[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan and Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... ’s Political Office in Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... have confirmed the recent visit by Taliban delegation and meetings with the Uzbekistan officials in Tashkent.
According to a statement released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Uzebkistan, a delegation of the Taliban political representatives led by Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai ...Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, Head of the Taliban political office in Doha. He was a member of Rassoul Sayyaf's group in the war against the Soviets.... visited Tashkent from 6th to 10th August.
The statement further added that the Taliban delegation exchanged views on peace prospects during their meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affiars.
"The delegation exchanged views with Uzbek officials on the withdrawal of foreign troops and also explored ways for reconciliation in Afghanistan," Suhail Shaheen, front man for the Taliban political office has told The Daily Times.
According to repots, the delegates met Uzbek Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov and presidential envoy for Afghanistan Ismatilla Irgashev and discussed the security of current and future development projects of Uzbekistan in Afghanistan.
This comes as the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev had earlier offered to host talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/13/2018 00:00 ||
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The former Afghanistan's Caped PresidentHamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ...Former president of Aghanistan, part of the problem not part of the solution... once again called on Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... group’s leadership to participate in the intra-Afghan talks for peace and reconciliation.
The Office of the Former President in a statement said the Former President Hamid Karzai welcomed the announcement by the politicians, political coalitions, members of the resistance zone, and representatives of the parliament and provincial council, regarding the intra-Afghan talks with the Taliban group.
Karzai emphasized on the need for the intra-Afghan peace talks for the realization of peace effort and urged the Taliban group to participate in the intra-Afghan and Afghan-led negotiations, according to the Office of the Former President.
He said the Taliban group should participate in the talks considering the longtime demands of the Afghan people for peace and reconciliation.
This comes as Junbish Milli Party led by the First Vice President had earlier informed that some of the key political parties and movements held talks regarding the grinding of the peace processor with the Taliban and upcoming elections during their last meeting over the past one week.
A front man of Junbish Party Bashir Ahmad Tahyanj said last week that a consensus was reached during the talks between leaders of the political parties and movements in this regard.
He did not disclose further information in this regard but added that the details of the meetings would be shared with the people during a large gathering.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/13/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
Is his family "ornamental-use only" Poppy plantation in the middle of the war zone?
[PRESSTV] A court in Egypt has sentenced the chairman of the outlawed Moslem Brüderbund and other big shots of the movement to life in prison over charges of alleged incitement to murder and violence during protest rallies five years ago.
The Brotherhood’s Supreme Guide Mohammed Badie received life sentence from the Giza Criminal Court on Sunday, along with some other top leaders of the movement, including Mohammed el-Beltagy, Safwat Hegazy, Essam el-Erian and al-Husseini Antar.
The rulings are the latest among several trials and retrials against Badie and other big shots of the Brotherhood that ruled the African country before the military, led by incumbent President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, ousted the first democratically-elected president, Mohammed Morsi, following mass protests in 2013.
The court on Sunday also sentenced Bassem Ouda, the former supply minister under Morsi's rule, to 15 years in jail. It also sentenced the movement’s prominent figures Hisham Kamel, Gamal Fathi, and Ahmed Dahi to 10 years in prison over charges of alleged incitement to commit violent acts in the protests.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/13/2018 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Arab Coalition's Joint Incident Assessment Team (JIAT) in Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... conducted investigations into the shelling of buildings in Saada, citing allegations of its forces targeting civilians in the ongoing conflict in Yemen.
The official front man of the JIAT, Legal Counsellor Mansour al-Mansour said on Sunday during a presser in the Saudi capital Riyadh, that the coalition had received intelligence information indicating the presence of Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ... military commanders in a house located in a remote isolated area.
The official presented pictures of the targeted house, which international organizations claimed is adjacent to civilian inhabited houses.
According to the pictures, the targeted house is in an isolated remote area.
The JIAT concluded that the targeting of the building was in accordance with the rules of humanitarian law.
Al-Mansour added that the team also investigated the incident involving the "house in Lahij governorate", which was targeted due to the presence of a gathering of armed members of the Houthi militias, and thus it is considered a legitimate military target, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/13/2018 00:00 ||
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[PRESSTV] Saudi authorities have tossed in the calaboose ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... another university professor in the conservative oil-rich kingdom as part of a widening crackdown led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ...Crown Prince of 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 the Soddy national face... as of 2016.... against Moslem preachers and intellectuals.
The rights group Prisoners of Consciousness, which is an independent non-governmental organization advocating human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... in Saudi Arabia, announced in a post on its official Twitter page on Sunday that Sheikh Nasser al-Omar, a former professor at the Faculty of Fundamentals of Religion at Riyadh-based Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University were tossed into the calaboose and his Twitter account suspended.
The post added that Saudi officials had earlier imposed a travel ban on the academic.
Separately, Saudi officials have arrested Sheikh Ahmed al-Emari, a professor of Koranic studies at the Medina-based Taibah University, on charges of contact with political dissident, Sheikh Safar al-Hawali.
Abdulaziz Abdullatif, a member of the academic board at the same Saudi university, were tossed into the calaboose nearly a year ago.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/13/2018 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey... vowed on Saturday to defy US "threats" over a detained pastor, showing no signs of concessions in a bitter row that has caused the Ottoman Turkish lira to crash.
Relations between the two NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... allies have sunk to their lowest point in decades over a string of issues including the detention of US pastor Andrew Brunson on terror-related charges, prompting the lira to hit record lows against the dollar.
The Ottoman Turkish strongman also lashed out at interest rates, denounced them as a "tool of exploitation" which should be kept as low as possible.
The embattled lira tumbled 16 per cent against the dollar on Friday, falling further when US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... said he had doubled steel and aluminium tariffs on The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire.... "It is wrong to dare bring Turkey to its knees through threats over a pastor," Erdogan said in the Black Sea town of Unye.
"Shame on you, shame on you," he said in remarks directly addressed to Washington. "You are exchanging your strategic partner in NATO for a priest."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/13/2018 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey... on Sunday said the crash of the Ottoman Turkish lira, sparked by a bitter dispute with the United States, was a "political plot" against The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... and warned Ankara would now seek new markets and partners.
The dispute between the two NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... allies ‐ which reached new intensity over the detention of an American pastor in Turkey ‐ has hammered the lira and also raised questions over the future partnership between Washington and Ankara.
The already embattled Ottoman Turkish lira tumbled some 16 per cent to new record lows against the dollar on Friday as US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... said he had doubled steel and aluminium tariffs on Turkey.
All eyes will be on the lira when foreign exchange markets reopen on Monday after the weekend pause. But Erdogan indicated he was in no mood to offer concessions to the United States, or financial markets.
"The aim of the operation is to make Turkey surrender in all areas, from finance to politics," Erdogan told ruling party members in the Black Sea city of Trabzon.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/13/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
Very early this mornïng the Turkish Lira has already dropped another astonishing 9% after catastrophic drops last week and the Euro immeďiately crashed to its lowest point in a year because of heavy EU financial institution ties to Turkey as bond holders.
Russia, China and other troubled currencies are dropping.
Catalist is Erdogan's sudden disdain for paying interest (which is actually a centrïes old Muslim policy), and Donald Trump hitting Turkey with doubling tarriffs last week after being tricked on the Paster Brunson release.
Asian stock markets are starting to ĺoose ground
A global financial crises is feared.
Posted by: Lira, Euro, Other Currencies Crashing Early Monday ||
08/13/2018 2:45 Comments ||
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Posted by: Frank G ||
08/13/2018 8:38 Comments ||
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#6
Erdogan is learning that actions have consequences now, unlike during the Bush and Obama administrations.
Posted by: Boss Spoper5850 ||
08/13/2018 9:50 Comments ||
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#7
How odd. All the funds and property confiscated from the accused “Gulenists” has not proved enough to sustain the economy for the “real Turks? Ah well —at least it was fun dragging them off to jail and taking their stuff.
What will you do? Fun terrorism, attack israel, attempt to get rid of all non-muslims in your country and jail all your political enemies? Oh wait...yer already doing that.
[DAWN] Pak military officers will receive training in Russian Federation military institutes under a recent agreement signed between the two countries.
The deal underscores Pakistain’s increasing reliance on Russia for its military needs amid strained relations with the US. It was signed earlier this week during a visit by Russian Deputy Defence Minister Col Gen Alexander Fomin.
The agreement comes as local media reported the US has stopped financing military training in the US for Pak soldiers ‐ a step that Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed called "wrong and counterproductive."
Mr Hussain, chairman of the Foreign Affairs committee, said the US is repeating past mistakes through failed policy of trying to bully and browbeat Pakistain with such short-sighted sanctions.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/13/2018 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] PPP Chairman Bilawal Baby Bhutto Zardari ...Pak dynastic politician, son of Benazir Bhutto and grandon of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. As far as is known, Bilawal has no particular talents other than being pretty and being able to memorize political slogans, but he had the good luck to be born into the right family and he hasn't been assassinated yet... on Sunday took notice of withdrawal of security of former premier Yousuf Raza Gilani ... Pakistain's former prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics could be awe-inspiring ... by the caretaker government and described it as a "criminal act".
In a statement, the PPP chairman asked the caretaker government to clarify as to whom it intends to facilitate by withdrawing security from Gilani and whether the government is aware that the ex-PM's family has been under threat from terrorists.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/13/2018 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Diamer Deputy Commissioner Didar Malik on Sunday asked a 12-member jirga working with the district authorities to handover 27 suspects allegedly involved in the arson attacks on schools in Diamer district, DawnNewsTV reported.
A meeting was held at the DC office in Chilas, where former Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) Deputy Speaker Malak Miskeen, GB Minister for Excise and Taxation Haider Khan, GB Forests Minister Imran Wakeel and other notables were also present.
DC Malik asked the jirga members to handover the suspects before 4pm on August 13, otherwise, a search operation will be conducted in both Tangir and Darel tehsils.
The jirga assured the deputy commissioner and security officials that they will make efforts to handover the suspects as well as their controllers and requested that officials be prevented from moving into the areas before the agreed deadline.
On the night of August 2, more than a dozen schools ‐ half of which were girls-only centres ‐ had been burned down in Diamer by person or persons unknown.
According to an initial report of the incident, the "miscreants" carried out the attacks in an "organised manner". The assailants first vandalised the buildings and then set them on fire, said the report.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/13/2018 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi has cancelled a visit to Iran, his press office said on Sunday, as the premier came under strong Iranian criticism over his stand on renewed US sanctions against Tehran.
Abadi will still go ahead with a planned visit to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire.... on Tuesday but has scrapped the Iran leg of the trip "because of his busy schedule", his office said.
An Iraqi official had said on Saturday that Abadi would visit both neighboring Turkey and Iran to discuss economic issues.
According to Iraqi political sources, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... , Iran initially agreed to the visit but changed its mind because it was unhappy about Abadi’s remarks.
The premier said last Tuesday that Iraq- which relies on neighboring Iran as a source of cheap imports -- would reluctantly comply with US sanctions against Tehran that took effect the same day. Read more
"We don’t support the sanctions because they are a strategic error, but we will comply with them," said Abadi, whose country is an ally of both Tehran and Washington.
"In general, sanctions are unjust," he said.
On Sunday, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s representative in Baghdad lashed out at Abadi as the Tehran visit was called off.
"These irresponsible remarks have already been condemned by many people. It’s a disloyal attitude towards the honest position of Iran and the blood of the deaders this country has spilt to defend the land of Iraq" against holy warriors, said Moujtaba al-Hussein.
"We are saddened by this position which shows he has been defeated psychologically in the face of the Americans," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/13/2018 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] During the civil war in 2015, the Syrian regime opened a public park in the capital Damascus, in honor of North Korea’s first supreme leader, Kim Il-sung. Adding furthermore to the mystery, the public is prohibited from entering the garden. This reflects the Syrian regime’s determination to retains it as a symbol of the special secret relationship between the two presidents, according to the French newspaper, Le Monde.
Le Monde reveals that the park is located in the town of Kafr Sousse, south-west of Damascus, close to a building belonging to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Sham City Center, one of the largest commercial centers in the Syrian capital.
The park is a meeting point for children of the newly rich who live in high-rise residential towers. It is where they spend their time drinking"Polo", a high-priced lemon and mint juice, and smoke hookah. During the summer of 2017, as the civil war raged and rockets lit sky, the park remained distant and shielded from all the commotion.
When locals are queried about the Kim Il-sung Park, they raise their eyebrows in wonder, oblivious to who this leader is. Kim Il-sung ruled from 1948-1994, and is the grandfather of the current North Korean leader, Kim Pudge Jong-un ...the overweight, pouty-looking hereditary potentate of North Korea. Pudge appears to believe in his own divinity, but has yet to produce any loaves and fishes, so his subjects remain malnourished... The park was inaugurated on August 31, 2015 in the presence of Syrian Deputy foreign minister, Faisal Mekdad, and other officials from both countries. Despite what was announced as a significant opening by the Syrian Arab News Agency, it is still difficult to determine the exact location of the park.
According to Syrian Authorities, the park covers an area of 9,000 square meters. It is fenced and can only be accessed by individuals who hold keys to its large gate.
The park is home to a monument surprisingly built 13 years before its opening. It has the birth-date of the Kim Il-sung and describes him as "The eternal leader of the Korean people and the dear friend of the Syrians".
Despite hinting at the obvious cooperation between North Korea and the Syrian regime, the park has triggered speculation about why Damascus, specifically in the midst of a civil war, is beholden to the Pyongyang regime.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/13/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
Of course they keep it secure -- it produces half the North Korean food supply!
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
08/13/2018 11:48 Comments ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Has US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... ’s position on Iran changed? Has he demolished his stated strategy as well as the statements of his senior administration officials, abandoned the conditions set by his foreign affairs minister and set closed doors and dead-end paths before the Iranian regime, the biggest sponsor of terrorism in the world?
These questions were raised by some observers in the past phase.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
08/13/2018 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire.... said on Sunday it had finalized preparations to create more safe areas in Syria, which would allow the return of refugees who have fled the civil war.
Speaking at his AK Party’s provincial headquarters in the Black Sea city of Trabzon, President Tayyip Erdogan said a quarter of a million people had already returned to liberated areas in Syria.
"God willing soon we will have liberated more places and made more areas safe," he said.
Turkey is host to 2.7 million refugees from Syria.
Turkey is carrying out an offensive in northern Syria’s Afrin region against the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, which Ankara considers a terrorist organization linked to Kurdish hard boyz waging an insurgency on Ottoman Turkish soil.
The Afrin campaign is Turkey’s second cross-border operation during Syria’s seven-year-old civil war. The first, dubbed "Euphrates Shield", targeted ISIS and Kurdish fighters further east than Afrin, and was completed in early 2017.
Erdogan said diplomatic and military efforts in Syria’s Idlib province, where Turkey has set up a dozen military observation posts, had been accelerated to avoid a "catastrophe" like those seen in other parts of Syria.
Syria’s government and allied forces backed by Russia and Iran have swiftly recaptured other rebel strongholds in the southwest and vowed to push on and recover all of the country.
Idlib is the largest remaining Syrian rebel-held enclave and there are fears of further bloodshed in the event of a government-backed offensive.
Erdogan also said Turkey was taking steps to save Iraq’s Qandil area from being a "nest of terror" and that if needed northern Iraq’s Sinjar region could be included in this process.
Turkey’s army has ramped up operations in northern Iraq, with the aim of destroying Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) bases in the Qandil mountains, where high-ranking members of the hard boy group are thought to be located.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/13/2018 00:00 ||
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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.
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic...
Crown Prince of 
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey...
[DAWN] Diamer Deputy Commissioner Didar Malik on Sunday asked a 12-member jirga working with the district authorities to handover 27 suspects allegedly involved in the arson attacks on schools in Diamer district, DawnNewsTV reported.
North Korea
