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Today: 58 articles and 156 comments as of 10:02.
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Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Opinion        Politix   
US names new diplomat to Libya to replace Stevens
Today's Headlines
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Page 1: WoT Operations
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Page 4: Opinion
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Africa North
Egypt army amphibious vehicles sink in Suez Canal
[Al Ahram] An officer went missing as two Egyptian military amphibious vehicles capsized in the Suez Canal during exercises on Thursday, officials said.
Egyptian drivers are very special. In civilian life they turn off their headlights at night "to save the battery".
Traffic in the vital waterway was not affected by the accident which occurred away from shipping lanes, canal officials said.

Military and shipping officials said the first armoured vehicle sank due to an "unexpected" technical fault while the second capsized when the crew tried to assist their comrades.

Four conscripts in the first vehicle were brought to shore but an officer was trapped in the second amphibious unit and listed as missing, believed drowned, the sources said.
Posted by: Fred || 10/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'm going to go out on a limb + speculate the amphibs haven't been used for quite a while???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 10/12/2012 1:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Amphibious purple heart boxes.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 10/12/2012 1:45 Comments || Top||

#3  Egypt army amphibious submersibles vehicles sink in Suez Canal

Anything is submersible - once.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 10/12/2012 9:28 Comments || Top||

#4  Ask any submariner (me included), it's important to maintain that surface to dive ratio at or above ONE!
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 10/12/2012 14:27 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Chavez names his foreign minister as new VP
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Just days after winning a tough re-election battle, Venezuelan His Excellency President-for-Life, Caudillo of the Bolivarians Hugo Chavez named his foreign minister Nicolas Maduro as his new vice president Wednesday.

"I want us all to offer applause of support and motivation to our new vice president, Nicolas Maduro," Chavez said at the headquarters of the national electoral council, which proclaimed the anti-US firebrand
...firebrands are noted more for audio volume and the quantity of spittle generated than for any actual logic in their arguments...
leftist leader the winner of Sunday's vote.

The 49-year-old Maduro, a former bus driver and union activist, had served as foreign minister since 2006.

Maduro replaces Elias Jaua, who plans to run for the governorship of Miranda state -- the most populous in the country -- against Henrique Capriles, the man defeated by Chavez. That vote will take place on December 16.
Posted by: Fred || 10/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Europe
Update on the Swedish Chef: Yes, the school kids can have good food again
Posted by: mom || 10/12/2012 08:52 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  - It is clear that Britannica will continue to bake bread. Some have kitchens that work, others do not, so it must be different, even if we try to get similar food in the whole municipality, says Catherine Lindberg.

So, every one must do without cause the bureaucrats can't get around to fix the the kitchens that don't work? Socialism - drag everyone down to the lowest common denominator [except the administrators/apparatchiks/Inner Party at the top].
Posted by: Procopius2k || 10/12/2012 9:13 Comments || Top||

#2  Harrison Bergeron call your office.
Posted by: AlanC || 10/12/2012 14:01 Comments || Top||

#3  Further proof socialism is a muppet government.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 10/12/2012 16:15 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Teenage Christian boy booked for blasphemy
[Dawn] With the case of Rimsha Masih still grabbing the headlines, another case of blasphemy was reported to police on Wednesday, this time not in a slum but in a middle-class neighbourhood of Gulshan-e-Iqbal, after the house of the accused boy belonging to a religious minority community was ransacked and furniture was set on fire in a violent protest.

The teenage Christian boy has been accused of sending text messages containing 'blasphemous' content to his area residents without reading it.

The incident took place in the staff colony of the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) located at the junction of University Road and Abul Hasan Ispahani Road.

Police said that the boy was accused by the residents that he had sent text messages containing blasphemous content to the staffers and officers of the SSGC present at the residential-cum-office compound.

As the SMS reportedly circulated among the residents of the colony comprising workers and officers, they eventually attacked the residential quarter of Ryan Stanten, 16, and his mother, Rubina Bryan, on Wednesday, police said. Ms Bryan worked as a superintendent at the SSGC, they added.

The SMS had been sent on Tuesday night.

However,
if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well...
apparently after realising the gravity of the situation the family had abandoned the house, said a police brass hat of the area.

"Had they not left the house, the situation could have been really bad," the officer observed.

On Wednesday, the enraged people ransacked the house and set fire to the household articles, including the bed, washing machine and fridge, after bringing them out on to the main University Road.

The protesters also raised slogans against the family.

The SMS was passed on by the accused teenager by his own cellphone on Tuesday. After receiving it, some people had gone to the boy asking him about it, he told them that he had forwarded the SMS after receiving it, said DIG (east) Shahid Hayat while speaking to Dawn.

"Ryan told complainant Khursheed Alam and Pesh Imam Qari Ghulam Qadir of the SSGC Jamia Mosque that someone sent him this SMS and he forwarded it to all Mohammedan friends without reading it," said the DIG.

The official in charge of the SSGC security, an ex-serviceman, kept handling the situation, the police officer added.

After the mayhem, police reached the scene and tried to appease the protesters assuring them that police would register the case.

"We reached the scene and talked sense to some holy mans who were leading the protest," said a police officer of the area. The violent protest caused a severe traffic jam on Abul Hasan Ispahani Road and University Road.

A case (FIR No 432/2012) under Section 295-C (use of derogatory remarks, etc, in respect of the Holy Prophet) of the Pakistain Penal Code, Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act and Section 25 of the Telegraph Act was later registered at the Mobina Town cop shoppe.

A duty officer of the cop shoppe said the FIR was registered against Ryan Stanten, son of Ms Bryan, a resident of SSGC staff colony on a complaint of SSGC chief manager Khursheed Alam.

'People scared'

Describing the trend as very dangerous, in which the Christians were also being targeted, Human Rights Commission of Pakistain chief Zohra Yousaf said that people had become very scared.

"At least 22 blasphemy cases have been reported in the country this year alone, in which Mohammedan accused are more in number compared to the Christians," said the HRCP chief.

Referring to a Sept 21 incident that took place in Hyderabad, Ms Yousaf said some people had lodged a blasphemy case against a trader who had not closed his shop on the day of protest.

Earlier in August, a 14-year-old Christian girl, Rimsha Masih, had been accused of blasphemy by a holy man in a suburban neighbourhood of Islamabad. She was finally released by a court and had to be airlifted to Qazi's guesthouse an undisclosed location for security reasons.
Posted by: Fred || 10/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Who torches a fridge? I mean, really...
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 10/12/2012 13:19 Comments || Top||

#2  Another day, another pogrom.
Posted by: Shinter Javirong9154 || 10/12/2012 16:37 Comments || Top||


F-9 Park: two officers caught 'moral policing'
Somehow they just can't connect this sort of thing with turbans shooting young girls on school buses.
[Dawn] A constable at Shalimar cop shoppe and an upper division clerk (UDC) of the air force were caught and taken into custody over their involvement in 'moral policing'.

Apparently, they were fleecing couples entering F-9 Fatimah Jinnah Park, who could not provide proof of their marriage.

Both these officers who through their actions made Islamabad look like Kabul under the Taliban, were threatening couples with legal action, on Wednesday, police sources said.

One of the couples being brave enough called 15 and as a result, a police promptly arrived on the scene and placed in durance vile
Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!
the two officers.

From the park, the police took the two officers to Margalla cop shoppe.

During inquiry, one of them introduced himself as a constable of capital police, stationed at Shalimar cop shoppe and the other as UDC of Air Force at Air Headquarters.

There would have been legal action against the accused officers but later both were released from police custody due to intervention of seniors without any legal action, sources added.

Further details of the case like how many couples were fleeced and how much many the officers made -- and got away with -- could not be provided, as no case was registered.
Posted by: Fred || 10/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


International-UN-NGOs
Nobel Peace Prize awarded to European Union
The European Union has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for six decades of work in advancing peace in Europe.

The committee said the EU had helped to transform Europe from a continent of war to a continent of peace.

The award comes as the EU faces the biggest financial crisis of its 54-year history, with many of its member states mired in recession.

The last organisation to be given the award outright was Medecins Sans Frontieres, which won in 1999.

Announcing the award, Nobel committee president Thorbjoern Jagland acknowledged the EU's current financial problems and social unrest.

But he said the committee wanted to concentrate on the body's work over six decades of advancing "peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights".

The committee president highlighted the EU's work in sealing the reconciliation between France and Germany in the decades after World War II.
Posted by: tipper || 10/12/2012 05:17 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If that's the criteria, it should have gone to the USA and Canada, as they haven't had a war for 200 years, and even then it wasn't much of a war.
Posted by: phil_b || 10/12/2012 5:24 Comments || Top||

#2  Europe awards....itself......a prize.

YJCMTSU.
Posted by: no mo uro || 10/12/2012 5:27 Comments || Top||

#3  Beats giving it to you know who.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 10/12/2012 5:29 Comments || Top||

#4  surprise

I thought they would give the peace prize to Khomenei or maybe to Islam.
Posted by: lord garth || 10/12/2012 6:41 Comments || Top||

#5  Next time, the committee can give ITSELF the prize, for, you know, working for peace 'n stuff.
Thereby permanently pegging the irony meter, while putting up a sign that says "By the way, we're useless, but we're still the center of the universe".
What you have here is an illustration of how european political academics think. In Technicolor.
Posted by: ed in texas || 10/12/2012 6:47 Comments || Top||

#6  Norwegians sensibly decided not to join the EU...

Obviously the Nobel committee has been taken over by leftist idiots (as all sources of un-earned money seem to).
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 10/12/2012 7:31 Comments || Top||

#7  In other news:

Belfast's Harland & Wolff Shipyard awarded Nobel Prize in Engineering for their work on RMS Titanic.
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/12/2012 7:39 Comments || Top||

#8  Regarding the Nobel Peace Prize and the Champ:

"He's the first Nobel Peace Prize winner with a kill list."
Mercer
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/12/2012 8:09 Comments || Top||

#9  Beso - that titanic joke induced a java spill on the computer screen - good one!
Posted by: Broadhead6 || 10/12/2012 8:54 Comments || Top||

#10  Nobel Peace Prize awarded to European Union

-about as meaningful as giving an end of season medal to every kid on the second to last place soccer team.
Posted by: Broadhead6 || 10/12/2012 9:44 Comments || Top||

#11  Should have awarded the Dynamit Prize to Greece. They need the money. Just sayin'.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 10/12/2012 11:12 Comments || Top||

#12  Sure.You can thank us later for being your muscle so the Soviets didn't crush you like bugs and you could do...whatever it is you supposedly did.
Posted by: tu3031 || 10/12/2012 11:48 Comments || Top||

#13  At first I thought wait, the EU hasn't killed enough people. Then I thought damn, maybe these guys know something I don't...
Posted by: Iblis || 10/12/2012 11:50 Comments || Top||

#14  Everybody gets a trophy! Now how's your self-esteem, sunshine?
Posted by: regular joe || 10/12/2012 11:59 Comments || Top||

#15  from The Top Ten Signs You Might Suck:

#1. You just won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Posted by: SteveS || 10/12/2012 13:37 Comments || Top||

#16  ask any Austrian how much of their GDP was gone toward their military or NATO in the past 60 years.
Posted by: Jack Salami || 10/12/2012 14:15 Comments || Top||

#17  tu3031, we gave them the breathing room to become Russia on their own schedule. If that wasn't bad enough a couple of years ago they decided pakistan was a better model and the switch has been jarring to say the least.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 10/12/2012 15:04 Comments || Top||

#18  So the guy with the "charisma of a damp rag" (Nigel Farage)is going to collect the Nobel Prize.

Sounds about right to me.
Posted by: European Conservative || 10/12/2012 16:07 Comments || Top||

#19  That whirring sound you hear is Alfred Nobel spinning in his grave.
Posted by: Barbara || 10/12/2012 19:06 Comments || Top||

#20  This prize should have gone to Malala Yousufzai, the young girl shot by the Taliban. Too bad the Nobel committee is more interested in self pleasurement.
Posted by: AuburnTom || 10/12/2012 20:03 Comments || Top||

#21  If anyone should get a prize for sixty plus years of peace in Europe, it should be the US military for keeping the Russians out and the Germans down.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 10/12/2012 20:51 Comments || Top||

#22  When I was serving in the Bundeswehr, I didn't have the impression that our US friends were here to keep us down.

As a matter of fact their presence was pretty uplifting.
Posted by: European Conservative || 10/12/2012 21:59 Comments || Top||

#23  Glad to hear that, European Conservative.
Posted by: lotp || 10/12/2012 22:03 Comments || Top||

#24  Let's hope that no war breaks out over the question who will collect the prize.

Posted by: European Conservative || 10/12/2012 22:43 Comments || Top||


Olde Tyme Religion
Pope Addresses Christians, Muslims In Arabic For First Time
[Ynet] Vatican hopes new initiative would send comforting word to Christians in Mideast and decrease tensions with Mohammedans

In an effort to reach out to Christians in the Middle East, Pope Benedict XVI carried an address in Arabic for the first time. The Pope's weekly general audiences at the St. Peter's Basilica are broadcast worldwide and translated into various languages, including English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Slovenian, Polish, Hungarian and Russian. On Wednesday, the sermon was translated into Arabic for the first time in history.

A century ago, Christians comprised 20% of the Middle East's population; the numbers went down to 5% due to immigration prompted by wars in the region.
"The pope prays for all people who speak Arabic. May God bless you all," he said in Arabic. A priest then read a summary of the pope's Italian language weekly address, which discussed the Second Vatican Council's 50th anniversary, in Arabic for the first time.

The initiative reflects the church's growing concern with the persecution of Christians in the Middle East and their decreasing numbers in the local population.

A century ago, Christians comprised 20% of the Middle East's population; the numbers went down to 5% due to immigration prompted by wars in the region.
Quite a few of them ended up in the U.S., which is why Arab-Americans are primarily Christian, and Muslim-Americans mostly come from the Indian subcontinent.
The Christian population in the Middle East is currently estimated at 12 million, and could halve by 2020 if security and birth rates continue to decline.

The Vatican said the addition was made to show the pontiff's concern for Christians in the Middle East and to remind both Mohammedans and Christians to work for peace in the region.

A Vatican statement said the leader of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics wanted to continue the spirit of his trip to Leb last month. During the visit, the Pope urged Christians and Mohammedans to end the Syrian conflict.

The sermon was broadcasted live on radio and television worldwide. Vatican officials hoped the sermon would send a comforting word to Christians in a region which is home to many Christian holy places.
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "I have three testicles!"

"My hovercraft is full of eels!"
Posted by: Shinter Javirong9154 || 10/12/2012 16:46 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
27[untagged]
8Govt of Pakistan
5Govt of Syria
3al-Qaeda in Pakistan
2Arab Spring
2Hezbollah
2Muslim Brotherhood
2Ansar Dine
1al-Qaeda in Europe
1Thai Insurgency
1Baloch Liberation Army
1al-Qaeda in Arabia
1Hamas
1Indian Mujaheddin
1Narcos

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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.
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Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2012-10-12
  US names new diplomat to Libya to replace Stevens
Thu 2012-10-11
  US embassy security chief gunned down in Yemen
Wed 2012-10-10
  Turkey Intercepts Syrian Civilian Plane
Tue 2012-10-09
  Taliban bravely shoot Pakistani schoolgirl campaigning for peace
Mon 2012-10-08
  Syria Rebels Advance in North, Pushed Back in South
Sun 2012-10-07
  1 dead, 10 arrested in anti-terror sweep in France
Sat 2012-10-06
  US suspected drone kills five persons in Shabwa
Fri 2012-10-05
  18 Republican Guards killed in Damascus province
Thu 2012-10-04
  Violence and Protest in Iran as Currency Drops in Value
Wed 2012-10-03
  Syria shells kill five inside Turkey
Tue 2012-10-02
  More Than 130 Dead in Syria amid Clashes in Aleppo Souk
Mon 2012-10-01
  Children killed in Kenya church attack
Sun 2012-09-30
  Thousands rally in Karachi against anti-Islam film
Sat 2012-09-29
  Kenyan Army Claims Fall of Kismayo
Fri 2012-09-28
  Iraq militants attack Tikrit prison, freeing 90 inmates

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