Lots of great comments. Here's one I particularly liked.
AmishDude says:
June 14, 2012 at 1:33 pm
That is rude, low class and obnoxious.
And EXACTLY what the Obama campaign and especially their unhinged Occupy-style minions would do if given the opportunity.
I absolutely condemn and deplore such activity. Or at least I will when I stop laughing.
Mitt better be careful. Obama might get the idea to take the opportunity to throw Holder in front of the bus and then blame Romney for running him over.
#1
Mitt better be careful. Obama might get the idea to take the opportunity to throw Holder in front of the bus and then blame Romney for running him over.
That is a tactic of the radical left--wouldn't surprise me a bit.
#6
Agreed, Frank. I like this positive ad for Flag Day too. I want both: hit Obama and his ilk hard, but also reiterate a positive message that affirms this country's deepest values.
#7
McCain ceded too much ground - refusing to fill in the blank slate that Obama presented. McCain's Prez campaign was a disgrace. Similar to our current ROE in Afghanistan. We shall remain "gentleman" while the Talibs hid out in "civilian" houses and no night raids. It loses the fight and American lives without the opposition bending a knee. I've had it, and I'm happy to see a hard-nose Romney campaign. I might even contribute
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/14/2012 20:33
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#8
Apparently Romney also moved his speech up, 15 min before Obama was due to start. They're inside Axelrod's OODA loop. The O campaign whined that they said they were going to Ohio first, so there. LOL
#4
It would be like..like if a bunch of people sat down at the table, ordered some ribs, maybe a martini, and you go to hand them their bill...and they had already got up and left.
#8
The president also said that Republicans, not Democrats, caused the current budget crisis. "I love listening to these guys give us lectures about debt and deficits. I inherited a trillion dollar deficit!" he said. Obama compared Republicans to a person who orders a steak dinner and martini and then, "just as you're sitting down, they leave, and accuse you of running up the tab."
President Barack Obama is making another trip to New York City that could cause big problems for commuters.
He's scheduled to arrive in New York City Thursday afternoon, along with First Lady Michelle Obama.
They're expected to head to One World Trade Center in lower Manhattan around 5 p.m., where they will meet elected officials including Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
They will get a firsthand look at construction progress at the World Trade Center site and President Obama will sign a beam that will become part of the building's infrastructure.
They will then attend campaign events, including a fundraising dinner at the Plaza Hotel.
Actress Sarah Jessica Parker and Vogue editor Anna Wintour are co-hosting a fundraising dinner for the president's campaign at Parker's Lower Manhattan home.
As with most of the president's frequent New York City visits, it is expected to cause rush hour gridlock.
Expect road closures in Lower Manhattan while the president is at the World Trade Center. If I was a New Yorker traveling at this time, I wouldn't vote for the guy simply for disrupting my day. Does Obama know, or care what he is doing?
#5
Last time he was here in "da ATL", he had traffic stopped at 4:30 pm for him to make it to Dobbins ARB and take off by 6:00 pm or so. Of course, his "meeting" was in south Atlanta, so he literally stopped I75/85 at 4:30 pm, the absolute WORST traffic times in one of the worst commute time areas in the nation. I literally sat on a side street downtown for 30 minutes just to get on the Interstate......
Of course, not that I was gonna vote for him anyway, but this act alone would swing my vote.....especially when I was returning from an out of town trip and I want to get home to the fam....
Posted by: BA ||
06/14/2012 19:47
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It is no exaggeration to say the impact of the pending U.S. and European sanctions against Iran are one of the most taboo subjects at an OPEC meeting in years says Robert Campbell.
A visitor from Mars could well walk away from the day to day events in Vienna under the impression that the impending U.S. and European sanctions regimes has nothing to do with Iranian oil exports.
Ministers and delegates are extremely reticent to discuss the subject of the sanctions, set to take effect July 1, which may well force Tehran, OPEC's No. 2 producer, to slash output.
Don't worry, Champ has been handing out exemptions to the sanctions left and right. Why, it's almost like he's handing out exemptions to ObamaCare...
Already Iranian crude shipments are down by an estimated 1 million barrels per day, according to the International Energy Agency, as Tehran's customers in Europe and Asia cut back purchases ahead of the sanctions.
Instead, ministers focus, at least publicly, on the risks to world economic growth due to Europe's sovereign debt crisis and debate the real size of the growing overhang of oil stocks in consumer nations.
The problem for OPEC on Iran is twofold. First, and foremost, no one really knows what the ultimate effect of the sanctions will be so there's no real grounds to make a policy decision.
Secondly, despite historical antagonism between Iran and some members of OPEC, notably Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf Arab states, there seems to be at least a tacit agreement not to politicize OPEC policy. Although the market has coped well in recent months with lower Iranian oil exports, this has come at a period of traditionally slack demand for crude.
No one is ready to venture an opinion about what will happen July 1.
A newly declared Saudi opposition movement called 'Ikhwan al-Mo'menoun (Faithful Brotherhood) for Freedom of Hejaz' described the al-Saud family reigning over Saudi Arabia as infidels, and called for their removal from power.
Al-Qaeda under new management?
"At this sensitive moment that nations have decided to determine their fate and while a wave (of determination) has risen to change their bitter situation, we grab the string of faith brotherhood and announce that it is now the time to start change (in Saudi Arabia) and declare existence of our Islamic movement," a statement by the group said on Wednesday.
"Since our movement and move is based on Islamic change, the real point of change in our dear homeland is the overthrow of the criminal al-Saud, which is the underlying cause of division in the Muslim world, so that the Muslim people can take the power and infidels are fired from Hejaz," it added.
"This is the start of our secret activity and there is no return on this path," the statement stressed.
The royals aren't feeding the Ikhwan. The founder of the al Saud dynasty slaughtered them a century ago. The problem is that the Saudi hoi polloi is composed of fanatics and the Ikhwan is catering to them. It wouldn't surprise me if the Saudi Royal family were overthrown much as the Iranians overthrew the Shah. That's if we stand aside as we did in 1979 during the Iranian revolution, of course.
Posted by: Charles ||
06/14/2012 17:56
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#6
And let oil reach $5 a gallon? Oh wait...
Thanks to massive demand increases from Asia, world oil consumption has gone from 60m bbl per day in 1980 to 87m bbl per day. That is a 45% increase in consumption, even as American oil production has fallen from 8.6m bpd to 7.8m bpd since 1980, after factoring in the shale oil revolution. The marginal barrel of oil is being produced in Angola, where oil production costs hover in the $80/bbl range, whereas tar sands' and shale oil's cost are $60/bbl. Bottom line is that sub-$2 gas will never again materialize unless a good chunk of the world's population simply vanishes.
And anyone who thinks $5 a gallon gasoline is expensive won't be happy when a Brotherhood-ruled Caliphate (which will consign the name Saudi Arabia to history books along with Rhodesia and Ruthenia) decides to unify the Arabic-speaking ummah in the Middle East via a mixture of subversion and large-scale infusions of weaponry. Think $10 a gallon. And that's not even counting the number of terrorist attacks against Western interests they can mount using the full resources of the largest oil producing state in the world, including attacks against oil pipelines, tankers, and so on. Bin Laden's operation was a shoestring setup mounted by a few thousand amateurs funded with the equivalent of collection plates and several hundred thousand dollars of his personal fortune. At $80/bbl, 1% of Saudi Arabia's oil revenues = $3b. That's oil that costs a few dollars a barrel to extract. The mind boggles at what al Qaeda could do with $3b and a draftee pool of over 10m military age men.
Announcement in Iranian media marks 2nd wave of arrests of alleged assassins accused of killing nuclear scientists; Tehran says it is committed to bring to justice "terrorists" who "martyred scientists in cold blood."
Wrong network. The real one is lead by a guy named 'Mahmoud'...
Iranian security forces on Thursday announced the arrest of a ring of assassins which it says were responsible for the recent killings of nuclear scientists, Iranian media reported. Police also sought to directly tie the suspects to Israel, alleging that they were "hired by an Israeli spy network," according to state news agency IRNA.
Tehran has in the past accused Israel of being behind the killings of several of its nuclear scientists. In January, the Islamic state blamed Israel when a nuclear scientist was killed by a bomb placed on his car by a motorcyclist in Tehran.
The announcement marks the second wave of Iranian arrests of alleged assassins in recent months. In April, Iran announced that it had arrested several members of a "major terrorist group" over the killing of nuclear scientists.
Syrian rebels resting and recovering from wounds in Turkey say that far from receiving a host of heavy weapons to take the fight to government forces, they feel forgotten by their backers.
Some rebels and opposition figures inside and outside Syria say there has been an upsurge in recent weeks of heavier weaponry being smuggled into Syria via Turkey, Lebanon and Iraq.
The weapons, which according to the rebels are being supplied by private sponsors, include thousands of shells, hundreds of sniper rifles, as well as anti-armour missiles.
But in the verdant hills, wooded mountainsides and languid refugee camps of Turkey's southern Hatay province, Free Syrian Army rebels returning from the fight to rest and tend their wounds, said they had seen no sign of any new weapons.
One rebel said less than half the fighters in his unit even had a gun. What weapons they did have, the rebels said, came from inside Syria.
"This is an absolute lie. We have not seen anything. If they are coming through Lebanon, maybe, but if they were, we would see these weapons. We don't see them, where are they?" said one rebel who gave his name only as Ahmad.
"Every household has had one person killed or wounded. If we had weapons we could defend ourselves," said Ahmad, clean-shaven and dressed in jeans and a white t-shirt, not fitting the typical image of a rebel fighter.
In a new ad, the Emergency Committee for Israel demolishes President Obama's pandering to Iran.
Today the Emergency Committee for Israel released a 30-second ad on President Obama's failure to curb Iran's nuclear program. The ad will air in the coming days on broadcast and cable TV in New York and Washington DC, on Sunday political shows, and during weekend sporting events, with additional markets to follow next week.
ECI's executive director, Noah Pollak, explains:
"President Obama says we must prevent the Iranian regime from getting nuclear weapons. Yet talking isn't accomplishing this goal. Today, Iran has six times more enriched uranium than when President Obama came into office -- enough for five nuclear bombs. We fear that the Obama administration is now intent on kicking the can down the road past the election. The Emergency Committee urges the president to live up to his promise to stop Iran. Don't delay. Don't ask others to do our job for us. It's time to act."
(CNN) -- Egypt's highest court declared the parliament invalid Thursday, and the country's interim military rulers promptly declared full legislative authority, triggering a new level of chaos and confusion in the country's leadership.
The Supreme Constitutional Court found that all articles making up the law that regulated parliamentary elections are invalid, said Showee Elsayed, a constitutional lawyer.
The ruling means that parliament must be dissolved, state TV reported.
Parliament had been in session for just over four months. It was dominated by Islamists, a group long viewed with suspicion by the military.
The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, in control of the country since Mubarak's ouster, announced that it now has full legislative power and will announce a 100-person assembly that will write the country's new constitution by Friday.
The Moslem Brüderbund, Egypt's largest Islamist party, said SCAF leaders were taking matters into their own hands "against any true democracy they spoke of."
The court also ruled that former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik. the last prime minister to serve under ousted President Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... , may run in a presidential election runoff this weekend.
The court rejected a law barring former members of Mubarak's regime from running in the election.
The runoff Saturday and Sunday pits him against Mohamed Morsi, head of the Moslem Brüderbund's political arm.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/14/2012
12:58 ||
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#3
If the Muslim Brotherhood doesn't like it, it must be good.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
06/14/2012 14:18
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#4
If the Muslim Brotherhood doesn't like it, it must be good.
I suspect that in Egypt's case the choices range only between horrible and slightly less horrible, Whiskey Mike. Last I heard, Egypt was importing half their food, and paying for the imports with money borrowed from Saudi Arabia, which they haven't a hope in hell of paying back...nor of replacing with income from the tourists who no longer come. Not to mention that in a year or so Israel will become self-sufficient energy-wise, although that income has become erratic since various desert-dwellers developed the habit of blowing up Egypt's oil pipeline.
#5
Absolute best part is that today Biden was extolling the Virtue of the "Arab Spring".
Posted by: Charles ||
06/14/2012 17:55
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#6
Did the generals do it on their own or did somebody tell them that, in spite of what Slow Joe says, there would be no more US dollars if the Muslim Brotherhood takes over?
#7
Tourism is prolly dead. They have no other real income
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/14/2012 18:38
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#8
Who didn't see this coming? Other than the US State Department and Slow Joe.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
06/14/2012 18:46
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#9
Ebbang, the Obama administration has involved the Brotherhood in all sorts of talks and outreach. Doubt the administration passed any message of that sort.
OPEC oil producers are not worried about the shale revolution. They might need to re-run their numbers.
Stay dumb, boys, stay dumb...
The United States imported 4.5 million barrels a day of OPEC crude last year, 20 percent of the cartel's exports and about half the country's import needs.
But thanks to new technologies like hydraulic fracturing now sucking away on North American soil, the continent is already self sufficient in natural gas, and is eyeing an even bigger landmark -- OPEC-free oil supplies.
The U.S. was the fastest-growing non-OPEC oil producer in 2011 for the third year in succession, the annual BP statistical review released on Wednesday said. U.S. oil production is up 1 million bpd since 2006 to 7.84 million bpd, consumption is down 1.85 million to 18.84 million.
"In 1990, North American reserves and production were falling but thanks to unconventional, proved reserves have risen 68 percent since then," ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance told an audience of OPEC ministers on Wednesday.
"North America could become self sufficient in oil as well (as gas) by 2025," he said at a conference before OPEC's policy-setting meeting in Vienna.
State oil company Saudi Aramco, the world number-one oil producer, has acknowledged the North American boom in shale, tar sands and other so-called unconventional production, but its prediction in November was far less explosive, at 6.6 million barrels a day - still well short of U.S. needs, and not until 2035.
And OPEC ministers gathering to decide output policy caps took a very relaxed view of the threat that shale oil might pose.
"Oil from the Middle East will always find a home," said Kuwaiti Oil Minister Hani Hussein. "And we have to wait to see more research to get a better idea about the impact of shale oil development."
"No, I'm not worried at all, they are only projections," agreed Rafael Ramirez, his Venezuelan counterpart. He scoffed at the idea that "shale oil will come to the rescue of consumers, allowing them to shake off the yoke of OPEC."
But the U.S. government's Energy Information Administration has repeatedly torn up its forecasts as shale and oil sands change the game at pace.
So should OPEC fret a little more?
"In some ways they should. Not because North America may become self sufficient, but for the reasons why," said Paul Stevens, a senior research fellow at the Chatham House Royal Institute of International Affairs in London.
"Given the changes in technology involved, if that is applied elsewhere then the assumption that all future increase in global demand will be filled by OPEC is called into question."
Stevens makes an important point. Unconventional oil reserves are spread in a different pattern from traditional ones. Even resource starved world number-one oil importer China has some, and non-OPEC Russia appears to have the biggest of them all.
"If I was an OPEC minister I would be concerned," he said. "This could be significant."
#1
"If I was an OPEC minister I would be concerned,"
If I were an OPEC minister, I would publicly scoff, but privately shovel as much money as I could to environmental groups dedicated to stopping anything to do with exploration and production.
#2
SteveS: If I were an OPEC minister, I would publicly scoff, but privately shovel as much money as I could to environmental groups dedicated to stopping anything to do with exploration and production.
G. K. Chestertons assessment of fundamental liberty:
The free man owns himself. He can damage himself with either eating or drinking; he can ruin himself with gambling. If he does he is certainly a damn fool, and he might possibly be a damned soul; but if he may not, he is not a free man any more than a dog. Broadcast talk 6-11-35
Nanny Bloomberg is now going after popcorn and milk products, because hes very enlightened, as is our self-congratulatory and appallingly smug 21st century.
And everything he is doing was understood in the 19th century as a fundamental tyranny. Particularly by Chesterton and C.S. Lewis, two pretty damned enlightened men.
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber barons cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences. C.S. Lewis
Two Englishmen warning us from the early 20th Century, that to give up our freedom for our own good, is not freedom. It is acquiescing to tyranny with thumb in the mouth, iPod buds in the ear and the tv set on an endless loop of Dancing with the Stars and Say Yes to the Dress reruns. And as Kathy Tyers pointed out through a character in One Mind's Eye, yes a free person may be harmed, but so can the slave, and they have no choice.
Since we seem to have resigned ourselves to the northern logistics route, Pakistan doesn't have much leverage to use to stop our drones.
The drone fired two missiles on a building in the central market of Miramshah, the main town in North Waziristan near the Afghan border, Pakistani officials said.
"A US drone fired two missiles on the first floor of a shop in the main market and at least three militants were killed," a senior official told AFP. No 'leaders' have been reported killed at this time, but at least 3 potential future leaders will not be promoted. Not even letting them hide in the bazaars anymore.
#1
Well guys, after reading this little article, I think we need a "Parallel Universe" category.
What with the Presidential election coming up, the only place we can put some of the horse manure the MSM will spread to run cover for Bambi would be a Parallel Universe. Of course, anytime a WH Presser is covered, that's Paralllel Universe stuff also.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
06/14/2012 13:46
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#3
Thought this was going to be the other Barry. That said: That is like a pr0stitute making a plea for chastity. Or Willy Sutton complaining about the service at the bank.
#2
Good summary of the situation, but he lost me at this point: find Syrian rebel leaders who are truly secular and who oppose radical Islam; who will disavow al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, and other terrorist groups; and who will reject Russian and Iranian hegemony over their country. We will need some reason to believe that this opposition can prevail against not only the Assad regime but also the terrorists and fanatics who also oppose Assad. This must be not a faith-based judgment but a clear-eyed assessment of reality. If such opposition exists, it is marginal.
#6
I like Bolton, but he's been a disaster for American foreign policy. Neo-conservatism is not only a contradiction in terms, it's a bust. We have gone out into the world looking for monsters to slay, and have discovered that these monsters include not just the leadership but the vast majority of the population we have gone over to liberate. And in so doing, we have lost 7,000 men to date, not counting the lives of allied troops, and spent $1T which, while a relative pittance compared to Vietnam War expenditures, was much more than the American public was prepared to spend.
The problem with neo-conservatism is that it tries to apply the lessons of post-WWII Allied governance of Germany, Italy and Japan to nations that were
much less developed,
non-homogeneous,
religious fanatics (even in Iraq, where a thin veneer of secular Baathism convinced neo-cons that inside every Iraqi was a modern cosmopolite waiting to jump out),
not completely defeated (unlike Japan and Germany, which lost 5% and 10% of their populations, respectively),
in the "modern" era, not susceptible to decades of dictatorial oversight the way the defeated Axis Powers were, which is why Iraq and Afghanistan are now sharia states
If Romney is elected and jumps into these pointless foreign policy quagmires the way Bolton recommends, he will be a one-term president who paves the way for yet another Democratic landslide and god-knows-what new laundry list of welfare state programs and environmental nuttiness. The issue has never been whether we can win these wars - it's whether we can win them at what the electorate considers a reasonable cost and whether the outcome is better than what existed before, from a national interest standpoint. So far, the Arab Spring has converted three neutral or allied regimes to semi-hostile or hostile regimes.
The real lesson of WWII is that nation smashing must precede nation building. During WWII, Bomber Harris said "We shall destroy Germany's will to fight. Now that we have the planes and crews, in 1943 and 1944 we shall drop one and a quarter million tons of bombs, render 25 million Germans homeless, kill 900,000 and seriously injure one million." The German public screamed defiance but was so shell-shocked at the war's conclusion that they submitted tamely to Allied rule on both sides of the Iron Curtain.
#7
Such an opposition exists. Its called the Kurds.
If we could simply pick some dictator to back, things would be just peachy. In reality, we are required by human rights groups and the State Department to back the amorphous will of the people which, in Syria, means the will of the troglodyte Sunni Arab majority. Which translates to an Ikhwan regime.
I don't think I agree with you. As bad as Assad is I think that most of the alternatives are worse and I certainly don't trust any of our bureaucrats to back the slightly better option regardless of what that might be.
[An Nahar] A U.S. drone attack killed four Death Eaters on Wednesday in Pakistain's northwestern tribal region, known as a hotbed of Taliban and al-Qaeda myrmidons, security officials said.
There has been a dramatic increase in U.S. drone strikes in Pakistain since a NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... summit in Chicago ended last month without a deal to end a six-month blockade on NATO supplies crossing into Afghanistan from Pakistain.
A drone attack killed 15 Islamic fascistiin North Wazoo on June 4. The dead included senior al-Qaeda figure Abu Yahya al-Libi, according to U.S. officials.
It was not immediately known if there were any high-value targets killed in the latest strike, which again took place in North Waziristan.
"The drone fired two missiles on a vehicle," a security official said. "The corpse count has gone up to four," he added. Previously he said three Islamic fascistihad been killed.
The vehicle was hit in Isha village, about 10 kilometers (six miles) east of Miranshah ... headquarters of al-Qaeda in Pakistain and likely location of Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Haqqani network has established a ministate in centered on the town with courts, tax offices and lots of madrassas... , two other security officials said. The vehicle caught fire after the attack, they said.
Miranshah is the main town in North Waziristan.
Nine drone strikes have been reported in Pakistain since May 23 and the June 4 strike was the deadliest since 18 Pak Taliban were reported killed on November 16, 2011.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/14/2012
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[Shabelle] (Sh. M. Network)-Military officers from Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) in Gedo region, south-west of the country, claimed on Wednesday a major victory over Al shabab fighting.
General Abdi Mahdi, chief of Somali armed forces in Gedo region, told that his troops inflicted heavy losses upon Al shabab fighters during a fierce fighting took place yesterday several locations near Qoqani town in Lower Jubba region of southern Somalia.
"Somali and Kenyan forces repelled Tuesday attacks by Al shabab mounted on military bases in the villages located on the outskirts of Qoqani, killing many jihad boy fighters and damaging some of their battle wagons," said Mr Mahdi.
He stated that all battled areas are now under Somali andKenyacontrol and tightening the overall security in the region to thwart further Al shabab ambush attacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/14/2012
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(Sh. M. Network)-Ahlu Sunna Waljama'a officials have for the first time spoke out about their recent serial withdrawal from some key towns in central Somalia over the past three days.
Abdi-Sahkur Husein Cabdi, one of ASWJ executive authorities, told Shabelle Media during in a telephone interview that their retreat from towns located in Hiiran and Galgadud region of central Somalia was "a military tactics".
He expressed optimistic to retake over all towns from Al shabab fighters who moved into and took control peacefully, shortly after the allied forces from ASWJ and Æthiopian forces under unknown circumstances.
ASWJ officials refuted a statement from interior ministry of Somali government, accusing the group of taking orders fromÆthiopiainstead the government. In the statement the ministry said ASWJ fighters abandoned Somali towns under Æthiopian orders.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/14/2012
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For a map, click here. For a map of Durango state, click here.
To read background reports on the Durango mass graves, click here and here.
By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
A new grave has been found in Durango city in Durango state Wednesday, according to Mexican news reports.
According to a post on the website of El Siglo de Durango news daily, an army unit with the Mexican 10th Military Zone was dispatched to a location on Cristobal Colon in the capital at around 1100 hrs on a report of a mass grave, based on an anonymous citizen's complaint
Exhumation has already begun, and soldiers have already found one human arm. The article hints more remains are expected.
The last of the Durango state mass graves was declared last March by Durango Fiscalia General de Estado (FGE) or Durango state attorney general, Sonia Yadira de la Garza Fragos, ending eight months of finds and exhumations that ended in January totalling 331 dead. The graves, scattered throughout the state with most of them concentrated in Durango city, in toto are the largest mass grave find in the Mexican Drug War.
Cristobal Colon is the location where the last 50 remains were found. So far, it is unclear if this new find will be added to the 331 death toll.
Many of the dead in the Durango mass graves date back years, as far as 2007. Most of the dead from those finds, 287 of 331, had been strangled to death. From the various news reports, it appears the victims were killed in the normal course of organized crime business in Durango state.
Far from a backwater in the Mexican Drug War, Durango state and its capital sit on Mexico Federal Highway 40, the northernmost continuous east-west route, which stretches from the Sinaloa port of Mazatlan to Reynosa, Tamaulipas.
Durango is also one of two state capitals, the other being Saltillo, Coahuila, also located on the highway. Mexico Federal Highway 40 also goes through the La Laguna region of Mexico with one of the heaviest concentrations of Mexican security troops in the north.
Three other dead were found in Durango state since last Tuesday, according to web reports posted on El Context de Durango news daily.
An unidentified man in his 20s was found strangled to death in Durango municipality near the village of Metates Tuesday. The victim was wrapped in a blanket and left on Mexico Federal Highway 40 at about the 27 kilometer marker between Durango and Mazatlan.
Two unidentified individuals in an advanced state of decomposition were found in Gomez Palacio municipality Tuesday. The victims were found on a road connecting Jimenez ejido with Huitron ejido by a resident of the La Laguna region of Mexico, which includes Torreon, Coahuila as well as Gomez Palacio.
In an unrelated development, a Mexican Army unit seized drugs and guns near a village in Pueblo Nuevo in Durango, according to a post on El Sol de Mexico news daily website.
The raid took place two kilometers from the village of Cebollas where soldiers seized 417.8 kilograms of marijuana packaged in 44 units. A total of 195 kilograms of marijuana seed in 13 sacks and three sacks with a total of 44.9 kilograms of poppy seeds were seized as well.
Weapons taken in the raid included two rifles, one grenade launcher, 29 weapons magazines and 120 rounds of ammunition.
No detentions were reported in the raid.
Pueblo Nuevo municipality was where six suspected drug members died in an intergang shootout last month. That shootout took place near the village of La Hierbabuena near the border with Sinaloa state.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
Britain has opted out of new EU directive on confiscating criminal assets in move described as drawing 'a line in the sand' on interference from Brussels.
Dominic Raab MP, a leading Tory backbencher, said: 'Ministers have drawn an important line in the sand, refusing to give up democratic control over asset freezing because it is not in the British national interest.'
Home Office minister James Brokenshire told MPs that Britain would not accept the proceeds of crime directive because it could undermine domestic rules.
Under the Lisbon treaty, which was formally agreed in December 2009, the UK won the right to opt in or out of any law and order policies by 2014.
The Government's decision to use the opt out is the first time that ministers have used it on one of the 130 new EU measures that the UK must accept or reject by 2014.
In February more than 100 Tory MPs challenged the Prime Minister to take a stand against Europe and particularly the 130 possible opt outs in the Lisbon Treaty.
In the letter to The Daily Telegraph, signed by two former cabinet ministers and several committee chairmen, the MPs warned that if David Cameron failed to act the transfer of powers to Europe will become irreversible.
Mr Brokenshire told MPs Britain has extensive, effective laws governing seizures from organised criminal gangs - much of it on a civil, not criminal, footing.
Mr Brokenshire said Britain would continue to negotiate to try and improve the directive, which he said would be benefit some parts of Europe.
The directive would have created the power to freeze assets without a court order using criminal law, opening the door to legal challenges, Mr Brokenshire said.
He added that "if criminal law procedural protections and a criminal law standard proof were introduced... our law enforcement agencies would find it harder to disrupt the workings of some of the most dangerous organised criminals".
During the debate, Eurosceptic Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg MP said introducing the directive would mean all policies to confiscate assets and tackle money laundering would be dictated by Brussels.
Families will be told that they should work at least 35 hours a week, rather than rely on state handouts, if they want to avoid their children living in poverty.
Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, will say that Labour's strategy to spend more than £150 billion in extra benefit payments for poor families had failed to stop child poverty.
Figures to be published today are expected to show that the Government failed to meet its statutory target to halve the problem by 2010 - despite the huge amount of taxpayers' money spent on tackling it.
Mr Duncan Smith will unveil a new analysis which will show that hundreds of thousands of children will be lifted out of poverty if at least one of their parents works 35 hours a week earning the minimum wage.
The introduction of the universal credit, under the Government's welfare reforms, will mean that people returning to work from benefits will continue to receive some state support. Mr Duncan Smith will also set out plans to change the definition of child poverty so that a more sophisticated analysis is used.
Any child living in a household which earns less than 60 per cent of the typical income is defined as living in poverty. This is likely to be changed so that children living in workless households or those with drug-dependent parents are highlighted.
Speaking at the Abbey Community Centre in London, Mr Duncan Smith will accuse Labour of "pouring vast amounts of money" into increased benefit payments to tackle poverty. He is expected to say that the strategy has failed and parents need to be helped back to work rather than simply subsidised by the state.
"For those who are able to work, work has to be seen as the best route out of poverty. For work is not just about more money -- it is transformative. It's about taking responsibility for yourself and your family."
Mr Duncan Smith will indicate that Labour wasted large amounts of public funds as it failed to halve child poverty. "The last Government spoke about the need to tackle poverty, and poured vast amounts of money into the pursuit of this ambition -- £150 billion was spent on tax credits alone between 2004 and 2010.
"Overall, the welfare bill increased by some 40 percent in real terms, even in a decade of rising growth and rising employment," he will say.
Ministers are drawing up plans to introduce a series of measures to gauge whether families are living in poverty, such as whether parents have drug or alcohol problems or whether they are working.
Mr Duncan Smith's call for disadvantaged families to return to work may come at an inopportune time with unemployment rising as the double-dip recession has led to a lack of jobs.
William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, caused controversy recently by telling Britons they had to work harder to help the UK escape from recession.
#1
"For those who are able to work, work has to be seen as the best route out of poverty. For work is not just about more money -- it is transformative. It's about taking responsibility for yourself and your family."
Personal responsibility, social weaning, working for money.... all very controversial.
#3
A quick calculation on my restaurant napkin:
37 hr week on Minimum Wage = approximately £840 pcm after tax and NI.
Money out on that = £820, (conservative figures of £500 rent, £120 Council Tax, £80 travel to work, £120 essential bills), leaving £20 pcm for everything else. Baked potatos breakfast, lunch and dinner!
Dole money = approximately £256 pcm, rent paid, Council Tax paid, no travel to work costs, that leaves £136 pcm after bills. Maybe some canned tomatoes with the baked tatties.
Why attack the unemployed and further reduce their means, when the real problem is slave labour and poverty anyway under an unrealistic Minimum Wage designed to make the rich richer.
Rant off, lunch time, off to forage for some nuts and berries
#4
Oh dear, not an idiot who believes the minimum wage raises wages! It only creates unemployment. Think of it as compulsory unemployment level. i.e. If you add less value than 120%* of the "minimum wage" per hour, you're not allowed to be employed.
*20% Cost of employment overhead, management costs, Employer NI.
#5
I'll wear my idiot badge alongside my other medal if that's the case.
Interesting factoids you state there. Taxed @ more than 100% of earnings, examples please. The benefits system as a Labour ploy? Don't. You don't think the Tory lack of taxing the rich isn't a ploy in the same style? Goose and gander, boyo. As for means testing, I would have thought that was better for your line of thinking or rather no benefit system at all, which was actually originally a safety net to end the appalling poverty in your land.
Now, rather than resorting to name calling, perhaps you can leave your Dark Side and address my point that it is not worth getting out of bed for a job that pays not even £20 pm compared to benefits. And don't tell me the unemployed are workshy, or that they should all become Engineers off their own backs. Your system is stupid, you are, in fact, stupid and are inviting a whole lot more trouble on your once green and pleasant land with your self-righteous, selfish veiws.
I would advise cutting back on the double G&Ts with your lunch, you may not be enjoying them much longer, and they do not encourage coherency or civility.
#8
Deadeye seems to think that wealth and jobs are a fixed pie, so that the only question is who gets how large a slice.
In reality, wealth can be grown for the entire society if capital is well invested and if it is enhanced not only with natural resources but also with human intellectual value. The latter can be as modest as the pleasant demeanor and organization of a receptionist or as broad as a major technology invention.
BrightPebbles is right to say that the minimum wage limits the number of employed. The question from my perspective is whether a given level of minimum wage does so to the degree that it overshadows some social benefit provided by the wages in the earner's pocket. In the US, applying minimum wage indiscriminately is a major reason that 70% of teenagers do not have any job this summer. That means: no spending money, but also no work experience to draw on in the future.
#10
Oh dear, not an idiot who believes the minimum wage raises wages! It only creates unemployment.
No. It causes inflation as well as unemployment. Every time the minimum wage rises, so does inflation. Think about it: if nobody can afford an item, whoever is selling the item will be forced to lower the price. But if the minimum wage is increased so that people can afford the item, whoever is selling it will keep the price the same or even raise it.
The minimum wage causes unemployment by telling workers and their potential employers that they cannot legally compete against workers in other countries. Then everybody acts surprised when the jobs are shipped offshore. Then the prices for the imported goods are jacked up to whatever those on the dole and minimum wage workers can afford.
Better to cut the dole and let employers pay people what they're worth instead of letting the nanny state determine what the wages will be. The market is smarter than the nanny. It might also help to stop importing dole recipients from Third World countries.
#12
Correct me if I'm wrong, lotp, but what you're trying to say is that people should accept dirt poor wages so that their real wage be wisely invested by some suit? So sorry to tell you, but the trust has evaporated, your assets have been exported and the cheery receptionists smile replaced by the loathing of insecurity. As for your 70% youth unemployment, well, now their parents can't even afford to give them pocket money and, unfortunately, their first language isn't Chinese.
So, yes, let your betters, hell-bent on OWG for their own benefit, degrade your children's. futures. They've really been showing how to do it so well, haven't they?
#14
So, yes, let your betters, hell-bent on OWG for their own benefit, degrade your children's. futures. They've really been showing how to do it so well, haven't they?
By this, who do you mean? Labour in the UK or Democrats in the US?
#15
So Ebang, what caused inflation and unemployment in the pre-Minimum Wage era?
Well, let's see...there was FDR with his socialist policies in the 1930's and then there was LBJ with his socialist policies in the 1960's.
Now, it's true that we had a correction in the stock market in 1929. There were some folks who got caught betting with borrowed money. But at least when they'd jumped out of a window we didn't have to bail them out.
#17
EU, yep, and you forgot the '70's oil crisis which caused a lot of pain. However, I will leave you with the thought that these crises are man-made and occur at predictable intervals for the benefit of very few.
#20
If I remember right, apologies no time for searching, the San Fran Bay area has a local minimum wage of $13, don't quote me, my point is that a popular sandwich place could no longer sell its foot longs for $5 on account of wage costs. I'm sure one of their options was cutting staff therefore working the remainder harder...if layoffs are still legal thereabouts.
I also know that peoples' givashits can rust and break when they find that not working is just the same, only they don't have to go to work. Once anectdote is a fellow whose idea of working is to have a couple cold ones then go into an interview. Auto failure, except for the proof of still looking for work.
"The minimum wage in Nunavut is the highest in the country at $11 an hour, but high living costs mean it doesn't have the same purchasing power. And the unemployment rate is high, at 16%."
#22
Well only an idiot would be looking for a minimum wage job in Nunavut. Anybody with a brain would travel a couple hours south to Ft McMurray (Alberta Oil Sands) where due to extreme labour shortages even a coffee server at Timmys gets to name his/her price.
[Yemen Post] Yemeni aircrafts stroke on Wednesday Ansar al-Sharia ...a Yemeni Islamist militia which claims it is not part of al-Qaeda, even though it works about the same and for the same ends... -- al-Qaeda affiliate in the country--hideouts in the southeastern province of Shabwa, killing at least 27 snuffies including leading figures, local sources said.
The sources said that government warplanes launched some Arclight airstrikes targeting the bad turban's whereabouts in Azan town, al-Qaeda stronghold, and in al-Hota, the placid provincial capital.
The sources said that dozens of the al-Qaeda-linked snuffies were in the building when it was bombed, leaving at least 27 of them killed. Also, rumors circulating around the province indicated that the building was used as a laboratory for making explosives.
A senior security officer confirmed that senior al-Qaeda leaders were among those killed in the Arclight airstrikes.
However, the man who has no enemies isn't anybody and has never done anything... the terror network denied in a statement posted on Facebook that some snuffies were killed in the bombing. It said that the Arclight airstrikes were conducted by US drones; not by Yemeni air force.
The bad turban group said that the Arclight airstrikes targeted a house that belongs to a citizen from Azan, destroying the house and damaging a nearby mosque.
According to the statement, no victims have fallen as a result to the Arclight airstrikes.
In the meantime, the festivities between the army troops and al-Qaeda bad turban are still ongoing in Shaqra area of Abyan ...a governorate of Yemen. The region was a base to the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army terrorist group until it dropped the name and joined al-Qaeda. Its capital is Zinjibar. In March 2011, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula declared the governate an Islamic Emirate after seizing control of the region. The New York Times fastidiously reported that those in control, while Islamic hard boyz, are not in fact al-Qaeda, but something else that looks, tastes, smells, and acts the same. Yemeni government forces launched an effort to re-establish control of the region when President-for-Life Saleh was tossed and the carnage continues... , after the snuffies were driven out yesterday of the their biggest strongholds: Zinjubar, the placid provincial capital of Abyan, and Ja'ar.
The army's victory is considered the biggest so far since the terrorist organization took advantage of the unrest and seized huge swaths of land in the south last year.
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#1
Even crossed out - it smells like DRINKS! ARC DIM!
G&T Please!
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06/14/2012 15:00
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[An Nahar] La Belle France plans to ask the United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... Security Council to make U.N.-Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... envoy Kofi Annan ...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo... 's Syria ceasefire plan mandatory, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Wednesday, as British Foreign Secretary William Hague said that Syria was "on the edge of a collapse."
Fabius called on fellow Security Council members to "take recourse to Chapter Seven (of the U.N. charter) to make the measures in the Annan plan obligatory."
He told a presser: "We are working on that and we hope that measure will be put in place quickly."
The U.N. Charter's Chapter Seven allows measures to be imposed on a country under penalty of sanctions or the use of force.
"We even heard today China expressing its deep concern. So the Security Council must now step up a gear, and place under Chapter Seven, that is to say make obligatory, the terms of the Annan plan or face very tough sanctions," he said.
"I remind you that the Annan plan calls notably for an end to violence, the withdrawal of the army from cities, bringing in humanitarian aid, that is everything that will allow the beginning of the political transition in Syria and the departure of Bashir al-Assad," Fabius said.
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[Jerusalem Post] Mosab Hasan Youssef was invited to visit by MK, is questioned for over 3 hours at B-G Airport before being allowed to enter.
Mosab Hassan Yusef, the son of Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, founder Sheikh Hassan Yusef, arrived in Israel Wednesday evening from the US.
Despite receiving an official invitation to visit the Knesset from Deputy Minister Ayoub Kara (Likud), Yusef was incarcerated You have the right to remain silent... at passport control for more than three hours of questioning before being allowed to proceed.
"They questioned me for a long time but they treated me well and with respect," said Yusef regarding his detainment at Ben-Gurion Airport.
Yusef, who served as his father's right-hand man, worked as an undercover agent for the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) from 1997 until 2007 and was considered the most valuable spy within Hamas during the second intifada.
In his capacity as a source for the Shin Bet, Yusef prevented dozens of terrorist attacks and planned liquidations against Israeli leaders. He further assisted in exposing Hamas terrorist cells and provided intelligence that led to the detention of key Paleostinian leaders -- including his own father. In 2007, Yusef, who is a convert to Christianity, quit being an agent and moved to the US where he received political asylum.
[An Nahar]
Beijing said Wednesday Chinese companies were not involved in shipping missile launch vehicles to North Korea last year, denying a Japanese newspaper report that accused it of breaking U.N. resolutions.
The Asahi Shimbun report -- based on Japanese government sources -- is the most strident of recent claims that China has been involved in helping to arm its wayward ally Pyongyang.
"China has been strictly implementing relevant Security Council resolutions and its own laws and regulations on non-proliferation export control," foreign ministry front man Liu Weimin said in response to a question on the report.
"Chinese companies did not export items that are banned by relevant Security Council resolutions or Chinese laws and regulations."
Asked whether China may have exported the vehicles through companies from third countries, Liu refused to comment further.
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[An Nahar] The leader of Tunisia's ruling Islamist party on Wednesday dismissed suggestions that recent unrest was the result of a call to rise up by Al-Qieda supremo Ayman al-Zawahiri ... Formerly second in command of al-Qaeda, now the head cheese, occasionally described as the real brains of the outfit. Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area. That is not a horn growing from the middle of his forehead, but a prayer bump, attesting to how devout he is... "Ayman al-Zawahiri has no influence in Tunisia. This man is a disaster for Islam and for Moslems," Ennahda leader Rached Ghannouchi told news hounds.
True. An interesting development that Mr. Ghannouchi is willing to say so publicly.
"Al-Qaeda's project is one of destruction and civil war," he said, citing the Iraqi, Afghan and Somali examples. "We see no link between the Salafists ...Salafists are ostentatiously devout Moslems who figure the ostentation of their piety gives them the right to tell others how to do it and to kill those who don't listen to them... in Tunisia and Al-Qaeda."
Violence broke out across the country after men identified as following the ultra-conservative Salafist brand of Islam destroyed paintings at a Tunis exhibition they deemed "blasphemous".
The incident took place on Sunday and riots pitting Salafist demonstrators against police broke out in several towns on Monday and Tuesday, leaving one dead and dozens maimed.
The authorities locked away ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... 165 people and imposed a nighttime curfew on several regions in Tunisia, vowing to crack down on rioters.
Tunisia's Salafist movement, which has flexed its muscle since the fall of longtime president Zine el Abidine Ben Ali in January last year, denied any involvement in the violence.
The movement perhaps not, but arrested members show the membership certainly was.
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[Dawn] Three people of two rival groups on Tuesday died in an armed clash in Zangikhel village in Lakki Marwat.
Waris Khan told Lakki police that his son, constable Azizullah, and nephew Mohammad Bashir were sprayed with bullets by Baram and his brothers, Mir Aslam and Sultan, in the village's playground. He said the attack critically injured Azizullah and Bashir, who were later pronounced dead.
One alleged attacker, Sultan Ayaz, also died after he was attacked by the rival group in the playground.
His sister, Zar Bibi, lodged an FIR with Lakki police, saying she heard noise from the playground near her house and ran towards it.
"I saw Latifullah armed with a Kalashnikov and his brothers, Idrees and Barkatullah, with pistols running away," she said, adding she found her brother, Sultan, injured. She said her brother died on the way to hospital.
Police blamed the firing on a dispute between children and said they had registered separate cases and began investigation.
Meanwhile, ...back at the wine tasting, Vince was about to start tasting his third quart... assistant coordination officer Liaqat Ali Bhatti on Tuesday distributed goats among poor people of Marmandi Azeem union council in Manjiwala village.
The event was organised by Community Motivation and Development Organisation (CMDO), a nongovernmental organization, with the support of Pakistain Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) under its Livelihood Enhancement and Protection Programme, which is meant to alleviate poverty, increase livelihood opportunities and improve living standard of rural population.
CMDO programme manager Moamar Jalal, provincial coordinator Azeem Khan, regional programme manager Mohammad Israr, social organiser Ishfaq Ahmad Khan, EDO (health) Dr Abdul Ghaffar Wazir, district livestock officer Mohammad Ayub, former local government representatives and notables of the area were present on the occasion.
The CMDO representatives said besides distributing goats, their organization also provided livelihood opportunities to the poor people of the area. They said CMDO also helped people start small hotel or tailoring businesses and establish general store, medical store and saloon
shop and fertilizer outlets.
"Poor and deserving residents of union council also got horse and hand-driven carts under the programme," Mr Moamar said.
ACO Liaqat Bhatti lauded the efforts of CMDO for poverty alleviation and provision of livelihood opportunities to the residents of the backward district.
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International Crimes Unit arrest foreign national residing in Tel Aviv for alleged terror activity; say he served as terror group's 'fundraiser'
Cleared for publication: The Police International Crimes Unit have incarcerated Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! an Eritrea ...is run by the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), with about the amounts of democracy and justice you'd expect from a party with that name. National elections have been periodically scheduled and cancelled; none have ever been held in the country. The president, Isaias Afewerki, has been in office since independence in 1993 and will probably die there of old age. ... n national for alleged terror affiliation, Ynet learned Wednesday.
Tel Aviv resident Kabari Gabriosus, 22, is suspected of raising money among the Eritrean migrant community and transferring it to a terrorist group, possibly based in the Sinai Peninsula.
Police incarcerated Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! two more suspects along with Gabriosus: One was identified as a resident of Ramla and the other as a resident of Beit Zurif in the West Bank.
The police said that Gabriosus' arrest was made possible following a lengthy, covert investigation. He was charged with conspiracy to commit a crime, terror affiliation, funding a terror group and money laundering.
The latter charge, according to the police, is indicative of the large sums of money he delivered to his handlers.
According to available information, Gabriosus came under suspicion in the course of police surveillance of several terror suspects in central Israel.
Investigators believed he was serving as the group's "fundraiser" -- collecting money from various foreign nationals living in Tel Aviv, the greater Tel Aviv area and other cities in central Israel.
According to the case file, Gabriosus enjoyed a certain standing with various criminal and terror elements in Sinai. Investigators also told the court that so far, he has not been cooperating with them.
Gabriosus was arraigned by Rishon Lezion Magistrate's Court: "The material submitted by the police so far presents sufficient evidence implicating the suspect in the acts attributed to him," Judge Shira Zamir said in her ruling.
"After reviewing the case file, including its confidential addendums, it is clear to me that this extensive investigation is ongoing and that its sensitive nature requires various measures for it to be completed."
Judge Zamir granted the police's motion and remanded the suspect until Sunday.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga, convicted of using child soldiers in his rebel army, should be sentenced to 30 years in jail, the International Criminal Court's ... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ... chief prosecutor said on Wednesday.
"The prosecution requests the chamber to impose a sentence of 30 years in prison," Luis Moreno-Ocampo told judges before the court in The Hague, adding he was asking for a "severe sentence".
Lubanga, 51, was convicted in March of war crimes for using child soldiers in a brutal conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in the ICC's first verdict since it started work a decade ago.
He was found guilty of abducting children as young as 11 and forcing them to fight and commit atrocities in 2002-3 in the DRC's northeastern gold-rich Ituri region. During the trial prosecutors told how maidens of tender years served as sex-slaves, while young boys were trained to fight.
Lubanga risks 30 years in jail or, if judges decide the crimes are exceptionally grave, life in prison.
In a submission in May, Moreno-Ocampo asked judges to take into account the scale and brutality of Lubanga's crimes, the vulnerability of his victims and the impact on them.
"The prosecution will request a sentence in the name of each child recruited, in the name of the Ituri region," the outgoing prosecutor told the court on Wednesday.
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[Bangla Daily Star] The government is taking measures to resist arson and vandalism centring on hartal ... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ... s called by the opposition, said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ...Bangla dynastic politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Bangla Awami League since 1981. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangladesh. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She has once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide... in parliament yesterday.
Besides increasing police patrol and involvement of intelligence agencies, it will set a plan to maintain law and order during hartal hours, she said. Patrolling of police has already been increased at some sensitive points in the capital and law enforcers have also been deployed to frisk people upon suspicion, Hasina added.
She informed politicians that a total of 59 cases had been filed across the country in connection with "untoward incidents" in the recent hartals enforced by the main opposition BNP and its allies. Five people were killed and 83 others injured while 79 vehicles were torched and vandalised during the hartal hours.
The BNP-led opposition enforced a series of hartals across the country after BNP Organising Secretary M Ilias Ali went missing around midnight of April 17 from Banani in Dhaka.
The number of people enjugged Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! in the cases so far is 304, 18 cases are under trial and 41 cases are under investigation, she told the House, adding coppers had been given orders to bring people, who were involved in arson and vandalism, under speedy trial tribunal.
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[An Nahar] Istanbul police rubbed out one of the two gunnies who opened fire with automatic weapons and threw a grenade at a cop shoppe late Tuesday, Anatolia news agency reported.
The two person or persons unknown attacked the cop shoppe at Istinye on the European shore of Istanbul and a police officer returned fire, killing one of them, Anatolia said.
"First they fired with an automatic weapon, and then the other assailant threw a hand grenade," Istanbul police chief Huseyin Capkin was quoted as saying by Anatolia on Wednesday.
"Our duty officer rendered one of the individuals ineffective," he said, a term used by Turkey's security forces to refer to deaths.
The injured assailant was taken to a private hospital where he died, said Anatolia, adding that the other man bravely ran away.
Police launched a hunt for the man who fled.
Police also found a suspicious package near the same station at Istinye which contained a bomb, Anatolia said. Capkin said the incident was an "act of terrorism," but did not elaborate on its perpetrators.
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[An Nahar] Egypt's justice minister on Wednesday granted the army the right to arrest civilians, after such powers expired with the lifting of the decades-old state of emergency last month.
Adel Abdel Hamid issued a decision granting army personnel -- including military intelligence and military police -- the right to detain civilians.
The measure will take effect on Thursday and remain in place at least until a new constitution is written.
On Tuesday, parliament elected a commission tasked with drafting the country's new charter but the process could take months.
The army took the job of policing during the uprising that toppled president Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... last year, when police largely disappeared from the streets following days deadly festivities with protesters.
But their right to arrest civilians ended on May 31 when the controversial state of emergency was lifted.
"The decision fills a legal vacuum, as the army is still on the streets even after the state of emergency was lifted," Adel al-Mursi, the head of military justice, told news hounds.
The decision is likely to infuriate activists and protesters, who have campaigned for years for an end to the state of emergency, which granted police wide powers of arrest and was often used to curb dissent.
The measure comes just days before a presidential election runoff between ex-premier Ahmed Shafiq and Moslem Brüderbund candidate Mohammed Mursi.
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Children are being groomed for sex on a huge scale across Britain but police have only uncovered "the tip of the iceberg", a Government minister has said.
Tim Loughton, the children's minister, said there is a "real problem in this country" with exploitation of children.
The MP spoke out after a series of recent cases in which men have been jailed for grooming young girls for sex.
Speaking in the House of Commons, Mr Loughton said he has long though the grooming of children for sex is "much bigger problem than it may appear now on the radar".
He said recent court cases show the authorities are "at last waking up" to the scandal.
The most high-profile prosecution has been against nine Muslim men found guilty of grooming young white girls for sex in Rochdale.
Following the trial, Baroness Warsi, the Coalition's only Muslim minister, argued that a small minority of Pakistani men see white women as "third-class citizens" and "fair game".
Mr Loughton yesterday said the authorities must not "shy away from difficult issues around culture" when addressing the exploitation of children.
He said the case raised "very troubling questions about the attitude of the perpetrators, all but one of whom were from Pakistani backgrounds, towards white girls".
But he said there were victims and exploiters from "all social and ethnic sets as well".
#3
...well the government could send fathers to good old Texas for some training on dealing with this cause we know they're not going to send the Bobbies.
[Iran Press TV] Moody's Investors Service has downgraded the credit rating of Spain by three levels, days after the country secured 100 billion euros (125 billion dollars) to rescue its banks.
The credit rating agency said on Wednesday that the bailout "will further increase the country's debt burden, which has risen dramatically since the onset of the financial crisis," AFP reported.
Moody's cut three notches from A3 to Baa3, which is the lowest level of "investment grade" or just above "speculative" or "junk" grade.
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#6
pulled most of my 401K money left in Janus Overseas Fund (JAOSX) this Spring. I see bad things abroad, and no real chance the PIGS+ will make the tough decisions (see: France) for an adult path correction. Before 2008, Janus kicked ass.
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06/14/2012 11:10
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#7
The architects of the EMU and the euro asserted that one goal was to "counterbalance" the US and the dollar. In fact, the whole mess was predicated on, assumed, and required continued US strength and growth.
Some counterbalance, that can't hold itself up. I doubt there will be any Marshall Plan this time guys, sorry.
For a map, click here. For a map of Zacatecas state, click here.
By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
Areas around Fresnillo, Villanueva and Sombrerete municipalities in Zacatecas state have heated up since last Sunday as rival armed gangs engaged in firefights killing at least three. Also in Sombrerete, a small aircraft crashed in a remote area of the municipality killing three according to Mexican news accounts.
According to a news item posted on the website of El Sol de Zacatecas news daily, a small aircraft crashed near the village of Charco Blanco en Sombrerete municipality. Four unidentified individuals were killed. The report added the authorities at the time of the news posting did not know if the aircraft was a government or private bird.
Meanwhile, armed groups presumably associated with the drug cartel fought each other in several engagements in Sombrerete, Villanueva and Fresnillo municipalities since Sunday.
Two individuals were found Tuesday in two separate vehicles abandoned after a Sunday shootout between armed groups in Fresnillo municipality. The first unidentified victim was found in a stolen abandoned Volkswagen Jetta sedan near the village of Purisima del Maguey. Inside the vehicle was found one AK-47 rifle, 1,000 rounds of ammunition and at least 24 packages of marijuana.
Near the village of Enrique Estrada, also in Fresnillo municipality, a second shooting victim was found dead aboard a Volkswagen Bora sedan, and was identified as Fernando Dueñas Acevedo. The news report said the second victim may have also been involved in Sunday's shootout in Villanueva municipality, which took the life in a police agent.
Also in Fresnillo municipality, police agents raided a safe house in El Triunfo, seizing undisclosed quantities of drugs and weapons. No detainees were reported in that raid
A separate El Sol de Zacatecas report said that numerous gunfights have taken place since Tuesday between armed groups in the hills between Valparaiso and Sombrerete municipalities. The report did not mention any casualties.
In Valparaiso last March five unidentified individuals were killed by elements of the Mexican 52 Infantry Battalion. A second relief element dispatched from a base in Fresnillo to reinforce the fight was attacked. No one was reported wounded or detained in that second shootout.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
[Ma'an] A Tunisian military court on Wednesday sentenced ousted dictator Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali to 20 years in jail in absentia for inciting violence during a police attempt to smuggle his nephew out of the country during last year's revolt.
Ben Ali, who fled to 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... as protests engulfed Tunisia on Jan. 14 2011, has already been sentenced to decades in jail - also in absentia - on charges ranging from corruption to torture and faces more charges.
Last month, a Tunisian military prosecutor demanded that the death penalty be imposed on the former strongman for his role in the deaths of protesters in the towns where the Arab Spring began last year.
There is, however, little indication that Riyadh would be willing to extradite Ben Ali.
No bigwigs have so far been convicted for the deaths of more than 300 people in last year's uprising, angering the families of the dead and raising pressure on the Tunisian government to ensure that justice is done.
Tunisia's government has faced persistent criticism over its failure to persuade Saudi Arabia to hand over Ben Ali and his wife Leila Trabelsi, a former hairdresser whose lavish lifestyle and clique of wealthy relatives came to be seen by many Tunisians as a symbol of the corrupt era.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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[Dawn] A trader was bumped off and his younger brother maimed at their shop in the Shershah scrap market on Tuesday, police said.
They said that the gun attack took place at around 1.15pm when two men came to the shop on a cycle of violence.
"The employees at the shop were told to move away by the assailants, who fired at the two brothers and rode away," said a police brass hat.
The maimed men were rushed to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where Karrar Ali, 60, was pronounced dead on arrival while his younger brother Zakir Ali, 42, was admitted for treatment.
Both men were elder brothers of Shakir Ali, a former member of the Sindh Assembly belonging to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement ...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead... The police said that spent bullet casings found at the scene of the crime suggested that a 9mm pistol had been used in the killing.
"The incident is not related to extortion. It was an act of assassination," said SSP-West Amir Farooqui.
A large number of MQM activists and party leaders reached the hospital after getting the news of the attack.
The Shershah scrap market was shut in protest over the killing. Some markets in central district were also shut when news of the killing spread in the city.
The police said that the elder brother Karrar had been in the metal sheets business for the past 45 years in the same market. The slain
trader was a resident of F.B Area's Block 13 and a father of four.
Shershah market president Malick Zahid Dehlavi said that the gun attack was mounted at a shop not far from the Jehanabad police post.
Following the October 2010 Shershah carnage, 164 coppers were deployed in the market for security but currently their number had come down to 64, he added.
"At the time of the killing, two coppers along with a police mobile van were present at a police post in the market but they didn't do anything," he said.
In October 2010, 14 men were mowed down and nearly a dozen others were maimed when armed assailants targeted shopkeepers in the automotive section of the Shershah scrap market. Since then, most of the businesses had been relocated to different parts of the city, said another office-bearer of the market association.
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[Ma'an] Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, leader Mahmoud al-Zahhar on Wednesday said a new era of civilization was dawning in which borders created by Israel will disappear.
Israel's borders are not determined by nationality or identity, al-Zahhar said in a speech at the headquarters of the Paleostinian Legislative Council.
Welcoming activists from the latest Miles of Smiles convoy, al-Zahhar said the PLC building would become "the capital of the great Islamic nations."
The council headquarters were established when Gazoo was under Egyptian control, and later transferred to the Israeli military governor, al-Zahhar said.
Israel bombed the PLC building during its 2008 offensive on Gazoo, Operation Cast Lead.
"Our project isn't extreme Islamism, it's a relationship between humans together and a relationship that resists corruption and occupation and dependency.
"Relations with the world are based on permanence and justice and not clashing civilizations."
[Dawn] Pakistain's foreign minister said on Tuesday difficult talks with the United States to repair frayed ties and re-open NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... supply routes to Afghanistan were not being thwarted by a Pak demand for high tariffs on the supplies.
Once upon a time, O Best Beloved, the Pakistanis were really good at Byzantine intrigue...or so they said about themselves. They still say that about themselves, but things have changed, as things are wont to do.
Pakistain cut the routes for NATO supplies in November last year to protest against the death of 24 Pak soldiers killed in cross-border fire from NATO aircraft.
The supply lines for goods shipped in to the Pak port of Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... and trucked in to landlocked Afghanistan have been vital for US-led forces over their more than 10-year involvement in Afghanistan.
Now, the routes are seen as important for the withdrawal of most foreign troops from Afghanistan before the end of 2014.
But talks on getting the routes re-opened have become snagged on a Pak demand for a substantial increase in the fees Pakistain charges on the supplies, media has reported.
But Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar rejected that.
"Pakistain is not in any sort of price-gouging debate right now. So these impressions are indeed incorrect, wrong and must be dispersed as soon as possible," Khar told news hounds.
"The US side knows very well the needs and requirements to enable us to move in that direction, to enable us to take that decision," she said, referring to re-opening the routes.
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[An Nahar] Five people were seriously injured in fighting between Tuareg and beturbanned fascisti in northern Mali Wednesday, officials said.
Oumar Sall of the Timbuktu Islamic Council said the festivities broke out as Tuareg of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) attempted to pass a checkpoint manned by fighters from the Islamist Ansar Dine (Defenders of Faith).
"The people from MNLA wanted to pass but Ansar Dine refused and then the clash took place," he told Agance La Belle France Press.
A nurse at the main hospital in Timbuktu, Oumar Ould Sidy Ibrahim, said five people were seriously injured, four of them from the MNLA and one from Ansar Dine. This was confirmed by a police source.
The two rebel groups with different ideologies have had an uneasy relationship since occupying the north of Mali after a coup in Bamako in March.
Tensions have risen over efforts to merge and form a breakaway state, which remain deadlocked as the parties fail to agree on the implementation of strict Islamic law.
Ansar Dine, which is backed by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and has the upper hand, says the implementation of sharia is non-negotiable.
The fighters clashed last week in the first serious confrontation between the two groups, after several protests by residents of northern towns against Ansar Dine and in support of the MNLA.
Meanwhile the prime minister of Mali's embattled transitional administration, Cheikh Modibo Diarra, held talks with brass hats in Algeria, the region's dominant military power.
AQIM's top leaders are Algerian and several regional and Western powers have urged Algiers to take the lead in military and diplomatic efforts to restore Mali's territorial integrity.
"The situation in Mali and in the Sahel as well as the state of bilateral cooperation and means of strengthening it will be the main focus of the discussions," an Algerian foreign ministry statement said.
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#1
Frank G and the Turbans.... in Narco Herb Brown ... wow! Sort of many bridges to far to an Islamic Paradise by the Dashboard Lights?
Posted by: Water Modem ||
06/14/2012 9:45
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#2
It's a medley of my hit
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/14/2012 11:06
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[An Nahar] Fighting between rival tribes in the mountains of western Libya has claimed 14 lives and left dozens maimed in the past two days, the government said on Wednesday.
"Fourteen people were killed and about 89 maimed in combat in the Nafusa mountains," Nasser al-Manaa, front man of the interim government, told journalists in Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of thich is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... He gave no details on the cause of the festivities or the parties involved.
On Monday, the official LANA news agency reported that "armed exchanges in the town of Mizdah killed three people and maimed three others."
Manaa said the army had been deployed in the Nafusa Mountains to separate the warring parties and that negotiations were underway with elders to bring an end to the bloodshed.
Several sources have said the festivities focused on the towns of Sheguiga and Mizdah, pitting fighters of the Mashashia tribe against gunnies from the Gontrar tribe and the town of Zintan, 170 kilometers (105 miles) from Tripoli.
They say the fighting erupted after a resident of Zintan was killed at a roadblock set up by Mashashia rustics who accuse Zintan forces of shelling their village with tank and rocket fire.
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[An Nahar] Syria has not entered into a civil war, the regime and an opposition group said on Wednesday in response to the U.N. peacekeeping chief's statement to the contrary.
"This announcement makes the killer and the victim equal and ignores all the massacres committed by the Assad regime," the Syrian Revolution General Commission said, adding that people in the country "are only asking for freedom and dignity."
"We again confirm that our peaceful revolution and our self-defense will continue" until the fall of the regime of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Leveler of Latakia... , it said in a statement received by Agence La Belle France Presse.
U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous said on Tuesday that the situation in Syria could be qualified as a civil war, as violence escalates and Assad's forces seek to retake "large chunks of territory" lost to the opposition.
Also on Wednesday, the Syrian foreign ministry said the country is not in civil war but is fighting "terrorists," and expressed "surprise" at statements made the day before by the peacekeeping chief.
"Talk of civil war in Syria is not consistent with reality... what is happening in Syria is a war against armed terrorist groups plotting against the future of the Syrian people," the ministry said.
When an uprising broke out in March last year, the regime unleashed a brutal repression of protesters, leading rebels to take up arms against the government.
The authorities have consistently blamed violence on "armed terrorist groups," and failed to recognize the existence of a widespread anti-regime movement.
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[Dawn] The United States should examine setting conditions for aid to Pakistain but not cutting it off, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta ...current SecDef, previously Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Panetta served as President Bill Clinton's White House Chief of Staff from 1994 to 1997 and was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1993.... said on Wednesday, as he disclosed that Islamabad's closure of supply routes to the Afghan war cost American taxpayers millions of dollars a month.
Asked during a Senate budget hearing whether he would recommend halting aid to Pakistain, Panetta said: "I'd be very careful about just shutting it down."
"What I would do is look at conditions for what we expect them to do," Panetta said, without elaborating. He agreed to help write a letter to Congress with his recommendations for how to proceed with aid for the Pak military and government.
The comments came less than a week after Panetta, on a trip to Kabul, said the United States was reaching the limits of its patience with Pakistain because of the safe havens the country offered to gunnies fighting in neighboring Afghanistan.
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#1
What?! Conditions on aid? You racist.
Posted by: American Delight ||
06/14/2012 18:42
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[Jerusalem Post] About 2,000 Syrians fleeing violence in their homeland have crossed into Turkey in the past 48 hours, a significant increase in the number of Syrian refugees now taking shelter in Turkey, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday.
Turkish foreign ministry front man Selcuk Unal said the latest wave of arrivals had brought the total number of Syrian refugees in Turkey to about 29,500, the highest taking shelter in Turkey at one time since the start of the uprising some 15 months ago.
Among the 2,000 new refugees were 43 maimed people who have been hospitalized in Turkey, Unal said.
Turkey has given shelter to more than 50,000 Syrians since March 2011 but thousands have since returned to their homes in Syria.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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India church says Israeli tourists inhumane, sent to Goa by government to repress army service
An unprecedented letter issued by the Catholic Church in the Indian state of Goa slams Israeli backpackers in the area, referring to them as inhumane.
The letter, drafted by local church officials in Goa, was sent to churches in Jerusalem and in the Paleostinian authority in the aims of showing solidarity with Arab Christians living in Israel and in the territories.
In the letter, Goa church officials say they are "horrified" by Israel's "occupation policy" and its results, while vowing to no longer remain silent on the issue.
The message takes on anti-Semitic undertones when church officials refer to a "study" they undertook some three years ago into the behavior of Israeli backpackers who arrive in Goa in order to "forget and repress their military service."
The letter claims that many of these Israeli tourists have lost their humanity and have become their own victims as result of the brutality of Israel's "illegal occupation."
According to the study, Israelis lose their minds because of the need to kill during their military service, prompting the government to send them on relaxing vacations to sites such as Goa. Israelis are a nuisance to their surroundings and their aggressive character drives away other tourists, the study says.
'Smells like anti-Semitism'
Israeli tourists in Goa said they were very disappointed by the letter, which they claimed contradicts the good relationship between backpackers and the local population.
"Those who wrote it are simply detached from what really goes on here," said Itamar Rafel, who is currently in India. "After all, the Indians make a good living from our tourism, give their stores Hebrew names, and are very hospitable."
Another Israeli tourism, Rotem Natan, said: "Obviously there are Israelis who behave impolitely, but there are also Americans like that. Why are they focusing on us? It smells like anti-Semitism."
Responding to the report, Goa's tourism minister said he was surprised by the harsh accusations made in the letter, noting this it clearly does not mark official government policy. Goa's residents have no ill feelings towards Israeli tourists, who should feel comfortable in the area, he said, adding that he will further look into the contents of the letter.
As opposed to other states in India, the Church plays a key role in Goa's daily life and local politics. About one-third of the area's residents are Catholics who converted under Portuguese rule.
#2
If this letter is supported by the local RC bishop there, it's significant, and the Pope will likely not put up with it. Anything issued by a lower RC "official" is an opinion.
#3
Why I am NOT surprised about Catholics being anti-Semites. Most of them can not even recognize the long history of hating Jews.
Posted by: ana ||
06/14/2012 10:09
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Ana, your kneejerk is showing. Catholics are not anti-semitic by Church teachings. Some individuals may be, on their own, as in any group. Catholics are taught Jesus was a Jew.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/14/2012 11:03
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Thousands of Ivorians are fleeing into neighbouring Liberia following news of the failed coup attempt announced by the Ivorian authorities.
Cote d'Ivoire's interior minister Mr Hamed Bakayoko accused forces loyal to the ex-president Laurent Gbagbo ... Former President-for-Life of Ivory Coast from 2000 to 2011. Laurent lost to Alassane Ouattara in 2010 but his representtive tore up the results on the teevee and he refused to vacate the presidential palace. French troops assisted the Oattara forces in extricating him from his Fuhrerbunker... of perpetuating the failed coup which he said was planned in Ghana and Togo by exiled Ivorians.
Following the killing of the UN troops early this week, the two countries closed their borders while Monrovia assured Abidjan that it would never let its territory to be used a breeding ground for attacks into Cote d'Ivoire.
An initial exodus began on Monday with the killing of seven UN soldiers inside the Ivorian territory by gunnies who allegedly cross the border from Liberia.
Since the aborted coup on Tuesday night, residents in the capital, Abidjan as well as in several parts of the country and the regions along the Liberian border are engulfed in panic and are scampering for safety.
Humanitarian workers said the exodus was especially heavy all along the estimated 200 kilometer-long northwestern and south western borders heading for towns and villages inside Liberia.
On Monday, Albert Brooks of the Danish Refugee Council who is working in the region, told news hounds that the Ivorian refugees fled murders committed by unidentified gunnies who set their houses ablaze.
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A massive swarm of grasshoppers has invaded a rural town in Sacramento County, eating foliage, hopping around and creating a nuisance. Well, grasshoppers do hop. And fiddle, too, and then want to live of the ant's earnings. So I guess California is the place they should be.
Folks in Herald, about 30 miles southeast of Sacramento, say their new neighbors moved in at the beginning of June.
They brought their appetites and their friends. Scientists haven't done a head count yet, but locals have a pretty good estimate. Somebody will probably blame on the Joos.
"Umm, 50 million," said 7-year-old Moe Gunter.
And with that many bugs jumping all over the place and eating their own body weight every couple days or so, vegetation is getting worked over. I hear Fried Grasshopper is good.
"The roses on this side are about half-way gone," said Denae Gunter, pointing out plants in front of her home. "The hedges here are slowly going..."
But if residents and farmers in Herald are fed up with them, UC Davis bug experts are kind of excited. A bug expert's paradise!
Entomologist Steve Heydon said these types of swarms are rare. Go to Somalia. Or is it the Sudan?
The working theory: This winter was dry and warm, so there's less vegetation around for the bugs to eat. But the winter before saw a lot more precipitation than usual, so with plenty of food there were a lot of extra little bugs born. Ah-Ha! Global Worming! I knew it would come up sooner or later.
People in rural Sacramento County can look forward to seeing their "friends" around for as long as another month.
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#1
If they're like other California locusts, they'll eventually move to Colorado.
Good catch, abu do you love -- thanks! Rantburg really is a group effort. :-) I googled the first sentence of the article and came up with an LA Times blog link, which now has been added, hopefully successfully.
#11
I saw this movie. You have to find the Grasshopper Love Call and lure them into the ocean. Get Peter Graves on the phone. What? Pete's dead? Oops...
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Zim-bob-wean army generals have threatened unspecified action against Finance Minister Tendai Biti for refusing to release funds for the recruitment of an additional 5,000 soldiers.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) on Wednesday said Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa told Mr Biti he would let the generals loose on him if Treasury does not release $2.5 million for the recruitment exercise and other operational expenses.
But the MDC said the recruitment of additional soldiers was not necessary as the government was struggling to pay those already in service.
Mr Mnangagwa is a member of President Bob Muggsy Mugabe's Octogenarian President-for-Life of Zim-bob-we who turned the former Breadbasket of Africa into the African Basket Case... Zanu PF while Mr Biti is the MDC secretary general.
"The statement by the Defence minister is in bad taste as it comes barely two weeks after the murder (by Zanu PF supporters) of Cephas Magura, MDC the MDC Mudzi North chairman," the party said in a statement.
"The country has already started recording an increase in cases of politically-motivated violence and we must rely on the likes of (Mr) Mnangagwa, as a senior government official to denounce unruly behaviour.
"The Defence minister must know that there are other means of solving challenges other than by threats and intimidation." Four years ago, the inclusive government froze the recruitment of civil servants citing a severe cash squeeze.
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#1
Bob must be feeling ail. Positioning and arming up for the aftermath
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/14/2012 8:30
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I am sure the Chinese Overlords will get their way. This is not new(s).
The U.S. branch of the international Hizb ut-Tahrir movement had been planning to hold a conference titled, "Revolution: Liberation by Revelation -- Mohammedans Marching Toward Victory," at the Meadows Club in Rolling Meadows. Organizers said they were expecting roughly 1,000 people.
"Phone lines were starting to get jammed," Kulkarni told the newspaper. "With other events scheduled on that day and the possibility of protests, it was not the best position for us to be in. In this kind of economy, we can't afford any picketing."
Hizb ut-Tahrir says it rejects violence but it is banned in several countries, including Pakistain, where it advocates the government's overthrow. The group seeks to unite the Moslem world under a single government following strict Islamic law.
#2
Mod fred? on #1, can you link up the star spagled banner to play, I didnt properly link up for the 2007 marine band rendition to play..
thanks, Tom-Pa o6/14/2012
BTW, who closed the comments on the Fast&Furious article?
I seem to be more of an old dinosaur these days..
thanks again for being there RANTBURG, I've learned much over the years, even though I dont frequent this site much anymore, but do occasionally, sincerely Thomas Calvanese Aston, Pa
Yasmine Bleeth aka Caroline Holden in "Baywatch (TV 1997)" aka Theresa O'Brian in "Hey Babe! (1983)" aka Rachel in "Heaven or Vegas (1999)" aka Jenna Reed in "BASEketball (1998)" aka Lavinia in "Goodbye, Casanova (2000)" aka Holly Anderson in "Undercover Angel (1999)" aka Heather Lane Williams in "Titans (TV 20002001)" (age 44)
#5
Kilo Bravo and I are off to Marshal the U.S. Open. We'll be inside the ropes on Hole #4 in the afternoons wearing our Dress Blue USGA tops and Red Hats. This former Marine has spit shined the tan saddles on his white Saddle Oxford Golf shoes.
Our goal is to find that Dude who on every shot, including tee shots on par fives, yells "Go-In-The-Hole". We'd love to have his ass thrown out.
Kilo Bravo is the good looking wife of former Marine. With her English accent she is excellent at simultaneous translation of the British Players comments. e.g. Bloody, Bollocks, etc.
[An Nahar] Syrian troops on Wednesday crossed into Leb's eastern border region of Masharii al-Qaa and planted mines around the home of a local resident before withdrawing, a Lebanese security official told Agence La Belle La Belle France Presse.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the troops entered some 300 meters inside Lebanese territory and placed the mines outside the home of Mohammed Akil.
It was unclear why Akil was targeted.
The Syrian army has in the past planted mines along its side of the border but Wednesday's incursion marks the first time it has entered Lebanese territory to do so.
Earlier Wednesday, Syrian troops also briefly kidnapped a Lebanese man during a cross-border raid in the same region, the official said.
He said the troops kidnapped Khaled al-Hujairi in Arsal, a remote area located along the border, and set fire to a shed belonging to the head of the municipality Ali al-Hujairi.
A family member contacted by Agence La Belle La Belle France Presse said Hujairi was later handed over to the Lebanese army.
The mainly Sunni Mohammedan regions of Arsal and Masharii al-Qaa straddle both countries and are used as escape routes by Syrians fleeing the unrest in their country.
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Incident at Oslo school barbecue comes after reported long-term antisemitic bullying. School officials uninterested. Norwegian embassy in Israel again rejects what they see as an attempt to paint Norway as an antisemitic country, though there have been a number of reports in the European press over the years indicating a systemic problem ignored by teaching staff and legitimized by statements from government officials.
[Dawn] Pakistain Moslem League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... on Wednesday said that the nation was fully aware of motives behind conspiracies being hatched against the Supreme Court, DawnNews reported.
The PML-N chief, in a statement issued here on Wednesday, cautioned those 'elements' who were facing the apex court's verdicts, that they will make a mistake by believing to get away from law's clench.
He said that political parties, civil society, intellectuals and masses are standing with the free judiciary and the chief justice.
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BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Fifty international charities and UN agencies called Thursday on Israel to lift its years-long blockade of the Gazoo Strip.
Marking the fifth anniversary of the siege, the organizations -- among them Amnesia Amnesty International, Médecins du Monde, Oxfam, and Save the Children -- joined agencies like UNICEF and the World Health Organization in urging Israel to lift the siege "now."
In a statement, the groups said more than 1.6 million people were living under blockage "in violation of international law. More than half of these people are children."
It added: "We the undersigned say with one voice: 'end the blockade now.'"
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.
President Barack Obama is making another trip to New York City that could cause big problems for commuters.
(CNN) -- Egypt's highest court declared the parliament invalid Thursday, and the country's interim military rulers promptly declared full legislative authority, triggering a new level of chaos and confusion in the country's leadership.
G. K. Chestertons assessment of fundamental liberty:
A U.S. drone attack killed four 
Wazoo
[Shabelle] (Sh. M. Network)-Military officers from Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) in Gedo region, south-west of the country, claimed on Wednesday a major victory over Al shabab fighting.
(Sh. M. Network)-Ahlu Sunna Waljama'a officials have for the first time spoke out about their recent serial withdrawal from some key towns in central Somalia over the past three days.
Yemeni aircrafts stroke on Wednesday 
...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo...
North Korea
Zawahiri
[Dawn] Three people of two rival groups on Tuesday died in an armed clash in Zangikhel village in Lakki Marwat.
International Criminal Court's
...Bangla dynastic politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Bangla Awami League since 1981. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangladesh. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She has once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide...
Istanbul police 
Egypt's justice minister on Wednesday granted the army the right to arrest civilians, after such powers expired with the lifting of the decades-old state of emergency last month.
Moody's Investors Service has downgraded the credit rating of Spain by three levels, days after the country secured 100 billion euros (125 billion dollars) to rescue its banks.
[Ma'an] A Tunisian military court on Wednesday sentenced ousted dictator Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali to 20 years in jail in absentia for inciting violence during a police attempt to smuggle his nephew out of the country during last year's revolt.
[Dawn] A trader was 
Pakistain's foreign minister said on Tuesday difficult talks with the United States to repair frayed ties and re-open 
Five people were seriously injured in fighting between Tuareg and 
Fighting between rival tribes in the mountains of western Libya has claimed 14 lives and left dozens 
[An Nahar] Syria has not entered into a civil war, the regime and an opposition group said on Wednesday in response to the U.N. peacekeeping chief's statement to the contrary.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[Dawn] The United States should examine setting conditions for aid to Pakistain but not cutting it off, Defense Secretary 
[Jerusalem Post] About 2,000 Syrians fleeing violence in their homeland have crossed into Turkey in the past 48 hours, a significant increase in the number of Syrian refugees now taking shelter in Turkey, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday.
Nawaz Sharif
