#1
I feel so sorry for that kid (he is only 19). He was just doing his duty, and he will forever be known as the pink underpants kid.
On the other hand, what was he doing wearing pink underpants???
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
05/16/2009 18:16 Comments ||
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On Friday, Egyptian police shot and killed an African migrant near the border with Israel. The man, who was shot four times in the chest and abdomen, was not carrying any documents proving his identity or nationality, the medical source said.
The security source said an Egyptian patrol detected him trying to infiltrate into Israel and ordered him to stop, opening fire when he did not.
For years Egypt tolerated tens of thousands of Africans on its territory but its attitude hardened after it came under pressure to halt rising numbers of Africans trying to cross into Israel.
In November, U.S.-based rights group Human Rights Watch called on Egypt to stop shooting African migrants.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/16/2009 00:00 ||
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We might could learn something about border enforcement from Egypt.
#3
As an "African Immigrant" would he speak Egyptian?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/16/2009 14:25 Comments ||
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They speak Arabic in Egypt, Redneck Jim. The Copts pray in Coptic, which I believe is the Egyptian language of the first several centuries of the common era (A.D.), but I'm not aware that anyone actually speaks the indigenous Egyptian language anymore.
Egyptian security forces have uncovered hundreds of weapons and explosive devices hidden along the Sinai Peninsula's border with Israel, the Arabic-language Al-Quds al-Arabiyeh reported on Friday.
According to the report, forces found 266 rockets, 40 mines, 50 mortar shells, 20 hand grenades and at least three anti-aircraft missiles. No suspects have yet been arrested in the incident, security forces told the paper.
Dastardly Lapplanders ...
Meanwhile, the Lebanese newspaper Al-Mustakbal reported Friday that earlier this year Egyptian forces arrested four members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard suspected of organizing an espionage ring on Egyptian territory. The ring was apparently headed by an Iranian intelligence official who entered Egypt using a forged Iraqi passport, according to the report.
Egyptian security forces last months discovered five smuggling tunnels along the country's border with the Gaza Strip, through which the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group was allegedly planning to deliver explosives designated for terror attacks against Israel.
According to reports, the Hezbollah cell had coordinated its attacks with Israeli Arab citizens.
Who should now be residing at the secret torture centers the UN wants to know about ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/16/2009 00:00 ||
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The Egyptians have been busy lately, busting tunnels and now this. One might think they were getting concerned about Iranian/Hezbollah activities in Gaza.
A den? That's not good, if you're in it. Dens tend to have fewer escape routes than an open field , f'r instance
as the elite anti- crime troops carried out daylong raids following the arrest of a top explosive expert of the militant outfit after years of manhunt, officials said.
RAB sources said they discovered a JMB den, which appeared to be a training camp cum bomb making plant of the outlawed group, at East Monipur area in Mirpur in line with the confessions of arrested Jahedul Islam Sumon alias Mizan and his wife Sharmin Haque Lata.
Got the honey to do a little bomb-building, did he? She smuggled the ingredients under the burqa?
Poor wifey. She didn't even rate an alias...
They said some 11 bombs and huge materials or chemicals used to make bombs were discovered from the scene. "We are still gathering information as the RAB operations ended just an hour ago," a RAB spokesman told BSS.
Jeez-o-pete, that kind of thing is dangerous! The thought of hanging out where jihadis were making bombs gives me the shivers... but not a frisson -- I am a lady.
RAB officials earlier said they arrested Mizan on the basis of an intelligence tip-off but they had to face difficulties subsequently as they later raided his rented house where his wife detonated bombs injuring herself and their two minor children.
It was for families like this that social workers were invented.
"Mizan was earlier jailed for 20 years by a court after trial in absentia and we were looking for him for years as he was trying to regroup JMB and training the militants on explosives and impoverished grenades," the RAB spokesman said.
Another RAB official familiar with the arrest sequences said when they raided Mizan's residence at about 10.30 pm yesterday along with him, "he gave his wife a coded instruction knocking the door saying, how are you? I am sick."
"Knock-knock."
"Who's there?"
"I'm sick."
"Okay, I'll pull the pin!"
"Immediately afterwards, a bomb went off inside forcing the RAB men to run for cover along with Mizan," a newsman who witnessed the operation staying with the RAB troops said.
"Duck! She's gonna explode!"
The RAB allows embeds? Where do I sign up?
The explosion wounded Mizan's wife Sharmin Haque Lata and her two- year son and two-month old daughter while she gave in after more than three hours of resistance until early this morning when they were rushed to a city facility for treatment.
"Okay, honey, it's off to the Dhaka Medical Center for you, and to DCFS with the tykes!"
The owner of the house said Mizan rented the second floor of the four- storey apartment building last month identifying him as a construction businessman.
Good lord -- the man is a liar as well?!?
Construction, demolition...two sides of the same coin, really.
JMB suffered a huge setback in view of a massive anti- militant security clampdown in the past several years which also saw the execution of six kingpins of the outfit including its founder Shaikh Abdur Rahman and his second in command Siddikul Islam Bangla Bhai in 2007.
But what about the Number Three? Number Threes are key for an organization seeking to rebuild.
RAB officials said the militant groups like JMB were trying to regroup in different names in view of the massive anti- militant campaign as the government so far banned four of the outfits - JMB, HuJI, Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh and Shahadat-e al Hikma.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/16/2009 00:00 ||
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"RAB Squeezed The Sharmin"
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/16/2009 9:33 Comments ||
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He died of cirrhosis, drink, and a ruptured liver from the beatings, but mostly from the beatings.
/ace
Yet another soldier of the Bangladesh Rifles died at the BDR hospital in Pilkhana on Friday. The authorities concerned claimed that Sepoy Lal Miah, 34, who was posted at 25 Rifles Battalion in Panchagarh, was diagnosed with Hepatitis B and liver cirrhosis after he was admitted to the BDR Hospital on January 1.
"How'd he get the cirrhosis, Dr. Quincy?"
"Drank too much."
"Really! How much did he drink?"
"About a gallon.
"That all?"
"All at once."
He was transferred to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital on March 4 for better treatment and was being treated by specialists after he was released from the DMCH on March 16.
I'm just sure they had the top liver specialist at the Dhaka Medical College working on him ...
He was admitted to the BDR Hospital when his condition deteriorated at about 9:15pm on Thursday and breathed his last at about 1:30pm on Friday, said the authorities.
"Cause of death, doc?"
"Looks like he quit breathing."
"Good enough for us, doc. Sign here."
"He quit breathing right after the beating."
"Don't put that on the form, doc. Just sign."
His body will be sent to his home at Syed village under Muktagachha upazila in Mymensingh later on, said the authorities in a press release on Friday.
No, we have no idea where that is.
With the death of Lal Miah, the number of border guards who died in the capital and elsewhere after the February 25-26 Pilkhana rebellion stands at 20. Of them four committed suicide, seven died of heart attack and ten of other diseases, according to the BDR authorities.
Nobody really misses them, either.
Ten soldiers were remanded in police custody for five days on Friday in connection with the BDR carnage case. Nine of them were put on remand for the first time while the other was remanded again on Friday after the end of his previous 5-day remand on Thursday.
"This one needs more drink!"
"Get the judge to remand him again!"
A total of 114 people are now on remand in the custody of CID police.
A total of 1,048 soldiers have so far been arrested in connection with 25 cases filed with 21 district courts, while in Dhaka the lawmen have arrested 1,386 people, most of them soldiers, in connection with the BDR carnage case filed with New Market police station. Some 75 people, including three civilians, have so far made confessional statements in the courts.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/16/2009 00:00 ||
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Three more suspected criminals, including an activist of the Awami Juba League, were killed in so-called crossfire with the Rapid Action Battalion in the capital and Barisal on Friday.
So called? That's almost as bad as alleged!
Two of them -- Sohel and Babu -- allegedly members of Shahadat-led gang, were killed in an 'encounter' with a RAB-3 team near Khilgaon flyover in the capital while the other -- Jalal Akon of Boalia Nandapara village under Bakerganj upazila -- was killed in 'crossfire' with a RAB-8 team in Dapdapia-Rupatoli area of Barisal city. Jalal was publicity secretary of Rangashree union unit of Juba League, associate body of the ruling Awami League.
Look at all those scare quotes. Was the writer trained in an American journalism program?
With them, a total of 22 people have been killed in 'crossfire' with lawmen since the Awami League-led alliance government assumed office on January 6 this year.
In the capital, the RAB said that after being tipped off, the battalion had kept the Shahadat-led gang under surveillance in Kamalapur-Khilgaon-Basabo area where the gang had been engaged in extortion from garment factories also controlling the trade in garment waste fabrics.
No, we don't know where that is either. Perhaps Old Patriot can figure it out. Separately, what is a garment waste fabric?
The RAB-3, which has set up checkpoints in the locality, signalled a microbus to stop at the checkpoint near the Khilgaon flyover at about 1:30am Friday. When the vehicle sped past ignoring the signal, the RAB personnel pursued it and managed to stop it near the Kamalapur stadium. But the people inside the vehicle opened fire on the lawmen who returned fire.
Bad move, guys -- the RAB don't take such behaviour well.
The exchange of fire continued for about 15 minutes and in the meantime, local people gathered on the scene.
They gathered to watch? The RAB must be precision shots, all of them.
The fighting over, the RAB searched the vehicle and found the bodies of Sohel and Babu. The battalion also seized three revolvers with nine bullets and three bottles of liquor from the vehicle.
Three bottles of liquor? People have been condemned to Hell for less. But then, the RAB are known for their efficiency.
The deceased were wanted in a number of criminal cases, including murder and extortion, filed with different police station, the RAB claimed.
Wanted on a number of systems, then. But did their mothers love them?
In Barisal, the RAB-8 claimed that a team of the battalion had laid a trap at Dapdapia ferry point at about 4:00am on information that 'a gang of criminals' had gathered there.
At least it wasn't a den.
Sensing the presence of the lawmen, the 'gangsters' opened fire on them triggering an encounter, the RAB said in a similar account.
After the gunfight which, RAB said, continued for about 15 minutes, the lawmen found a bullet-hit man lying on the ground. He died on way to Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital.
Not a den, but the outcome was the same. Someone, somewhere, is guilty of creative writing.
The battalion seized one light gun, a single-shooter gun and 16 live and 15 used cartridges from the spot.
Perhaps a correspondence course from an American university. Note that no rounds of bullet or shutter guns were found.
Locals later identified the deceased as Jalal, wanted by Bakerganj police in 10 cases, including murder, robbery and extortion, the RAB claimed.
Definitely a badman, then. One hopes his mother disapproves.
Lokman Hossain Dakua, president of Bakerganj upazila Jubo League, said that Jalal was publicity secretary of the upazila unit and secretary of Rangashree union unit of the organisation.
A man carrying great responsibilities upon his shoulders...wherever he is.
Jalal was expelled from the JL on May 4 for abducting his neighbour and local BNP leader Abdur Rashid Howladar, 75, from his house for personal enmity and torturing him by tying him to a roadside tree on May 3.
I'm sure he's been let go from his many jobs; abduction and torture can be so time consuming.
Deaths in 'crossfire' continue although members of the Awami League cabinet are vocal against such extra-judicial killings. On May 5, LGRD and co-operatives minister Syed Ashraful Islam, also Awami League spokesperson, said the government would not allow any more extra-judicial killings.
But these are cross fires! The miscreants always start it, forcing the brave men of the RAB to defend themselves.
State minister for home affairs Tanjim Ahmed said on Wednesday that the BNP-led coalition government had created a culture of killing in custody based on a 'politically-motivated hit list' and that those involved would be punished.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/16/2009 00:00 ||
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What the newspapers need to be profitable and relevant today is a Periwinkle Cluebat of Destiny Editor! Someone to cut through the difficult stories perplexing the unwashed masses and make them understandable. :)
#3
Perhaps they mean like leaf bags to be reused, those would be cloth.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/16/2009 14:22 Comments ||
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#4
Garmet waste is the excess fabric left after cutting the pattern from the material. There usually isn't much in commercial shops, but it's good for stuffing, packaging, and other things. Usually it's burned, but I guess there are those willing to pay for it.
I gave up trying to descipher Bangladeshi place-names years ago. You'd need a store of 1:25,000 maps the size of a Walmart Superstore, and even then you'd have to discard 2/3 of what you found, since the Bangladeshis use the same name for 50 different places.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/16/2009 16:17 Comments ||
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WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States on Friday released the Guantanamo Bay prisoner who was at the center of a Supreme Court battle giving detainees the right to challenge their confinement, an Obama administration official said. Lakhdar Boumediene left the U.S. naval facility in Cuba Friday headed to relatives in France, said the official, who spoke on a condition of anonymity because the release was not yet cleared for announcement.
Guess it's okay to bomb US embassies again ...
It will be interesting to see how France feels about this decision in a year or two.
Boumediene was arrested along with five other Algerians in 2001 in Bosnia, suspected in a bomb plot against the U.S. embassy in Sarajevo. He arrived in Guantanamo in January 2002.
President Barack Obama has promised to close the prison at Guantanamo and has urged allies to help take prisoners from there. France promised to take one Guantanamo prisoner when Obama attended the NATO summit in April and said last week it would accept Boumediene.
In June 2008, the Supreme Court ruled in a case called Boumediene v. Bush that foreign Guantanamo Bay detainees have rights under the Constitution to challenge their detention in civilian courts. On a 5-4 split, the majority said the U.S. government was violating the rights of prisoners there and that the system the Bush administration put in place to classify suspects as enemy combatants and review those decisions is inadequate.
Perhaps the worst ruling since Plessy v Ferguson ...
Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the court, said, "The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times."
But the Constitution already provided for the handling of foreign nationals captured in time of war, Tony, you guys on the Court forgot that ...
I'm sure they'll have the opportunity to revisit this decision in the not-too-distant future. The mills of God, and all that.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/16/2009 00:00 ||
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There are two or three Supreme Court judges I wouldn't be saddened to hear had been involved in a RAB "encounter".
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/16/2009 16:19 Comments ||
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A car bomb destroyed an Internet cafe and tore through a bus carrying handicapped children in northwestern Pakistan on Saturday, killing at least 11 people and wounding many more, police said.
Elsewhere in the troubled region, an apparent U.S. missile strike destroyed a Taliban training camp, killing 25 militants, while Pakistani troops killed dozens of Taliban in their bid to re-conquer the Swat Valley, officials said.
The car bomb devastated a street in the main northwestern city of Peshawar on Saturday afternoon as it was busy with shoppers and traffic.
Television images showed several vehicles burning fiercely and a stricken white-and-green bus that had been dropping handicapped children at their homes around the city. The eight students still on board were injured, one seriously, medics and police said. Four other children and seven adults were killed, and dozens more were injured, they said.
Safwat Ghayur, a senior police official, said one of a string of shops wrecked by the blast was an Internet cafe a favorite target for violent Islamist extremists in Pakistan who consider the Web a source of moral corruption. Ghayur said the cafe had received several threats and even been attacked recently by gunmen. He said police were holding suspects in the shooting, but refused to elaborate.
In the latest strike, Pakistani officials said several missiles hit a religious school and a nearby vehicle on Saturday morning in Mir Ali, a town in the North Waziristan tribal region.
Two intelligence officials, citing reports from agents in the field, said at least 25 people were killed, including two foreign militants, and dozens more were wounded.
The identity of the victims was not immediately clear, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly to the media.
However, they said the school was being used as a training camp by Gul Bahadur, a prominent Taliban commander believed to be involved in fighting U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
Posted by: ed ||
05/16/2009 08:47 ||
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violent Islamist extremists in Pakistan who consider the Web a source of moral corruption.
OMG, the Taliban have discovered Rantburg! Nothing left to do now but nuke 'em all... Sad, sad. Of course, I have little or no sympathy with people that would target handicapped children, even by accident. Such people are destined for the ninth level of Hell. The sooner they reach there, the better.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/16/2009 16:24 Comments ||
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LAHORE: The NWFP government has rejected an offer of peace talks to end fighting in the Swat valley.
"Sorry, President Zardari, but we don't have the facilities to take the entire government prisoner."
Senior Minister Afrasiab Khattak told Bloomberg on Friday the Taliban have repeatedly reneged on earlier peace accords. "They never had the intention of laying down arms," he said.
The Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi, which negotiated the February accord, said on Friday it was ready for talks to end the fighting. Khattak, however, dismissed the offer, saying the TNSM had "no authority" over Fazlullah, who commands the Taliban forces in Swat.
That's likely true ...
They're the same outfit. One's the political wing, one's the military wing. The military wing's the one in control.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/16/2009 00:00 ||
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PESHAWAR: An important Taliban commander and his two associates were killed during a security forces attack on Friday, while a landmine blast killed three persons in Mohmand Agency. The Taliban commander, named only as Daley, ...
Cheez, I thought they just terrorized Chicago!
... was killed with two of his associates during an attack last night at the Taliban hideouts in the Sheikhan area of Mohmand Agency, according to a Frontier Corps press release. Several hideouts of the Taliban were destroyed in the security forces shelling, APP reported.
Meanwhile, a landmine exploded in the Speentangi area of Baizai tehsil in Mohmand Agency. The blast killed three persons.
Also, the Taliban blew up another school and a rural health centre in Ambar tehsil of Mohmand Agency.
Just another day at the office in Mohmand Agency ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/16/2009 00:00 ||
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Cheez, I thought they just terrorized Chicago!
Naw, we got a bad infestation in DC as well. Kinda like bedbugs, they get around.
LAHORE: Law enforcement agencies on Friday arrested three suspected terrorists including two would-be suicide bombers from Lahore, a private TV channel reported. According to the channel, the security officials also seized two suicide vests from the suspects aged between 15 and 16. The channel quoted its sources as saying that one of the alleged would-be suicide bomber was the mastermind of the attacks on NATO terminals in Peshawar.
Oh, a mastermind! Can we have him for a while?
A sixteen year old mastermind, no less (or perhaps the mastermind is the other one). They sure are precocious in that part of the world.
The three have been identified as Noorullah, Amin and Abdul Saboor.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/16/2009 00:00 ||
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PESHAWAR: The NWFP government on Friday warned the police against the Taliban sneaking into the internally displaced persons' (IDPs) camps. A source said the provincial government has also directed the provincial police officer (PPO) to ensure foolproof screening at the camps.
"Hey Mahmoud! We got a guy, freshly shaved, carrying grenades and wearing a burqa!"
"Let him through, Achmed, he's probably my wife's cousin."
Separately, a police statement issued here said the NWFP IGP under the chief minister's directives had assigned three police officers to making security arrangements for the IDP camps. The officers are Forensic Science Laboratories Director Attaullah Wazir, Crime Investigation Department Superintendent of Police (SP) Gul Saeed Afridi and SP Abdul Majeed Afridi.
With specialists like that what could possibly go wrong?
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/16/2009 00:00 ||
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A source said the provincial government has also directed the provincial police officer (PPO) to ensure foolproof screening at the camps.
Ah. Foolproof screening. Nuthin to worry about now...
ISLAMABAD: Taliban are shaving off their beards to escape the army offensive in Swat, the army said on Friday as security forces killed 55 more Taliban.
And they're fleeing from the .. Pak army ...
We have confirmed reports that these Taliban ... after shaving off their beards and cutting hair, are fleeing from the area. We request the people to identify them ... at checkposts, said the ISPR in a statement. The army also issued a cell phone number, 0333-5239938, to assist people in identifying fleeing Taliban.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/16/2009 00:00 ||
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I called the number and reported queen Nancy-boy Pelosi fleeing DC for safe ground in Berkley. They declined my request saying they did not have the capability to hit a real Nancy, just Nancy boys...
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
05/16/2009 12:33 Comments ||
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After the assassination attempt on the life of Sulu Gov. Abdusakur Tan on Wednesday in Patikul, Sulu, another provincial governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) has cheated death when a powerful bomb meant for him was exploded along the main highway in Shariff Aguak town in Maguindanao province on Friday morning.
Lt. Col. Jonathan Ponce, spokesman of the Armys 6th Infantry Division based in Maguindanao Province, disclosed to The Manila Times that Maguindanao Gov. Datu Andal Ampatuan was very lucky when three improvised explosive devices (IEDs) that was intended for him and his convoy exploded at about 8 a.m. without hurting him and his security escorts. But the powerful bomb fashioned out of an 81-mm mortar shell and rigged with a timing device exploded in succession with 40 seconds interval along Shariff Aguak road.
According to Ponce, the explosions were powerful enough that they caused the instant death of one of the members of the Civilian Volunteers Organization (CVOs) in Shariff Aguak identified as Mamayo Ganon and the wounding of two other CVOs identified as Renz Amit and Omar Silongan, including one civilian named Samaon Andatuan. A red Nissan pick-up utility vehicle that was parked by the roadside was also heavily damaged by the impact of the explosion. Councilor Alijol Alvarez Ampatuan, a member of the Ampatuan clan, owns the vehicle.
Ponce also said that the Army suspects the explosives were not only intended to harm Gov. Andal, but also the military convoy that regularly pass the same route. The Army regional spokesman said the Maguindanao governor was on his way to visit Barangay Bagong in Shariff Aguak with several vehicles, including a military convoy.
Ponce revealed that this roadside-bombing was the handiwork of the Special Operations Group of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) because the improvised explosive device had an 81-mm mortar shell as component. This is an MILF signature as what most IEDs exploded or discovered in many areas of the embattled towns of Maguindanao in the past, Ponce said. He said the Army 6th Infantry Division under Gen. Fred Cayton immediately ordered the bomb disposal unit of the Army to comb the area and the roadside for more IEDs that could be hidden there.
The MILF has denied any involvement in the attack, saying it could be related to clan war or family feud and may even be related to politics. The MILF spokesman said the AFP should refrain from making hasty comment and always pointing to the MILF as a scapegoat or punching bag of misguided statements.
The elder Ampatuan also survived several assassination attempts since 2001. In 2006, he was ambushed and survived in Shariff Aguak town after a roadside bomb was detonated near the politicians convoy and authorities blamed the attack on a senior MILF leader, Zaid Pakiladatu, who denied the accusation. However, Pakiladatus wife was also killed in an ambush in Cotabato City several weeks later after the bombing. Ampatuans son Hoffer was killed during a shootout in a party in Cotabato City in 2002, while his brother, Saudi Ampatuan, a town mayor, was also killed in a bomb attack in Maguindanaos Datu Piang town in 2003.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka Sri Lanka's president said his country has defeated the Tamil Tiger rebels on the battlefield and emerged victorious from its quarter century civil war as troops seized control of the island's entire coastline Saturday for the first time in decades.
Fighting continued to rage in the war zone along the northeast coast and huge explosions could be heard across the battlefield as rebels detonated their ammunition stocks and artillery dumps, military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa said the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam had been vanquished. "My government, with the total commitment of our armed forces, has in an unprecedented humanitarian operation finally defeated the LTTE militarily," Rajapaksa said. "I will be going back to a country that has been totally freed from the barbaric acts of the LTTE," he said in a speech at an international gathering in Jordan that was distributed to the media in Sri Lanka.
On Saturday morning, soldiers took control of the coastline, sealing the Tamil Tigers in a tiny pocket of territory and cutting off the possibility of a sea escape by the rebels' top leaders, the military said. Two senior rebel fighters known only by their noms de guerre, Sornam and Sasi Master, were killed in Saturday's fighting, Nanayakkara said.
The rebels, who once ran a de facto state across the north, had controlled a formidable navy and sea smuggling operation.
Thousands of civilians fled intense shelling in the 1.2-square mile (3.1-square kilometer) patch of land still under rebel control. Nearly 25,000 civilians have fled since Thursday, Nanayakkara said. And what about Mario?
Government forces have been hunting for the reclusive Tamil Tiger leader Prabhakaran and his top deputies for months, but it was unclear if they remained in rebel territory or had already fled overseas. Good luck, boys. I'll go find...help.
On the verge of battlefield defeat, the rebels reiterated their calls for the government to cease its offensive and restart talks to resolve the long-standing ethnic conflict between the minority Tamils and the Sinhalese majority. Yeah. Are youze guvmint guys ready to surrender yet?
Selvarasa Pathmanathan, in charge of the rebels' international relations department, said the group welcomed President Barack Obama's call Wednesday for a peaceful end to the conflict and would do "anything that is necessary" to spare the civilians. However, he did not specifically say whether the rebels would accede to Obama's request to lay down their arms and surrender. My guess would be...no.
Reports of the fighting are difficult to verify because the government has barred most journalists and aid workers from the conflict zone. That's probably why they're winning...
The rebels have been fighting since 1983 for a separate state for minority Tamils after decades of marginalization by the Sinhalese majority. The group, responsible for hundreds of suicide attacks, has been branded a terror organization by the U.S., E.U. and India. The rebels also controlled a conventional army as well, with artillery units, a significant navy and even a tiny air force.
After repeated stalemates on the battlefield, the military broke through the rebel lines last year and slowly forced the insurgents into a broad retreat. The government captured the rebel's administrative capital at Kilinochchi in January and vowed to swiftly crush the group.
Meanwhile, international concern has grown for the tens of thousands of civilians still trapped in the war zone amid the unrelenting artillery bombardments, and the Red Cross has warned of "an unimaginable humanitarian catastrophe" for the hundreds of wounded trapped without treatment.
The government has brushed off repeated calls from foreign diplomats for a humanitarian truce in the conflict, saying it would only give the reeling rebels time to regroup.
The U.N. says 7,000 civilians were killed and 16,700 wounded in the fighting from Jan. 20 through May 7, according to a U.N. document given to The Associated Press by a senior diplomat. Since then, doctors in the war zone say more than 1,000 civilians have been killed in a week of heavy shelling that rights groups and foreign governments have blamed on Sri Lankan forces. The government denies firing heavy weapons into the war zone.
Some 11,800 civilians escaped the war zone Saturday, Nanayakkara said. They joined more than 200,000 others who escaped in recent months and are being held in displacement camps. U.N. spokesman Gordon Weiss said an estimated 20,000 people had emerged from the combat zone in the past few days and were being processed by the government. "We have no access to that process. We hold grave fears for the safety of the estimated 30,000 to 80,000 people who are still inside the combat zone," he said.
"We are particularly concerned for the safety of two doctors Drs. Varatharajah and Sathyamurthi who courageously kept the medical services going throughout the months of the siege of the combat zone." The pair ran a badly understaffed makeshift hospital in the war zone that was repeatedly shelled and overwhelmed with hundreds of casualties from the fighting nearly every day.
The navy intercepted a boat off the northeastern coast Friday and arrested the wife, son and daughter of the rebels' sea wing leader, who were among 11 people on board, Nanayakkara said.
On this day in history: May 16th.
1836 Edgar Allan Poe marries his 13-year-old cousin Virginia.
1843 The first major wagon train heading for the Pacific Northwest sets out on the Oregon Trail with one thousand pioneers from Elm Grove, Missouri. (Wagon Master Ward Bond)
1866 The U.S. Congress eliminates the half dime coin and replaces it with the five cent piece, or nickel.
1866 Charles Elmer Hires invents root beer.
1918 The Sedition Act of 1918 is passed by the U.S. Congress, making criticism of the government an imprisonable offense.
1919 A naval Curtiss aircraft NC-4 commanded by Albert Cushing Read leaves Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first transatlantic flight.
1929 In Hollywood, California, the first Academy Awards are handed out.
1960 Nikita Khrushchev demands an apology from U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower for U-2 spy plane flights over the Soviet Union thus ending a Big Four summit in Paris.
1966 The Communist Party of China issues the 'May 16 Notice', marking the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.
1988 A report by United States' Surgeon General C. Everett Koop states that the addictive properties of nicotine are similar to those of heroin and cocaine.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
05/16/2009 5:53 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Audrey Hepburn was thin from being starved by the Nazi occupiers of Arnhem, living mostly with the underground as a child/teen.
She secretly danced for groups of people to collect money for the Dutch resistance. She later said, "The best audience I ever had made not a single sound at the end of my performances."
During the Dutch famine that followed, the allied invasion of France, over the winter of 1944, the Germans confiscated the Dutch people's limited food and fuel supply for themselves. People starved and froze to death in the streets. Hepburn and many others resorted to making flour out of tulip bulbs to bake cakes and biscuits.
Hepburn's half-brother, Ian van Ufford, spent time in a German forced labor camp. Suffering from malnutrition, Hepburn developed acute anemia, respiratory problems, and an edema.
So me, yeah I'm usually first to say "needs a sammich", but in her case, I'm shutting my mouth - she earned that the hard way.
"The rain in Spain stays mainly in the Plain..."
such a great film, where she is the very definition of "absolutely charming".
She was a beautiful, charming, GREAT lady. There'll never be another quite like her, and the world is poorer for it.
She made some wonderful movies. I particularly liked her movies with Cary Grant (another movie star who cannot be replaced by the present crop of jerks who pretend to be stars).
What a lady!
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/16/2009 23:22 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
On Friday, Egyptian police shot and killed an African migrant near the border with Israel. The man, who was shot four times in the chest and abdomen, was not carrying any documents proving his identity or nationality, the medical source said. 
Egyptian security forces have uncovered hundreds of weapons and explosive devices hidden along the Sinai Peninsula's border with Israel, the Arabic-language Al-Quds al-Arabiyeh reported on Friday. 
Three more suspected criminals, including an activist of the Awami Juba League, were killed in so-called crossfire with the Rapid Action Battalion in the capital and Barisal on Friday.
PESHAWAR: An important Taliban commander and his two associates were killed during a security forces attack on Friday, while a landmine blast killed three persons in Mohmand Agency. The Taliban commander, named only as Daley, ...
LAHORE: Law enforcement agencies on Friday arrested three suspected terrorists including two would-be suicide bombers from Lahore, a private TV channel reported. According to the channel, the security officials also seized two suicide vests from the suspects aged between 15 and 16. The channel quoted its sources as saying that one of the alleged would-be suicide bomber was the mastermind of the attacks on NATO terminals in Peshawar.
