON'S COMMENTS SUPPORTING JAPAN AGZ CHINA OVER DIAOYUS/SENKAKUS DISPUTE.
NOW its a "Yuh-oh".
* KYODO NEWS > US COULD BE DIRECTLY INVOLVED IN JAPAN-CHINA MILITARY CONFLICT.
* SAME > NORTH KOREA CLAIMS INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION AS A NUCLEAR WEAPONS STATE WID THIRD NUCLEAR TEST.
SSSSSHHHHH ditto soon IRAN???
* SAME > NORTH KOREA TO MODERNIZE, EXPAND NUCLEAR ARSENAL TO "UNIMAGINABLE" EXTENT [vee USA]: KCNA.
* SAME > CHINESE VESSEL ENTERS JAPAN'S TERRITORIAL WATERS: COAST GUARD, near the Senkakus.
The Tripoli that is in Lebanon, not Libya, just in case someone from the Mainstream Media is reading this...
Geography, some say, is destiny.
Fierce fighting erupted during the night on the Syria-Lebanon border between Syrian troops and unknown gunmen, leaving a Lebanese man dead and four wounded, a Lebanese security source said on Sunday.
Syria's army used artillery, mortars and automatic weapons as they clashed with the gunmen in the village of Mcherfe in the Lebanese region of Bukayaa, the source said. The source was unable to say whether the gunmen were Lebanese or Syrians opposed to the government of President Bashar Al Assad.
A Lebanese man was killed and at least four others were wounded in the fighting, the source said.
The clashes erupted after the death on Saturday of another Lebanese man in gunfire coming from the Syria side when he was near a river separating the two countries, the source said.
A local resident said that some of the gunmen fighting the Syrian troops during the night were from the same clan as the Lebanese man whose death triggered the fighting.
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[An Nahar] Islamists in northern Mali have the "destructive power" of an army, a top Malian colonel said Sunday, while showcasing weapons seized in Gao since French-led forces retook the city last month.
"What we have here, it's indicative of an army, or groups that have the capacity of an army," said Gao commander Laurent Mariko, showing the stockpile of weapons to news hounds.
Al-Qaeda-linked armed Islamists had occupied Gao, the north's largest city, for nine months before the French and Malian forces retook it on January 26 in a lightning offensive that drove radical fighters from major cities.
But since fleeing Gao under the French-led advance, faceless myrmidons regrouped on its outskirts and infiltrated the city a few days ago to attack the Malian forces newly in control.
The stockpile on display Sunday included U.S.-made M-16 assault rifles, Czech-made sniper rifles, Russian-made rockets and Malian army uniforms.
Mariko said the weapons -- which were seized by the Malian special forces, the French army or groups of "young patriots" -- had belonged to the Malian army, as well as the Senegal ... a nation of about 14 million on the west coast of Africa bordering Mauretania to the north, Mali to the east, and a pair of Guineas to the south, one of them Bissau. It is 90 percent Mohammedan and has more than 80 political parties. Its primary purpose seems to be absorbing refugees... ese gendarmerie or other neighboring countries.
"The impression we have is that they and we (the Mali army) have pretty much the same weapons, except for the third dimension, aviation, which they don't have," said Colonel-Major Didier Dacko.
"They also have armored vehicles, but we realized that they don't know how to use or repair them," he added.
The under-equipped Mali army was put to the test last year by gangs, mainly Islamists, who according to several sources procured heavy weaponry in Libya.
Thanks to the fall of long-time Libyan strongman Muammar Qadaffy ...Custodian of Wheelus AFB for 42 long years until he was ejected from the gene pool by his indignant citizens... , who died in 2011, the gangs were able to get hold of arms from his considerable arsenal, the sources said.
In April of last year, the Dakar-based human rights ...which often include carefully measured allowances of freedom at the convenience of the state... group RADDHO said that "thousands of rebels" left Libya "with 35,000 tonnes of weapons" and could have entered Mali.
The al-Qaeda-linked Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), which ruled Gao before the French-led offensive, has since unleashed Mali's first suicide kaboom.
It claimed a car kaboom on Thursday near a camp occupied by French and Chadian troops in the northern city of Kidal in which at least two civilians were reported maimed.
The French-led forces are increasingly facing guerrilla-style tactics after initially meeting little resistance in their drive to oust Islamists from the main northern centers of Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu.
On Friday, fresh fighting erupted in the mountainous Ifoghas region. The Chadian army said that 23 of its troops and 93 Islamists died in the festivities.
Tuareg militias battled Arab rebels in northern Mali Saturday, while French jets, U.S. drones and Chad's elite desert forces were also in action in a major push to stamp out resistance from pockets of Islamist fighters.
A travel advisory posted on the French foreign ministry's website said Saturday that La Belle France's intervention in Mali "may have repercussions on the security of French residents or tourists" in Benin and other nations in the 15-member ECOWAS bloc of west African states.
Conflict-torn Mali will be on the agenda at the 22nd session of the U.N. Human Rights Council, which kicks off Monday.
There have been reports of widespread human rights abuses, including by Malian troops which with La Belle France's help have been struggling to expel Islamists from the vast northern territory the Orcs and similar vermin seized last April.
La Belle France has asked the U.N. Security Council to quickly deploy observers to oversee the human rights situation in the country, and NGOs in Geneva expect the rights council to adopt a resolution on this issue.
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This should solve the problem in the Congo ... for about ten minutes.
Eleven African countries signed a UN-drafted peace deal on Sunday to stabilise the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where rebels allegedly backed by neighbouring countries last year threatened to oust the government. Opening the agreement-signing meeting at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon said the peace, security and co-operation framework would bring stability to the region.
"The signing ceremony is significant even in itself. But it is only the beginning of a comprehensive approach that will require sustained engagement. The framework before you outlines commitments and oversight mechanisms which aim at addressing key national and regional issues," Ban said in his speech.
Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Angola, Uganda, South Sudan, South Africa, Tanzania and Congo-Brazzaville signed the accord.
Congo's neighbours promised not to interfere in its internal affairs. They also agreed to not tolerate or support armed groups. A UN report last year said that Rwanda and Uganda had helped M23 rebels in Congo, an allegation the two countries denied. Rwanda's president, Paul Kagame, was present at the signing and said the agreement was a new opportunity for Congo.
"The framework recognizes that a holistic approach that addresses the multifaceted root causes is the only way to end instability. Any meaningful contribution toward lasting peace in the DRC and the Great Lake's region has to abandon the self-defeating practice of selectivity in both memory and responsibility regarding the known, long standing causes of recurring conflict," said Kagame.
The UN says Congo suffers from persistent violence by local and foreign armed groups that use rape as a weapon. The conflict has displaced nearly 2 million people.
The UN said it will undertake a review of the its peacekeeping force in Congo, known as Monusco, to better help the country's government address security challenges. Ban said he would issue a special report on Congo and the Great Lakes region in coming days.
Maybe he could persuade the mighty Uruguayans to help out...
South African President Jacob Zuma welcomed the proposal to send more troops to Congo. But he said Congo's government needs to undertake "far-reaching reforms" for a lasting solution.
"A heavy burden of responsibility falls on the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and its neighbours. Theirs is the historic task of freeing the people of the DRC and the region from tortuous history of conflict and instability, and to introduce a new future offering democracy, peace, stability progress and prosperity," said Zuma.
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#1
Well that calls for a Steak Diane and an aged chiante, truffle and himalayan salt infused buttered potatoe cruquettes, Bavarian asperagus delicatel sauteed with Athenian Extra Virgin Olive Oil and candied Georgia Peach dicettes with pistachio and walnut honey glaze.
[An Nahar] Opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei Egyptian law scholar and Iranian catspaw. He was head of the IAEA from December 1997 to November 2009. At some point during his tenure he was purchased by the Iranians. ElBaradei and the IAEA were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for something in 2005. After stepping down from his IAEA position ElBaradei attempted to horn in on the 2011 Egyptian protests which culminated in the collapse of the Mubarak regime. ElBaradei served on the Board of Trustees of the International Crisis Group, a lefty NGO that is bankrolled by the Carnegie Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as George Soros' Open Society Institute. Soros himself serves as a member of the organization's Executive Committee. on Saturday called for a boycott of Egypt's upcoming legislative elections, as the president rescheduled the first round after Copts complained it would clash with a Christian holiday.
"Called for parliamentary election boycott in 2010 to expose sham democracy. Today I repeat my call, will not be part of an act of deception," the Nobel Peace laureate and former head of the U.N. atomic watchdog wrote on Twitter.
Former foreign minister Jerry Lewis doppelgänger Amr Moussa ... who was head of the Arab League for approximately two normal lifespans, accomplishing nothing that was obvious to the casual observer ... , another leader in the National Salvation Front (NSF), said many members of the opposition bloc were inclined to boycott the four-round election, but a final position had not yet been taken.
"There is a large group that wants a boycott, but it has not yet been discussed, and no decision has been taken," he told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Initially the election had been set to begin on April 27, with a new parliament to convene on July 6.
But the dates conflicted with pre-Easter and Easter holidays, prompting Islamist President Mohamed Morsi to announce new ones "in response to requests by Christian brothers," a reference to the Coptic Church, his office said Saturday.
A statement said the new starting date for the election would be April 22-23 instead of 27-28 which fell on the Christian holidays of Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday.
The second round will take place on April 29-30 instead of May 4-5, to avoid interference with Easter weekend, the statement said, adding that as a result of the changes parliament was now set to convene on July 2, instead of July 6.
Earlier Father Rafiq Greish, the Catholic Church's front man in Egypt, told AFP that he spoke with the presidency, which "accepted" rescheduling the first round.
Many Copts fear that Morsi and his Islamist allies seek to marginalize the minority community which represents six to 10 percent of Egypt's 83-million population of mostly Sunni Mohammedans.
ElBaradei, who did not elaborate about his boycott call on Twitter, raised suspicion that the vote might be rigged, as was the case in a 2010 election under ousted long-time president Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... .
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[An Nahar] Hundreds of protesters demanded on Sunday that trial procedures be accelerated for Islamist prisoners, who have been held in Roumieh prison without charge since 2007, and vowed an uprising and "vengeance" against the authorities.
"We ask today for justice or else let them (officials) burn in hell," they said at the protest held in downtown Beirut's Martyrs Square.
The protest was given a boost by controversial Salafist holy man Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir, who came along with his supporters from the southern city of Sidon to Beirut to attend the rally.
"We are being treated this way because we are members of the defeated (Sunni) sect," said al-Asir in a speech.
He called for "an Intifada to end the hegemony."
He also accused some judges at the military court of coming under political pressure, saying "we don't have trust in your magistrates and your tribunal."
Addressing President Michel Suleiman ...before assuming office as President, he held the position of commander of the Leb Armed Forces. That was after the previous commander, the loathesome Emile Lahoud, took office as president in November of 1998. Likely the next president of Leb will be whoever's commander of the armed forces, too... and every official, al-Asir said: "Release them immediately because we don't accept that they be tried after being seized for six years."
Most other speakers at the protest warned the Lebanese authorities that the families and supporters of the detainees "won't remain silent" and will "take vengeance."
"They should be released through fair trials," they said, adding they would call for compensations.
Pretrial hearings for 86 Islamists were held at Beirut's Justice Palace earlier this month, the first legal action taken by the Lebanese judiciary ahead of their trial.
Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi has promised speedy trials for the Islamists without political intervention.
Sunday's protest caused bumper-to-bumper traffic at Beirut's entrances, mainly in Dora, after security forces set up checkpoints ahead of the event.
The Nahr al-Bared Paleostinian refugee camp in northern Leb was almost totally destroyed during a months-long conflict between the Lebanese military and the al-Qaeda-inspired group Fatah al-Islam A Syrian-incubated al-Qaeda work-alike that they think can be turned off if no longer needed to keep the Lebanon pot stirred. in 2007.
The fighting killed some 400 people, including 168 soldiers.
Some Islamist leaders escaped despite the army siege of the camp.
The inmates were locked away Please don't kill me! on charges of fighting or aiding the Fatah al-Islam fighters in Nahr al-Bared that lies near the northern coastal city of Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which 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...
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[Dawn] AWAY from the media headlines focused on local governments, elections and the like, upper Sindh has been roiled by a series of protests this week. The trigger was a kaboom near Jacobabad on Thursday targeting a senior Barelvi leader in the province, Syed Ghulam Hussain Shah, custodian of the Dargah Hussainabad in Qamber. Mr Shah survived but a grandson died in the attack, sending sectarian -- Barelvi-Deobandi in this case -- tensions soaring in upper Sindh. Bomb attacks are still rare in the region, the last major incident being a foiled suicide kaboom against Ibrahim Jatoi, a leader of the National People's Party, in December 2010 on Muharram 10. There was also the appalling case last December of the man accused of blasphemy who was dragged from a police lock-up and burned alive. While still too early to identify a definite pattern of violence, bubbling under the surface are all manner of societal changes that may be turning the land of Sufis that interior Sindh has long been known as into a bastion of intolerance and extremism.
As with most such emerging threats, the genesis can be traced to the breakdown of traditional social structures. Generally viewed from the outside as static and stuck several centuries in the past, interior Sindh has in fact changed a great deal in recent years. Feudalism has been weakened, as have the tribal structures predominant in upper Sindh. Sufi Islam too has suffered as succession chains at various shrines have been disputed, often with an eye to the social prestige and domination over land that control of a shrine can bring. There has also been the emergence of a rural middle class and new urban centres -- realities that have been hidden away in part because no census has been held since 1998. While change should be welcomed, the problem in Sindh is that the state has not stepped in to provide direction and structure to the new social and economic realities. Inevitably, then, the space is being filled by a growing private mosque, madressah and social welfare network with its own priorities and agenda.
Is it too early to flag the problem as a serious threat? Perhaps. But it's in the nature of such slow-moving changes that by the time they emerge as serious threats to the social fabric and national stability, it is too late to stop them. The effects of letting sectarianism grow unchallenged and uncontested in other parts of the country are all too apparent. The core of Sindh is still moderate and non-violent. Now is the time to move to protect it.
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[An Nahar] Hizbullah on Sunday announced that it will not neglect the issue of protecting Lebanese residents who live in border towns inside Syria, stressing that "there will be no solution in Syria except through politics and dialogue."
"To those screaming that the state should be in charge of defending its people: Has the state protected and defended the Lebanese residents who live inside Syria?" head of Hizbullah's religious committee Sheikh Mohammed Yazbek said.
If they're Lebanese, they aren't really Syria's people, though, are they?
"All the Lebanese must raise their voices high in defense of the Lebanese residents of Syrian towns who are suffering harm and injustice," Yazbek added during a memorial service held at the Hermel town of al-Qasr for Osama Msarra, one of the Lebanese killed in recent festivities with Syrian rebels in the border area.
Addressing the residents, Yazbek went on to say: "Excuse them, they are busy with the electoral laws, showoffs and the blocking of roads, but we will not overlook your plight and we will remain loyal. We will stand on the side of right and the side of the aggrieved."
"We are not attacking anyone but we will not allow anyone to attack us. We cannot stand idly by as our people, women and kiddies are being aggrieved. We cannot tolerate to be uprooted from the land we have inhabited for tens of years as long as there is blood in our veins," Yazbek added.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Dhaka, Feb 24 -- At least five people, including a woman, were killed and 100 others injured during the countrywide daylong hartal enforced by 12 Islamic and like-minded parties on Sunday.
Thirty-seven people were also arrested, including four from capital Dhaka, during the shutdown. The rest of the arrest was reported from Barguna, Gazipur, Bogra, Laxmipur and Manikganj districts. Besides, a number of vehicles were damaged by hartal supporters who also blocked roads and burned tyres at different parts of the country during the hartal hours.
In Manikganj, a fierce clash between police and villagers at Gobindhal village in Singair upazila reportedly left five people dead and 55 others injured, 20 with bullets. Protesting the killings, Olama Mashayekh O Towhidi Janata called a daylong hartal in Manikganj district for Monday. The local unit of BNP also extended its support to the hartal.
Continued on Page 49
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For a map, click here. For a map of Tamaulipas, click here
Two grenades were found in front of a government building in Ciudad Victoria in Tamaulipas Saturday night, according to Mexican news accounts.
A news brief which appeared on the website of El Diario de Coahuila news daily reported that local police agents found two undetonated grenades left on the ground at around 2130 hrs Saturday near the Casa de Gobierno on calle 8th in northern Ciudad Victoria.
Tamaulipas' governor Egidio Torre Cantu and his wife were attending a soccer (futbol) game between Autonomous University of Tamaulipas (UAT) and Merida at a nearby stadium.
The report did not say what happened with regard to the governor, only that a mobilization had taken place in the area involving local police and Policia Federal units.
The find is the second in five days. Last Tuesday two hand grenades were detonated, presumably by armed suspects at the Palacio de Gobierno in Ciudad Victoria. That attack wounded three individuals.
Ciudad Victoris is the state capital of Tamaulipas state.
Meanwhile, social networks reported gunfire in Reynosa Sunday morning on Bulevar Colosio and later a convoy of armed suspects aboard 20 vehicles travelling in the city.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
#1
Yeah, you want to copy & paste the article next time instead of just the link? Or are we supposed to pay $$$ to subscribe to read this?
Gromky, you want a pony also?
We present the news best we can with our resources. Some of the things we find that might interest our readers are indeed behind a paywall. In such situations, pay or forego reading the material.
Criminy, you'd complain if you were hanged with a new rope.
#5
Instead of a summary, I'll simply say that the reason I didn't realize this article was behind a paywall is that when I did a search with the word "Wilders" in Google News, I was able to see the whole article.
#6
That's how I get around the Boston Globe paywall. Another technique is to delete your browser cookies, then go to the article; I figured out that's how the Globe does its paywall thing.
[Dawn] Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik Pak politician, Interior Minister under the Gilani government. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. 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. He had to give up the interior ministry job because he held dual Brit citizenship. has again accused the Punjab government of not taking action against the banned Death Eater organization Lashkar-e-Jhangvi ... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ... (LJ), DawnNews reported.
Speaking to the media upon arrival at the airport in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... , the interior minister said that the leadership of LJ is hiding in Punjab.
He said that LJ operations have intensified due to the lack of action by the provincial government.
Rehman Malik said that a letter could be written to the chief justice, raising this issue.
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The Sultanate of Sulu said on Sunday night it was not notified by the Philippine government about the dispatch of a ship to Lahur Datu to fetch Filipino Muslims who have been occupying a village in Sabah, Malaysia for days. But Abraham Iridjani, national spokesman for the sultanate, said that both the Sultan of Sulu Jamalul Kiram III and Crowned Prince Agbimuddin Kiram II thanked President Aquino for the humanitarian assistance.
Asked whether the women in the group would return home in the humanitarian ship, Iridjani said the women were determined to stay with their husbands.
The Sultanate of Sulu sent its followers to Sabah, which it has claimed as its ancestral domain for decades. Its claim has been supported by the fact that Malaysia has been paying the sultanate rent money for its lease of Sabah.
The Sultanate sent its followers days ago after sensing that the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which may soon sign a peace agreement with the Philippine government, was indifferent to the sultanates claims.
The government dispatched on Sunday night, a ship to fetch and ferry back women and other civilians who have been among the 180 Muslim Filipinos and followers of the Sultan of Sulu holed up in a village in Sabah. Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert Del Rosario said, We sent the ship to Lahad Datu on a humanitarian mission. We are deeply concerned about the presence of five women and other civilians in the group, and we urge them to board the ship without delay and return home.
As we have stated in countless occasions previously, we call on the entire group to go back to their homes and families, even at the same time we are addressing the core issues they have raised. Please do so for your own safety."
Sultan of Sulu Jamalul Kiram III had said his followers will remain in the village.
#1
See also DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [Global Inquirer] SABAH STANDOFF: KARMA.
Iff it isn't careful, Malaysia in 2013 -??? may end up like the Philippines in stalemate after many decades of fighting insurgency.
* SAME > [Manila Bulletin] DON'T HARM SULTAN'S MEN, NUR [MILF Founder Nur Musuari] WARNS MALAYSIA.
Lest the MILF + aligned Filipino Muslims, Groups militarily intervene on behalf of the Sultan of Sulu iff blood is spilled.
* SAME > [Philippine Star] SULTAN OF SULU WANTS SABAH RETURNED TO THE PHILIPPINES.
Wid CHINA expanding its de facto control of the bulk of the South China Sea, ALTERNATE MARITIME ROUTES TO STRAIT OF MALACCAS ARE NEEDED? - ANCIENT TERRITORIAL CLAIMS NOTWITHSTANDING???
[Dawn] A major power failure occurred in cities across Pakistain late Sunday night, DawnNews reported.
Urban centres including Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... , Lahore, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Gujranwala, Multan, Quetta and Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. were affected after a fault developed in the National Power Control Centre (NPCC).
A 1200-megawatt Hubco power plant tripped which lead to a system failure across Pakistain, according to the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda).
In Karachi 36 grid stations have tripped. At least 70 per cent of the city has plunged into darkness, reports suggest. In the rest of Sindh there are reports of power failures.
In Quetta and surrounding areas of the placid provincial capital, power supply was suspended too following the fault at NPCC. Apart from Quetta, power supply has gone in northern and central districts of Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... Cities in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... are also facing the same difficulty, with reports suggesting several cities experiencing power outages.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
I'm having a hard time giving a shit here.
Thay want the world in the 10th Century, well there was NO power then.
Tough tootie.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/25/2013 16:36
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[An Nahar] America's top diplomat John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, owner of a "lucky hat," speaker of French, current Secretary of State... began his first official trip as secretary of state on Sunday, a marathon get-acquainted tour of America's closest allies in Europe and the Middle East.
A plane carrying the news U.S. secretary of state and his team took off from Joint Base Andrews outside Washington at around 7:15 am local time (1215 GMT).
Kerry will visit the United Kingdom, Germany, La Belle France, Italia, Turkey, Egypt, Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in their national face... , the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar from February 24 to March 6.
The first stop will be London, where Kerry will meet with senior British officials, State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told news hounds Friday.
Kerry travels on to Berlin where, in addition to meeting Germans, he will encounter his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, for a tricky exchange at a time when Moscow and Washington are at loggerheads on many issues.
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#1
Please, please, PLEASE do NOT feed into this asshole's massive ego by calling him JFK.
Thank you.
[An Nahar] Supporters of Islamist holy man Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir were assaulted by an angry mob in the Zoqaq al-Blat-Salim Salam area on Sunday.
Around 2:30 p.m., soon after the end of an Islamist sit-in at the nearby Martyrs Square at which Asir delivered a speech, dozens of young men from the Zoqaq al-Blat neighborhood blocked the Salim Salam highway and started subjecting the passing vehicles to identity checks, a Naharnet news hound witnessed.
When a minibus carrying Asir supporters arrived at the impromptu checkpoint, the young men attacked it in a "hysterical manner", took off one of its doors and started beating up the passengers, according to the news hound.
A number of passengers managed to flee the scene. ... as though they had never been... and several cars were seen making a U-turn and speeding off to safety.
The incident lasted around five minutes and the young men quickly dispersed as an army patrol arrived on the scene.
Meanwhile, ...back at the barn, a little lightbulb appeared over Bossy's head... Asir's official Facebook page said "shabiha from AMAL Movement stopped two cars on the Salim Salam highway that were carrying supporters of Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir who were on their way back to Sidon, and started assaulting them and cursing them."
For its part, LBCI television said one of the cars of Sheikh Salem al-Rafehi supporters was pelted with stones in Salim Salam.
Earlier on Sunday, hundreds of protesters rallied in the nearby Martyrs Square to demand that trial procedures be accelerated for Islamist prisoners, who have been held in Roumieh prison without charge since 2007, and vowed an uprising and "vengeance" against the authorities.
"We are being treated this way because we are members of the defeated (Sunni) sect," said al-Asir in a speech at the rally.
He called for "an Intifada to end the hegemony."
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[Dawn] The government will soon approach Interpol to seek repatriation of senior commander of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain, Maulvi Faqir Muhammad, now under detention in Afghanistan.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik Pak politician, Interior Minister under the Gilani government. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. 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. He had to give up the interior ministry job because he held dual Brit citizenship. told news hounds here on Saturday that Maulvi Faqir was involved in a series of terror attacks in the country. The government wanted his deportation from Afghanistan so that legal action could be initiated against him, he added.
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#1
Outside of Hawaii Five-0, has Interpol actually ever made an arrest?
[An Nahar] Three topless feminists lunged at Italy's Silvio Berlusconi as he arrived at a polling station in Milan to vote in a general election on Sunday, Agence France Presse reported. Actually, I guess the way to get Silvio's attention is with topless babes.
The young women from the Ukrainian women's power group Femen had the slogan "Basta Berlusconi" ("Enough With Berlusconi") scrawled on their backs. "Women's power" is seemingly attained by bouncing the old nipples...
They were quickly detained by police and dragged away screaming in a chaotic scene as ordinary people queued to vote at the school. "I'll grab 'em, chief!"
"No, me!"
"Me!"
"Three Femen sextremists carried out an attack on the idiot Berlusconi just as he was preparing to vote," the group said on its website. Maybe it was a bunga-bunga protest?
The group said he was "a dirty pervert", adding: "Italy don't vote for someone who should be in prison". "Dirty pervert" from someone who flashes her udds every week or so someplace else in Europa?
The feminists broke through a line of journalists outside the polling station and jumped over some tables toward Berlusconi but did not reach him. What would they have done had they reached him? Y'gotta wonder. My guess would be that they never intended to.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
How come topless "sextremists" never hurl themselves at me?
No, not the US, Nigeria.
THE Comptroller General of Immigration, Rilwanu Bala Musa, said that arrangements have already been completed by the NIS to connect all border control posts to the Nigerian Satellite System (NISS) to enable officers and men "effectively monitor" activities in the borders areas from its Abuja headquarters.
Musa spoke Friday when he paid a courtesy visit to Yobe State Head Man, Ibrahim Gaidam at the Government House, Damaturu, in continuation of his familiarization tour of NIS formations and facilities in the Northeast sub-region.
He told the governor that surveillance cameras initially mounted to monitor and control movement of people in and out of the country, have failed to track and monitor the influx of undocumented citizens and activities of terrorists. The affected border posts in the sub-region, he said, include Machinna, Yunusari, Banki, Damasak, Kirawa, Dabar Masara, Sauro Maina and Gamboru/Ngala with Chad.
Good lord -- they sure are getting through the Ten Plagues in jig time!
[Egypt Independent] Teams set up to monitor locusts spotted swarms of them in Hamata, Baranis and Sheikh al-Shazly in the southern Red Sea Governorate, up to Ras Gharib further north.
Control teams in these areas and in Gouna began spraying insecticides to fight the locusts.
In early January, high-density groups of mature adult locusts continued to lay eggs in the Abraaq area in the Red Sea Hills, west of Berenice.
"If additional rains fall and conditions remain favorable, a second generation of breeding could occur," the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said in its January bulletin.
But the FAO added a 17 February update on its website that despite "substantial" ground control operations in Egypt among other countries, "more swarms are expected to form in northeast Sudan and southeast Egypt in the coming weeks."
The locust swarms could pose a threat to winter crops. According to the FAO's website, an adult desert locust can "consume roughly its own weight in fresh food per day," or about 2 grams.
"A very small part of an average swarm" -- about 1 ton of locusts -- "eats the same amount of food in one day as about 10 elephants or 25 camels or 2,500 people," the website reads.
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#1
Morsi/Mursi-but-not-the-Muersey Egypt can't find one Biblical Joseph to prophecy + effec organize the country???
#3
They should NEVER have opened the Book of the Dead. They should never have read those passages out loud. I TOLD them The Thing will return. But they wouldn't listen!!!
[An Nahar] Rightwinger Nicos Anastasiades romped to victory in Cyprus' presidential vote Sunday, pledging to secure an "earliest possible" bailout for the financially crippled EU state and winning support from the European Commission chief.
Replacing the only communist president in the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... , the leader of the right-wing Disy party won 57.5 percent of the vote in a second round run-off against communist-backed Stavros Malas, who polled 42.5 percent, final results showed.
"We intend to discuss and cooperate ... with our European partners so as to achieve the earliest possible completion of the MoU (bailout) agreement in a manner that safeguards vulnerable groups, social cohesion and peaceful labor relations," he said in a victory address.
"We will implement an ambitious program of structural changes and reforms both in the state and in our economy," Anastasiades said.
"Cyprus belongs in Europe. We will restore our credibility in the European and international arena."
Disy front man Tassos Mitsopoulos said Anastasiades had been given "a clear and strong mandate to battle for Cyprus," in upcoming negotiations with Brussels over the terms of an estimated 17-billion-euro ($23-billion) bailout package.
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Naturally. How dare that man not pay attention to the word of the Mighty Turk?!
[An Nahar] Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that his country will "not remain silent" over Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Scourge of Qusayr... 's "crimes" against his own people.
"Every day a large number of innocent children and women fall dead in Syria," Erdogan said in a speech at the Government Communication Forum in the United Arab Emirates.
"We will not remain silent to those committing crimes against their people," he said.
"We will not remain silent to the brutal dictator in Syria," Erdogan added. "Some people are annoyed with the loud voices with which we confront world problems" but "we will not stay silent."
Turkey's southern neighbor has been locked in a 23-months-long conflict in which the United Nations ...an international organization whose stated aim of facilitating interational security involves making sure that nobody with live ammo is offended unless it's a civilized country... estimates over 70,000 people have been killed since an uprising began against Assad's regime.
Early in the revolt, Turkey broke ties with Damascus ...The capital of Iran's Syrian satrapy... and led international calls for Assad's ouster.
It has since backed the uprising by offering shelter to defectors from Assad's army and hosting opposition meetings. Some 200,000 Syrian refugees have fled the conflict in their country for Turkey, many of them living in insalubrious camps.
On February 15, Syrian state media reported that the Syrian government has sent a letter to the United Nations blasting Turkey's "destructive" role in the Syrian conflict.
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[An Nahar] Yemeni President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi was paying a surprise visit to Aden on Sunday as witnesses said festivities raged between police and protesting southern separatists amid calls for civil disobedience.
Hadi was in Aden on an "inspection visit", his first since becoming president in February 2012, and would meet local officials and military leaders, the state news agency Saba reported.
A security official in Aden told Agence La Belle France Presse that Hadi was visiting to "closely check the situation in Aden following the unrest".
Protests have intensified in south Yemen since the killing of five people in festivities between police and pro-independence demonstrations on Thursday, when the deeply divided country marked a year since the ouster of strongman President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... Witnesses said hardliners from the Southern Movement on Sunday clashed with security forces in the southeastern city of Mukalla after they blocked roads with burning tyres and rocks.
"The army is using live ammunition against protesters," said Nasser Baqazquz, an activist from the separatist group.
In Aden itself, protesters blocked roads in the neighborhoods of Mansura, Sheikh Osman and Dar Saad, witnesses said, but no festivities were reported.
Two protesters and a policeman died when festivities erupted in the south, including Aden, on Saturday, security officials and medics said.
Also on Saturday, in the city of Sayun in the eastern province of Hadramawt, protesters trying to enforce a program of civil disobedience set a northern Yemen merchant on fire, leaving him in a critical condition, witnesses said. The man is in intensive care, a medical source told AFP.
The protesters also Saturday attacked shops in Mukalla owned by northerners, and burnt down two offices belonging to the Islamist Al-Islah (Reform) Party, which backs Hadi, witnesses said.
The party issued a statement protesting the attacks on its southern offices and urged its members to "exercise restraint."
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[Dawn] Another worker of the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat which is the false nose and plastic mustache of the murderous banned extremist group Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain... was bumped off in a Korangi area on Saturday, police said.
They said that gunnies fired at 37-year-old Qari Muhammad Ameen, a prayer leader, near Korangi Crossing within the remit of the Ibrahim Hyderi cop shoppe and escaped. The victim was heading towards Jama Masjid Bilal to lead Maghrib prayers when he was targeted.
"He was hit by three bullets and was struck down in his prime," said an official at the Ibrahim Hyderi cop shoppe. "The victim was the prayer leader of the Jama Masjid Bilal. He had been leading Friday prayers in Jama Masjid Ibrahim located in the same area for some time."
The body was shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for medico-legal formalities.
The assassination of yet another holy man of the ASWJ led to a violent protest in the area, where charged youths erupted into the streets and blocked the main Korangi Crossing traffic intersection causing suspension of vehicular traffic. Police and Rangers reached the troubled area and managed to disperse the crowd.
An ASWJ front man said that the victim was a senior party activist and associated with the Korangi sector of the party's organizational structure.
"Only on Friday we staged protest sit-ins at more than half a dozen places in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... . We ended our protest after the government assured us that the killers would be tossed in the calaboose Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! ," he said. "But within 18 hours, three of our workers, including two prayer leaders, have been killed in different districts. The government has lost every right to rule and it is us forcing to give a call for countrywide protests."
Shop owner killed in Defence
A 55-year-old auto shop owner was killed at his shop in Defence on Saturday in a gun attack that police Sherlocks said could be a result of some personal issue.
"Muneer Hussain was at his shop in Defence Phase II where gunnies riding a cycle of violence attacked him," said an official at the Defence cop shoppe. "He sustained two bullet wounds and was struck down in his prime. The body was later moved to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) for medico-legal formalities."
The official said the victim had occupied the shop some four months after years-long property dispute within the family.
He had two wives and none of them came to receive his body for several hours, added the official.
The victim belonged to Shia sect but the police Sherlocks said the murder did not seem to have been carried out on sectarian grounds. Besides, none of the Shia organizations came up with any claim.
The Sherlocks found a few clues to some personal issues that might have played a role in the killing. However, a person who gets all wrapped up in himself makes a mighty small package... as the investigation was under way the police said they were looking into all aspects and could arrive at a conclusion in a day or two.
After medico-legal formalities, the body was later handed over to the family of his first wife, he said.
Man found rubbed out
A young man was found rubbed out in Ghazi Goth, Orangi Town Sector 16, off the main Manghopir Road, police said.
They added the victim, 25, was hit by four bullets fired from a very close range.
"Clad in shalwar kameez, the victim's body indicates that he was killed over the past 24 hours," said an official at the Manghopir cop shoppe.
The body was later shifted to the Edhi morgue for want of identification after medico-legal formalities at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital.
Attack on meat shop
Fear gripped the area along Liaquatabad No 10 after some men riding a motorbike hurled a hand grenade at a meat shop in the locality though it did not explode.
The area police said the shop owner along with some traders approached the police with the hand grenade. "It was not attached with any fuse," said Wajahat Hussain, the area deputy superintendent of police (DSP).
"It looked more like an attempt to harass the meat seller. The shop owner denied having received any threat for extortion and having enmity with any individual or group," he said.
The police said no case had been lodged so far.
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[Dawn] Two Taliban jacket wallahs killed three members of Afghan cops on Sunday, but a third attack in Kabul's diplomatic enclave was foiled when police rubbed out the would-be assailant, officials said.
The attacker in Kabul was armed with a boom jacket and his SUV was full of explosives, but police opened fire when he tired to penetrate deeper into the capital's diplomatic enclave of Wazir Akbar Khan, the officials said.
In the day's first attack, a suicide bomber rammed a boom-mobile into a spy agency facility in the town of Jalalabad, 150 kilometres east of Kabul.
It was followed by a similar attack on a police base in Puli Alam, 70 kilometres south of the capital, officials said.
Taliban front man Zabihullah Mujahid grabbed credit for the attacks in Puli Alam and Jalalabad, but denied that the krazed killer group was involved in the foiled attack in Kabul.
Authorities had earlier said that two would-be suicide bombers were killed in Kabul. But city police chief Mohammad Ayoub Salangi said only one attacker was involved, dismissing local reports that a second bomber had managed to escape.
"We have intelligence about this. The bomber was rubbed out and his boom-mobile is defused. It's over now," Salangi told AFP.
An AFP photographer at the scene saw a young man laying dead in a pool of blood next to his bullet-ridden car on the side of the road near a construction site. The man was shot in the head.
The same construction site was overrun by forces of Evil as part of a coordinated attack in Kabul and several other provinces in April 2012.
Fifty one people, 36 of them beturbanned goons, were killed in those attacks, which besides Kabul hit several other cities.
The Taliban are the main group behind suicide kabooms in Afghanistan in a long-running insurgency aimed at toppling the Western-backed government in Kabul.
In Jalalabad, police front man Hazrat Hussain Mashriqiwal said the bomber rammed his sedan car into the gates of the walled compound of a National Directorate of Security branch and detonated his bombs.
"There was a suicide boom-mobileing in the intelligence facility in city district two. Two intelligence workers were martyred and three others were maimed," the police front man said.
Police in Puli Alam, the capital of Pashtun-infested Logar province, said the attack there hit the gates of a police base along the highway leading to Kabul and killed one police officer.
Pashtun-infested Logar police chief Abdul Saboor Nasrati said the bombing was carried out in a van and caused "a massive kaboom" that broke glass and caused damage to nearby homes.
The Taliban have waged an 11-year insurgency against the Kabul government since being ousted from power in a US-led invasion in 2001.
The United States and NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... have around 100,000 troops in Afghanistan, but the vast majority of them will leave next year, with Afghan forces progressively taking over.
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[An Nahar] Regional African leaders signed a deal on Sunday aimed at pacifying the troubled east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo or Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material... "It is my hope that that the framework will lead to an era of peace and stability for the people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the region," said U.N. chief the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... , who was present at the signing ceremony in the Æthiopian capital Addis Ababa.
"It is only the beginning of a comprehensive approach that will require sustained engagement," he said.
The agreement could lead to creation of a special U.N. "intervention brigade" in eastern DR Congo to combat rebel groups as well as new political efforts.
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[An Nahar] A Jordanian policeman and two Syrian children were maimed on Sunday when refugees rioted at the Zaatari camp in northern Jordan, prompting police to use tear gas to disperse them, a government official said.
The unrest involving around 200 Syrians broke out after a visitor to the camp distributed money to the refugees, said Anmar Hmud, a government front man for Syrian refugee issues said
"A man from an Arab country gave away cash to the refugees in Zaatari. When he was done, a Syrian man approached him asking for money but the man had no more to give and the two began fighting," Hmud told Agence La Belle France Presse.
"After that around 200 refugees started rioting.
"Police intervened, using tear gas to disperse them after a policeman and two Syrian children were maimed in the riots," Hmud added.
The Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that "several refugees were maimed in festivities with Jordanian police after they protested against harassment by Jordanian drivers and police against Syrian refugee women."
But Hmud denied the report.
"It is not true. Also it is not true the rumor that the riots erupted after three Syrian refugee women left their tents in Zaatari and did return," he said without elaborating.
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[Egypt Independent] Security agencies will not negotiate with Salafi protesters who have blocked the Bir Lahfan-Arish Road to demand the release of those accused in the 2004 Taba bombings, a North Sinai military source said.
The source said 100 people, whom he called jihadis,
But he's saying that as if it were a bad thing. I'm confused.
were blocking the road, but added that the matter is in the hands of the president and judiciary, which six months ago agreed to hold retrials for the accused.
"If we agree to release them, they will demand their acquittal," the source said.
The bombings took place on 7 October 2004, one day after Egypt marks the anniversary of its successful crossing of the Suez Canal in the 1973 war against Israel.
Arab logic: they somehow believe they won that war.
The Taba bombings killed 38 people, including 18 Egyptians and 12 Israelis.
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[An Nahar] Protesters on Sunday blocked the doors to Cairo's main administrative building as part of a growing campaign of civil disobedience around the country against Islamist President Mohamed Morsi.
A group of protesters closed the doors of the Mugamma, a massive labyrinth of bureaucratic offices on the edge of Tahrir Square, leaving only a side exit for employees to leave, employees told Agence La Belle France Presse.
"This is a call for civil disobedience... We want the implementation of the goals of the revolution such as social justice as well as a delay of parliamentary elections," which is set for April 22, one of the protesters told AFP, declining to give his name.
"We must break the monopoly of the state by Brotherhood," he said of the Islamist movement from which Morsi hails.
Since a November decree that pushed through an Islamist-drafted constitution, Egypt has been deeply divided between Morsi's Islamist supporters and a wide-ranging opposition that accuses the president of betraying the uprising that brought him to office and consolidating power in the hands of his Moslem Brüderbund.
Outside the Mugamma, the protesters threatened to extend their protest, adding that the next step could be to close down the television building which also houses the information ministry.
In the northern city of Kafr el-Sheikh, hundreds of quarry workers stormed the governorate headquarters to protest against working conditions and forced employees out of the building, chanting against governor Saad al-Husseini, a member of the Moslem Brüderbund.
A crippling economic crisis has also fueled the anger.
Bakeries across Egypt have threatened to go on strike on Thursday due to rising wheat prices, a potentially devastating move in a country where many rely on subsidized bread as the main food staple.
Thousands are employed at the Mugamma, which houses passport offices, tax offices and various other government agencies.
"A small group of young people closed the main doors of the building and they are not letting anyone in," one employee told AFP from inside the building.
The protesters "did not enter the building," the employee said.
"They have left a door open and said employees who finish their shift must leave and that they won't let anyone in," a witness said.
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Top|| File under: Arab Spring
No! In the name of sweet crossfires don't let this happen!
Bangladesh's antiterrorist Rapid Action Battalion is one of the world's most notorious 'death squads', accused by human rights groups of more than 2000 extrajudicial killings.
Its elite troops, in their black bandannas, wrap around shades, and well-oiled AK47s strike fear wherever they go.
Especially at 3 am...
But they are now set to get an image makeover with training to help them improve their dealing with "human issues" and a "complaints bureau" to appease their critics.
Human rights groups say they are sceptical over whether many Bangladeshis would be brave enough to complain to the force about their actions. Last month Bangladesh's own Human Rights Commission demanded to know whether it had been involved in around 40 disappearances, including activists of the opposition Bangladesh National Party.
Anyone check the banana groves?
"It will be hard for ordinary Bangladeshis to feel confident enough to make complaints against them unless the government makes a commitment that they will be protected," said Meenakshi Ganguly of Human Rights Watch.
The Battalion has in the past received military training from Britain and the United States, but they and other countries are believed to have made a rapid improvement in the force's human rights record and accountability a condition of further aid.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
Relax, Doc, it's just window dressing. The shuttergun is available at the check-out window...
#4
Oh noes! Weepy hand-wringing from the Human Rights crowd. While it's a fine line between "death squads" and the Texas Rangers, I'd bet money the Bangla locals are happy when the hard boys are removed from circulation.
#7
...and a "complaints bureau" to appease their critics.
Just don't give them your address. That would be unwise, as your house would then become the HQ of the local chapter of the Purba Bangla Communist Party...
[An Nahar] Syrian rebels closed in on a police academy in the town of Khan al-Assal in Aleppo province on Sunday, as regime warplanes bombarded their positions there, a watchdog said.
"Should they take the academy building, the whole of northern Aleppo province will fall out of regime control," said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The rebels already have large swathes of northern Syria under their control, chiefly Idlib province to the northwest and Raqa and Hasake east of Aleppo.
The army also used tanks to shell the Tariq al-Bab district in eastern Aleppo city, the Observatory said, just two days after dropping three powerful missiles there.
Violence meanwhile raged in several Syrian flashpoints, according to the Observatory.
According to a toll compiled by the Britannia-based watchdog, at least 63 people were killed in violence across the country on Sunday.
The Observatory also updated its corpse count from a missile attack on Friday on the northern city of Aleppo, saying it killed at least 58 people, among them 36 children.
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Ynet] 
[VOA News] A sect of the Nigerian
[THEWILLNIGERIA] Many people were reportedly killed in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, with several others sustaining varying degrees of injuries as the deadly 
Richland, WA aka The Atomic City -- Six and possibly 140 or so underground tanks holding bubbling WWII radioactive goo and toxic waste are leaking 
[An Nahar] The jihadist al-Nusra Front on Sunday 
[Dawn] Police have so far 
Maulana Fazlur Rehman
LONDON - The U.S. is frantically trying to salvage a Syrian opposition conference set for this week in Rome that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry plans to attend. A senior Obama administration official says Kerry has sent his top Syrian envoy to Cairo in hopes of convincing opposition leaders that the conference will be critical to securing additional aid from the United States and Europe.
Najib Miqati
[Dawn] Two suspects managed to escape from the city courts premises following the dismissal of their pre-arrest bail applications in as many murder cases on Saturday.
[An Nahar] Islamists in northern Mali have the "destructive power" of an army, a top Malian colonel said Sunday, while showcasing weapons seized in Gao since French-led forces retook the city last month.
[An Nahar] Opposition leader 
Jerry Lewis doppelgänger Amr Moussa
[Dawn] AWAY from the media headlines focused on local governments, elections and the like, upper Sindh has been roiled by a series of protests this week. The trigger was a 
[An Nahar] Hizbullah on Sunday announced that it will not neglect the issue of protecting Lebanese residents who live in border towns inside Syria, stressing that "there will be no solution in Syria except through politics and dialogue."
[Dawn] Federal Interior Minister 
[An Nahar] America's top diplomat 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[Dawn] Two Taliban 
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
[An Nahar] Protesters on Sunday blocked the doors to Cairo's main administrative building as part of a growing campaign of civil disobedience around the country against Islamist President Mohamed Morsi.
[An Nahar] Syrian rebels closed in on a police academy in the town of Khan al-Assal in Aleppo province on Sunday, as regime warplanes bombarded their positions there, a watchdog said.
