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Heavy fighting between Turkish/SNA and YPG/SDF
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Hundreds Charged Worldwide in the Takedown of the Largest Darknet Child Pornography Website, Which was Funded by Bitcoin
[Department of Justice] Jong Woo Son, 23, a South Korean national, was indicted by a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia for his operation of Welcome To Video, the largest child sexual exploitation market by volume of content. The nine-count indictment was unsealed today along with a parallel civil forfeiture action. Son has also been charged and convicted in South Korea and is currently in custody serving his sentence in South Korea. An additional 337 site users residing in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington State and Washington, D.C. as well as the United Kingdom, South Korea, Germany, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the Czech Republic, Canada, Ireland, Spain, Brazil and Australia have been arrested and charged.

Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Jessie K. Liu for the District of Columbia, Chief Don Fort of IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) and Acting Executive Associate Director Alysa Erichs of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), made the announcement.

"Darknet sites that profit from the sexual exploitation of children are among the most vile and reprehensible forms of criminal behavior," said Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. "This Administration will not allow child predators to use lawless online spaces as a shield. Today’s announcement demonstrates that the Department of Justice remains firmly committed to working closely with our partners in South Korea and around the world to rescue child victims and bring to justice the perpetrators of these abhorrent crimes."

"Children around the world are safer because of the actions taken by U.S. and foreign law enforcement to prosecute this case and recover funds for victims," said U.S. Attorney Jessie K. Liu. "We will continue to pursue such criminals on and off the darknet in the United States and abroad, to ensure they receive the punishment their terrible crimes deserve."

"Through the sophisticated tracing of bitcoin transactions, IRS-CI special agents were able to determine the location of the Darknet server, identify the administrator of the website and ultimately track down the website server’s physical location in South Korea," said IRS-CI Chief Don Fort. "This largescale criminal enterprise that endangered the safety of children around the world is no more. Regardless of the illicit scheme, and whether the proceeds are virtual or tangible, we will continue to work with our federal and international partners to track down these disgusting organizations and bring them to justice."
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/18/2019 04:41 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Jong Woo Son, 23

An enterprising young man. Must've started in high school.
Posted by: Bobby || 10/18/2019 7:37 Comments || Top||

#2  Why (other than facilitating international crime and helping rogue regimes) does bitcoin exist, again?

What legitimate business problem does it solve which is not solved by the existing international financial system?
Posted by: Lex || 10/18/2019 7:42 Comments || Top||

#3  ...for practice. When pols clamor for doing away with currency and sticking the population with their digital money only so they can track every transaction for taxation and political correctness, you'll need to look into alternatives.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 10/18/2019 8:02 Comments || Top||

#4  ... practicing upon innocent children? With pedoph1les?
... practicing with Kim Jong Il and Iran and Maduro and jihadist money laundering?
... practicing with drug cartels?

No thanks.

We - not The Man, but We as in civilized society - need to shut this down before more damage is done.
Posted by: Lex || 10/18/2019 8:40 Comments || Top||

#5  True. Change must come from within society.
Not by an interminable succession of redundant legislations and righteous judicial rants preceding minimal reformatory sentences.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 10/18/2019 8:47 Comments || Top||

#6  No, Lex, reason for bitcoin, not those using it. Get a grip. However, to play your rhetorical game, you seem to be happy to have those in power track every transaction you make and watch over your shoulder on how you spend it. You got an alternative beyond direct bartering? /rhet question
Posted by: Procopius2k || 10/18/2019 9:00 Comments || Top||

#7  I'm all for innovation in commerce that reduces the power of the State to regulate and dis-empower the individual. Like all tech, it is empowering for both law-abiding and law-breakers.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 10/18/2019 9:12 Comments || Top||

#8  look up debasement of the currency, history thereof

There's a good reason, learned over about 10,000 years of civilization' experience with mediums of exchange, why we want centralized control of the money supply

Bitcoin institutionalizes currency debasement.

Bizarre that people who decry this when perpetrated by bad governments want to do it tenfold through scam currencies ...
Posted by: Lex || 10/18/2019 9:17 Comments || Top||

#9  #3 Another. The Federal Reserve, the banker's bank wants to be the one's who control fiat money or money that is intrinsically worthless and based on debt. The system results in ever-increasing debt. Money is printed to satisfy the debts and interest. The system tends to result in inflation.
Posted by: JohnQC || 10/18/2019 9:57 Comments || Top||

#10  OK gents, I'll cede the floor to one who knows a hell of a lot more than any of us, Nouriel Roubini, who has a demonstrated gift for spotting investment bubbles.

Roubini cuts through the bitcoin bullshit with his usual flair here - sorry for the long re-post but it's buried within a series of articles at Project Syndicate, the website where many of the world's best and smartest economists publish, and it's not easy to find.

So here goes - I'm done here. Take it away, Roubini:

Blockchain’s Broken Promises

Jan 26, 2018 NOURIEL ROUBINI

Boosters of blockchain technology compare its early days to the early days of the Internet. But whereas the Internet quickly gave rise to email, the World Wide Web, and millions of commercial ventures, blockchain's only application – cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin – does not even fulfill its stated purpose.

NEW YORK – The financial-services industry has been undergoing a revolution. But the driving force is not overhyped blockchain applications such as Bitcoin. It is a revolution built on artificial intelligence, big data, and the Internet of Things.
Already, thousands of real businesses are using these technologies to disrupt every aspect of financial intermediation. Dozens of online-payment services – PayPal, Alipay, WeChat Pay, Venmo, and so forth – have hundreds of millions of daily users. And financial institutions are making precise lending decisions in seconds rather than weeks, thanks to a wealth of online data on individuals and firms. With time, such data-driven improvements in credit allocation could even eliminate cyclical credit-driven booms and busts.

Similarly, insurance underwriting, claims assessment and management, and fraud monitoring have all become faster and more precise. And actively managed portfolios are increasingly being replaced by passive robo-advisers, which can perform just as well or better than conflicted, high-fee financial advisers.

Now, compare this real and ongoing fintech revolution with the record of blockchain, which has existed for almost a decade, and still has only one application: cryptocurrencies. Blockchain’s boosters would argue that its early days resemble the early days of the Internet, before it had commercial applications. But that comparison is simply false. Whereas the Internet quickly gave rise to email, the World Wide Web, and millions of viable commercial ventures used by billions of people, cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin do not even fulfill their own stated purpose.

As a currency, Bitcoin should be a serviceable unit of account, means of payments, and a stable store of value. It is none of those things. No one prices anything in Bitcoin. Few retailers accept it. And it is a poor store of value, because its price can fluctuate by 20-30% in a single day.

Worse, cryptocurrencies in general are based on a false premise. According to its promoters, Bitcoin has a steady-state supply of 21 million units, so it cannot be debased like fiat currencies. But that claim is clearly fraudulent, considering that it has already forked off into three branches: Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Gold.

Besides, hundreds of other cryptocurrencies are invented every day, alongside scams known as “initial coin offerings,” which are mostly designed to skirt securities laws. So “stable” cryptos are creating money supply and debasing it at a much faster pace than any major central bank ever has.

As is typical of a financial bubble, investors are buying cryptocurrencies not to use in transactions, but because they expect them to increase in value. Indeed, if someone actually wanted to use Bitcoin, they would have a hard time doing so. It is so energy-intensive (and thus environmentally toxic) to produce, and carries such high transaction costs, that even Bitcoin conferences do not accept it as a valid form of payment.

Until now, Bitcoin’s only real use has been to facilitate illegal activities such as drug transactions, tax evasion, avoidance of capital controls, or money laundering. Not surprisingly, G20 member states are now working together to regulate cryptocurrencies and eliminate the anonymity they supposedly afford, by requiring that all income- or capital-gains-generating transactions be reported.

After a crackdown by Asian regulators this month, cryptocurrency values fell by 50% from their December peak. They would have collapsed much more had a vast scheme to prop up their price via outright manipulation not been rapidly implemented. But, as in the case of the sub-prime bubble, most US regulators are still asleep at the wheel.

Since the invention of money thousands of years ago, there has never been a monetary system with hundreds of different currencies operating alongside one another. The entire point of money is that it allows parties to transact without having to barter. But for money to have value, and to generate economies of scale, only so many currencies can operate at the same time.

In the US, the reason we do not use euros or yen in addition to dollars is obvious: doing so would be pointless, and it would make the economy far less efficient. The idea that hundreds of cryptocurrencies could viably operate together not only contradicts the very concept of money; it is utterly idiotic.

But so, too, is the idea that even a single cryptocurrency could substitute for fiat money.

Cryptocurrencies have no intrinsic value, whereas fiat currencies certainly do, because they can be used to pay taxes. Fiat currencies are also protected from value debasement by central banks committed to price stability; and if a fiat currency loses credibility, as in some weak monetary systems with high inflation, it will be swapped out for more stable foreign fiat currencies or real assets.

As it happens, Bitcoin’s supposed advantage is also its Achilles’s heel, because even if it actually did have a steady-state supply of 21 million units, that would disqualify it as a viable currency. Unless the supply of a currency tracks potential nominal GDP, prices will undergo deflation.

That means if a steady-state supply of Bitcoin really did gradually replace a fiat currency, the price index of all goods and services would continuously fall. By extension, any nominal debt contract denominated in Bitcoin would rise in real value over time, leading to the kind of debt deflation that economist Irving Fisher believed precipitated the Great Depression. At the same time, nominal wages in Bitcoin would increase forever in real terms, regardless of productivity growth, adding further to the likelihood of an economic disaster.

Clearly, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies represent the mother of all bubbles, which explains why every human being I met between Thanksgiving and Christmas of 2017 asked me if they should buy them. Scammers, swindlers, charlatans, and carnival barkers (all conflicted insiders) have tapped into clueless retail investors’ FOMO (“fear of missing out”), and taken them for a ride.

As for the underlying blockchain technology, there are still massive obstacles standing in its way, even if it has more potential than cryptocurrencies. Chief among them is that it lacks the kind of basic common and universal protocols that made the Internet universally accessible (TCP-IP, HTML, and so forth). More fundamentally, its promise of decentralized transactions with no intermediary authority amounts to an untested, Utopian pipedream. No wonder blockchain is ranked close to the peak of the hype cycle of technologies with inflated expectations.
So, forget about blockchain, Bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies, and start investing in fintech firms with actual business models, which are slogging away to revolutionize the financial-services industry. You won’t get rich overnight; but you’ll have made the smarter investment.
Posted by: Lex || 10/18/2019 10:22 Comments || Top||

#11  Bitcoin exists for similar reasons Americans own guns, you can't totally trust the goods the state provides .
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 10/18/2019 10:44 Comments || Top||

#12  Thank You, Lex. That was an education. Eep ! Gotta restructure the Go-Bag !
Posted by: Dron66046 || 10/18/2019 11:38 Comments || Top||

#13  Frankly, I find it impossible to trust a cryptocurrency. It is just another scheme and its proponents are just another shady tech company/organization to me. And making and propping up the money should be and is the province of government, one of the few (in my opinion) places where government is infinitely better than any alternatives and where its dominance should be respected.
Posted by: Vernal Hatrick || 10/18/2019 20:27 Comments || Top||


Ex-Nazi guard accused of 5,230 murders appears in German court
[PRESSTV] A 93-year-old former concentration camp guard has arrived in court in a wheelchair, in what could be one of Germany's last trials of Nazi war crimes.

Bruno D., whose surname cannot be given for legal reasons, is accused of being an accessory to 5,230 murders in the final months of World War Two.

He was part of a force manning the watchtowers in Stutthof concentration camp, near what is now the city of Gdansk in Poland, prosecutors say.

He was 17 and 18 at the time of the alleged offences, so the nonagenarian will be tried in a youth court.

Wearing a broad-brimmed hat, the defendant tried to shield his face behind a red folder as an official wheeled him into the Hamburg courtroom for the start of his trial.

Tens of thousands of people, mostly Jews, died at the camp during the six years of its existence. Many were murdered in its gas chamber while others succumbed to hunger, sickness and exhaustion.

A descendant of a survivor told news hounds he came from New York to represent his family.

Ben Cohen said his great-grandmother was murdered at Stutthof gas chamber and that his 90-year-old grandmother "constantly asks 'why, why would they do this? How could they do this?"

Prosecutors argue that as a guard he was an accessory to murder through the act of stopping inmates escaping from the camp, which was one of the last to be liberated in 1945.

Broadcaster NDR reported there are around 29 open cases in Germany against people accused of being involved in the Holocaust, in which Adolf Hitler
...late Fuehrer of Germany, founder of the Third Reich, currently communing with his pals Himmler and Heydrich. He is reincarnated every few days as a politician somebody doesn't like...
's Nazi regime murdered more than 6 million Jews.

Posted by: Fred || 10/18/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I hope I live to see the day when there are no more ex-Nazis to be prosecuted.
Posted by: Bobby || 10/18/2019 8:30 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
India’s ‘miracle baby’ making recovery in hospital
[DAWN] LUCKNOW: Doctors on Wednesday hailed as a "miracle" the survival of a newborn girl found several days after being buried alive, as police hunted for her parents who have been charged with attempted murder.

The nearly eight-day-old baby was found in a clay pot by a father on Thursday when he was digging a grave for his own newborn daughter, who had died the day before, in a village in northern Uttar Pradesh state.

The premature infant weighing just 1.1 kilogrammes (2.4 pounds) was taken to a government hospital in a critical condition with severe dehydration and blood infections before being transferred to a private hospital.

"It’s a miracle that she survived being buried for so long," her doctor Ravi Khanna said.

"The baby must’ve remained buried for 2.5 to three days because she was very emaciated from her cheeks to her neck, her stomach and legs." The girl, who is in an incubator, was now "out of danger" and responding to antibiotic treatment, he said.

"We are feeding her milk via a tube and also slowly increasing the quantity of milk being fed to her," Khanna added.

"The baby’s weight has improved from before and is currently 1.2 kilos and the baby’s condition has improved a little as well."

Doctors and police said the baby could have been buried for more than two days in the pot, which had some holes in it.

Lead investigating officer Pradeep Singh said his team was searching villages near where she was found and asking about recent pregnancies.

"We have filed an attempt-to-murder case and one for endangering the life of the child against unnamed parents," Singh said.

He added that she would be sent to a government-run adoption home after she is discharged from hospital.

But a local politician from the national government’s ruling party, Rajesh Kumar Mishra, who is paying for her treatment in the private facility, said he would adopt the girl he called a "miracle".

"Can you imagine a newborn surviving such a situation for so many days? She is God-sent and I have decided to adopt her," Mishra said.

The politician made national headlines in July when his daughter, then aged 23, accused him of sending his henchmen to kill her and her husband over their inter-caste marriage.

The couple publicly severed their relationship with him and remain in hiding.

Posted by: Fred || 10/18/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Wow. That last part pretty much ruins the feel-good story.

Like;
'Local hero saves children from fire. Says he gained experience in arson last year by burning his wife.'
Posted by: Dron66046 || 10/18/2019 8:54 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Sudan hopes for return of foreign businesses
[AFRICANEWS] Khartoum is seeking to attract foreign businesses back to the country to help revive its ailing economy.

On Wednesday, four U.S diplomats opened accounts at a Sudanese bank for the time in decades.

Ellen Thorburn is Deputy Chief of mission at the US embassy in Khartoum.

"One main reason is for convenience so we can use our new accounts and the debit cards in stores and restaurants as we move around Khartoum. Symbolic it is to support the economy of Sudan, we lifted economic sanctions in 2017 and we want to show that Sudan is open for business, that banks, international banks and businesses are welcome back here", she said.

Sudan has been hit by foreign currency shortages. Despite the United States listing a decade-old sanction in 2017, foreign investors have not returned.

"There’s clearly been some dramatic changes in the Sudanese government and the timing seemed right now with the civilian led transitional government and the changes that they are enacting", Thorburn added.

An economic crisis in December 2018 sparked a nationwide protest leading to the ouster of long-time leader, Omar al-Bashir
...Former President-for-Life of Sudan He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself head cheese. He fell out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to Arabize Darfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Hee was overthrown by popular consent in 2019. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it...
. The East African nation is now being ruled by a joint civilian-military body, known as the sovereign council. The council is spearheading a transition to civilian rule.

Posted by: Fred || 10/18/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan


Britain
Tired of your shit rebellion.
[twitter]
Posted by: 3dc || 10/18/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  LOL
Posted by: charger || 10/18/2019 0:22 Comments || Top||

#2  Note the class difference.
Educated maroons vs logical, sensible working-class folk. l
Posted by: Lex || 10/18/2019 1:30 Comments || Top||

#3  I have come to the conclusion that there's an expectation that life will have some difficulties and, much like an under-stimulated immune system leads to allergies and asthma, a lack of challenge leads the pampered into inventing a challenge and causing themselves problems see vegans (some also with NPD take their own self created problems and inflict them on others).
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 10/18/2019 5:53 Comments || Top||

#4  My prediction is the Extinction Rebellion starts targeting wealthy restaurants and churches and such where the folks won't fight back.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 10/18/2019 12:20 Comments || Top||

#5  The staff might as they'll probably have seen the activistas in there the day before.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 10/18/2019 12:23 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
In a first, Mexico deports 311 Indians trying to sneak into US
[Times of India/HT Insty] Dot, not feather
Related article from the Daily Caller has the Mexican perspective on the story.

Posted by: Frank G || 10/18/2019 06:21 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Clearly not our best. Must be abjectly useless if even Mehico doesn't want 'em.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 10/18/2019 8:42 Comments || Top||

#2  There goes 311 convenience store employees...
Posted by: Raj || 10/18/2019 8:51 Comments || Top||

#3  Thank you Mexico.
Posted by: JohnQC || 10/18/2019 9:44 Comments || Top||

#4  Don't understand how when Trump insults illegals as hard as he can they still come. Some people have no pride I guess. And why the hell are Indians coming up thru Mejico?
Posted by: jpal || 10/18/2019 10:30 Comments || Top||

#5  They're desperate. I don't begrudge them for trying; if I were to put myself in their shoes I can see the Jean Valjean-style logic of trying to feed one's family by pushing on a baker's open door. But that doesn't mean we should leave the door open and tolerate theft. Ultimately this policy is a disaster for everyone, including - maybe especially - for the illegals who live in the shadows with no protection against rape of all sorts, figurative and literal.

Better: They like my ancestors and everyone I work with must enter this country through the front door-- legally.

If you have an asylum claim, take it to your nearest US embassy or consulate. If not, apply for a visa and get in line.
Posted by: Lex || 10/18/2019 10:41 Comments || Top||

#6  When I taught a class in Inda 15 years ago, many of the students said their main goal was to get to America. I jokingly told them to go to Mexico, because the US seemed to be letting in anyone from Mexico.
On the other hand, in the IT department at my company, there are sections where I wonder if I'm back in Bangalore.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 10/18/2019 10:52 Comments || Top||

#7  Remember. Allowing those on less than average wages to immigrate harms the economy, by lowering average wages which puts pressure on wages for the poor & raises their rents .
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 10/18/2019 11:15 Comments || Top||

#8  I have nothing against value additions to a foreign country's human resource/intelligentsia, or legitimate emigration . But most of these samples, trust me you don't want them.

If the first step into a country is an illegal one, it's a promise of behavior to come. Indians by nature are sheep, they'll abide by most laws, jump through every hoop, ever hopeful and thankful just to be there. But don't underestimate the shitkickery some of us can get up to when in the wrong company. Besides, the ones who get through the H1B programs or have investments are generally harmless hindus or christians. The ones who have to sneak in are those once denied entry. Muslims and the like.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 10/18/2019 11:29 Comments || Top||

#9  The ones who have to sneak in are those once denied entry. Muslims and the like.

Or just those who don’t want to wait their turn for approval, with the possibility they might not be approved.
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/18/2019 14:38 Comments || Top||

#10  Some of them may just be tricked into it by the intercontinental smuggler networks. They probably are the sort who think this is the only way to come to America. Our own governments are to blame for their plight. The Long Thin arm of the law just doesn't mean much to these cartels. It's sad is what it is.

But most of them would be people escaping/avoiding something, but with enough money to pay coyotes.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 10/18/2019 14:54 Comments || Top||

#11  Hindus might seem harmless, but they can be just as oppressive towards their neighbors as anybody else when they have a firm majority (although they haven't seem as keen to turn the nations they emigrate to into garbage, like Muslim refugees). Any group can. Observe the oppressive religious regulations effecting diet and dress in Hindu states in India, the Hindus who keep Muslims or atheists or anybody else from keeping and slaughtering cattle. And on a totally different note, India's own corruption no doubt makes this seem like a more logical step. If you HAVE to pay to avoid the bureaucrats back home, why not assume it will be the same anywhere? Why think that anybody will actually give a crap about the law once you have a chance to grease their palms when you haven't ever been given a reason to? I mean, most US politicians and deep state officials don't actually care about the law either, so they're not even very wrong in that assumption.
Posted by: Vernal Hatrick || 10/18/2019 15:43 Comments || Top||

#12  I worked closely with a pair of Indian guys back in the late 90s (work with a ton of them now but different stories). The two guys (back in the 90s) made a lot of business trips to Silicon valley to work with my company. One of the guys really wanted to emigrate to the US, the other after a week wanted to go back home. It takes all kinds.

Left the company before I learned if the one guy ever managed to emigrate.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 10/18/2019 17:31 Comments || Top||

#13  They're desperate.

Excuse me? Did you read the article? Any Indian capable of paying that much cash per head to be smuggled into the USA isn’t desperate. If they have that much money, they can live quite comfortably in many places in India. Put a bandage on your bleeding heart.
Posted by: Fat Bob Javish1936 || 10/18/2019 20:29 Comments || Top||

#14  Elizabeth Warren demands her tribe to be immediately let in and given..... oh wait THOSE indians. Nevermind
Posted by: bbrewer126 || 10/18/2019 22:35 Comments || Top||


Venezuela wins seat on UN Human Rights Council
[PRESSTV] Venezuela
...a country in Central America that sits on an enormous pool of oil. Formerly the most prospereous country in the region, it became infested with Commies sniffing almost unlimited wealth. It turned out the wealth wasn't unlimited, the economy collapsed under the clownish Hugo Chavez, the murder rate exceeds places like Honduras and El Salvador, and a significant proportion of the populace as refugeed to Colombia and points south...
has won a seat on the United Nations
...an idea whose time has gone...
Human Rights Council (UNHRC) despite fierce attacks from US-allied Latin American countries opposed to President Nicolás Maduro
...Commie el presidente para la vida of Venezuela, successor to Hugo Chavez. Nick is his country's attempt at producing a Muammar Qadaffy, except that even though his country's sitting on an enormous puddle of oil, he can't manage to get it out of the ground...
’s government.

Caracas, however, hailed its "victory" on Thursday and celebrated an "important achievement" after the crisis-hit country received the nod in a vote by the UN General Assembly to elect 14 new members for the 47-member body based in Geneva.

Venezuela would "celebrate a new victory for Bolivarian peace diplomacy," said the country’s Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza.

Attorney General Tarek William Saab also praised it as an "important achievement" as he announced the news of releasing of 24 detained opposition figures.

The UNHRC works to promote and protect human rights
One man's rights are another man's existential threat.
around the globe. Its members are elected for staggered three-year terms on a regional group basis.

Posted by: Fred || 10/18/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  What a fucking joke the UN is. Just disband it already.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 10/18/2019 0:32 Comments || Top||

#2  Well all that beating and killing of their own people finally paid off - they are now on the U.N. Human Rights [abusers] Council!
Posted by: CrazyFool || 10/18/2019 3:33 Comments || Top||

#3  Maduro probably missed the peace nobel only because he didn't bother to have himself nominated.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 10/18/2019 3:58 Comments || Top||

#4  Well, Venezuela will be in good company in UNHRC
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 10/18/2019 4:30 Comments || Top||

#5  Looking at all the co9untries in Grom list, I think they left a letter out of the acronym - a "D".

The list looks like the UN Development of Human Rights Council.
Posted by: Bobby || 10/18/2019 7:30 Comments || Top||

#6  The question is rather: What are Australia, the UK, Italy and Spain doing in this noble company?
Posted by: European Conservative || 10/18/2019 8:15 Comments || Top||

#7  What are Australia, the UK, Italy and Spain doing in this noble company?

Giving the council the thinnest veneer of 'respectability', for lack of a better word.
Posted by: Raj || 10/18/2019 9:00 Comments || Top||

#8  Has the UN gone broke yet? Faster please.
Posted by: JohnQC || 10/18/2019 9:41 Comments || Top||

#9  The UNHRC has been a joke since forever. They should just elect Jimmy Carter as President for Life and be done with it.
Posted by: SteveS || 10/18/2019 10:06 Comments || Top||

#10  this council is like Alcoholics Anonymous, except that they haven't given up the equivalent of drinking.
But maybe the legitimate government of Venezuela can take over this membership and use it against Maduro and his myrmidons.
Posted by: Daniel || 10/18/2019 11:32 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Pres. Trump Administration Cracks Down on Chinese Diplomats in U.S.
[Free Beacon] The Trump administration issued new restrictions on the actions Chinese government diplomats are permitted to take in the United States in response to the communist government blocking American personnel stationed in Beijing from meeting with key assets, according to U.S. officials.

The State Department will now require all Chinese foreign missions, including embassy staff and those working in consulates across the United States, to notify the Trump administration in advance of all official meetings held on American soil.

The new directive, U.S. officials say, is a response to China's ongoing constraints on American diplomats. In many cases, the communist government blocks American personnel in China from meeting with local officials, academics, and dissident groups, among others.

The U.S. restrictions are meant to pressure the Chinese government into providing American diplomats with greater freedom of movement and access to certain officials and groups.

"Until that happens, we are going to take some actions that will ... go some ways toward leveling the playing field," a senior State Department official, speaking only on background, told reporters.

"The State Department is going to be requiring that all of the [People's Republic of China] foreign missions‐their embassy and their various consulates around the United States‐will have to notify the Department of State in advance of official meetings with state officials, official meetings with local and municipal officials, official visits to educational institutions, and official visits to research institutions," the official said.
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/18/2019 04:30 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  So will this affect Senator Feinstein's Chinese driver?
Posted by: Bobby || 10/18/2019 7:35 Comments || Top||


China building full sized flat tops.
[Twitter]
Posted by: 3dc || 10/18/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Nothing but a gigantic target for subs.

Repeating Germany's mistake with the Kriegsmarine. Large capital ships are a complete waste.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 10/18/2019 0:33 Comments || Top||

#2  Aircraft carriers allow you to project power around the world in the form of fighter jets. Only a few nations have the ability: the USA, British, French, Chinese, Russians, Indians, and to a much lesser extent Italians and Spanish. Portable air superiority is quite useful and not to be despised.
Posted by: Secret Master || 10/18/2019 0:56 Comments || Top||

#3  Unless they have a good carrier operation tradition to go along with it, they are giant targets.

What makes the US, UK and French carriers so deadly is the very heavy tempo of operations they can maintain for a long time. Days and even weeks of constant air sorties and strikes. Other nations that have carriers can't keep up the tempo and don't have the operational knowledge to do a heavy tempo safely.

Not to mention the damage control training, special hardening of vital areas, etc. China has a long way to go before their carriers are much of a threat in a war.
Strike, maybe. War, no.
Posted by: DarthVader || 10/18/2019 9:00 Comments || Top||

#4  Yea, but all the big boys have deathstars, Darth, so we must get one to.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 10/18/2019 9:03 Comments || Top||

#5  This'll be one of those carriers with that funny looking jump ramp at one end? That's so cute.
Posted by: Raj || 10/18/2019 9:03 Comments || Top||

#6  Why can't we have some Chinese marching music with that imagery ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/18/2019 9:05 Comments || Top||

#7  Why can't we have some Chinese marching music with that imagery ?

The NBA won't release the copyright
Snark O'The Day
Posted by: Lex || 10/18/2019 9:11 Comments || Top||

#8  #7 - Early Snark O' The Day nominee
Posted by: Frank G || 10/18/2019 9:46 Comments || Top||

#9  Seconded.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 10/18/2019 11:07 Comments || Top||

#10  Seconded as well, the Chinese sure know how to goose step when they march!
Posted by: magpie || 10/18/2019 11:22 Comments || Top||

#11  I'd guess a decade or more of service before a military gets the kind of knowledge necessary for any kind of real operations.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 10/18/2019 12:21 Comments || Top||

#12  China has a long way to go before their carriers are much of a threat in a war.

They'll get the hang of it. And it will come as a nasty surprise when they do.
Posted by: Secret Master || 10/18/2019 13:39 Comments || Top||

#13  The PRC does have the advantage that they are steadily building all of the support ships to fill a Carrier Battle Group.
Posted by: magpie || 10/18/2019 17:16 Comments || Top||

#14  "I'd guess a decade or more of service before a military gets the kind of knowledge"
Is there anything about our operations they don't know already? All they need is practice.
Posted by: james || 10/18/2019 22:58 Comments || Top||


Europe
Students protest peacefully in Barcelona against sentencing of separatists leaders
[PRESSTV] Thousands of students erupted into the streets of Barcelona on Thursday to protest against Monday's supreme court ruling that tossed in the calaboose
I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece!
nine Catalan separatist leaders for up to 13 years.

The sentence has triggered a series of violent protests over three nights which saw demonstrators cutting off access to Barcelona's airports, molotov cocktails being hurled and infrastructures being set alight in various cities in the region as police used foam projectiles to try to disperse the crowds.

Regional leader Quim Torra issued a televised address shortly after midnight on Thursday calling on protesters to stop the violence.

Police in Catalonia have detained 97 protesters since unrest broke out on Monday, Spain's acting Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said on Thursday, adding there will be "no impunity".

The Spanish government and the Catalan regional government have both condemned violent actions and have said they will protect the fundamental right of assembly and peaceful protest.

Posted by: Fred || 10/18/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


The Grand Turk
VP Pence announces CEASEFIRE agreement with Turkey – [VIDEO]
[Right Scoop] Vice President Pence has just announced a new ceasefire agreement with Turkey that will stop their attacks in northern Syria:

Pence says Turkey will "pause" their operations in Northern Syria to allow for the withdrawal of YPG forces from the ’safe zone’ for 120 hours.

Once the withdrawal is complete Turkey will "halt" their operations completely.

Pence says that, per the initial ceasefire, the US will not impose any further sanctions on Turkey. Once a permanent ceasefire is in effect, Trump has agreed to withdraw the most recent economic sanctions that were imposed last Monday:
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/18/2019 03:45 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  How long did it last?
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 10/18/2019 8:17 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
LHC asks ACE to take action against home dept officials
[DAWN] The Lahore High Court on Wednesday directed the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) to initiate action against the Home Department officials responsible for misplacing record of shifting of three prisoners from a jail of Punjab
1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots....

to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

A two-judge bench was hearing appeals of three people convicted of kidnapping for ransom by a Sargodha trial court. The bench comprised Justice Muhammad Qasim Khan and Justice Asjad Javed Ghural.

The bench learnt that the appellants were shifted from Sargodha to KP jail in 2011 for their trial in other cases. Later, they were released following suspension of their sentence and did not appear before the high court to plead their appeals pending since 2010. However,
facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable...
the home department was unable to submit record of their shifting.

On a short notice, Additional Chief Secretary Home Ali Murtaza appeared before the bench and sought time to submit a report on the matter. He told the bench that the relevant record was missing.

The bench observed that it appeared that some high officials helped the convicts escape the jail.

The bench directed the ACE director general to initiate action against then home secretary, the deputy secretary and the section officer who approved transfer of the appellants from one province to other in 2011.

The appellants including Fazal Muhammad, Arshad and Adeel were awarded 25-year imprisonment each for kidnapping a man for ransom in Sargodha. However,
facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable...
police recovered the kidnapped man and arrested the appellants.

Posted by: Fred || 10/18/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Man handed double death penalty for raping, murdering a child in Lahore
[DAWN] A sessions court in Lahore on Thursday handed a man two death penalties, life imprisonment and a Rs700,000 fine for raping and murdering a child.

Bism Nazim was arrested for raping and murdering a seven-year-old child in 2017 and were tossed into the calaboose in Lahore's Kot Lakhpat jail for the past two years. He was arrested by the police from the scene of the crime and a case against him was registered in Sherakot cop shoppe.

The state prosecutor, in his arguments, told the judge that witnesses and evidence against Nazim had been produced before the court.

Additional session judge Sajawal Khan announced the death penalty
.

Posted by: Fred || 10/18/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Science & Technology
NASA eyeing inflatable space lodges for moon, Mars and beyond
[PRESSTV] When astronauts orbit the moon or live on its surface in the decade ahead, they will probably be doing so inside inflatable space lodges now in development. Dozens of NASA officials and veteran astronauts are wrapping up a review of five space habitat mockups built by different companies. The mockups offer the US space agency ideas for an ideal Gateway - the planned research outpost in lunar orbit that will house and transfer astronauts to the surface of the moon.

"The whole point is to define what we like and what we don’t like about these different habitats," NASA astronaut Mike Gernhardt, principal investigator for the testing campaign, told Rooters.

He and his team were making a final inspection recently in Las Vegas, Nevada at the headquarters of Bigelow Aerospace, a space habitat company founded by hotel chain billionaire Robert Bigelow.

US Vice President Mike Pence in March told NASA to land its first crew of astronauts on the moon by 2024. That accelerated timeline spawned the space agency’s Artemis program, which calls for privately built lunar landers, robotic rovers and Lunar Gateway ‐ a modular space station in orbit around the Moon with living quarters for astronauts, a lab for science and ports for visiting spacecraft. Gateway is an opportunity to test all these structures in a deep space environment... as a prelude to going to Mars," Bigelow told news hounds. "Potentially we think that for the rest of this century, the expandable architecture is where it's at."

Bigelow's B330 habitat, launched from Earth compacted inside a rocket, is made of a fabric-like material designed to shield inhabitants from deep-space radiation and high-speed space debris. Once docked alongside other Gateway modules in lunar orbit, the habitat unfurls into a two-story, 55-foot-long (16-meter-long) outpost that up to six astronauts could stay in.

The lunar space habitat and colonization program is expected to cost over a billion dollars through 2028.

TOILETS, BEDS AND WINDOWS
Four other companies are doing mockups: Boeing Co, Northrop Grumman, Sierra Nevada Corporation, and Lockheed Martin.

Each of the companies received a chunk of the $65 million that NASA allotted in 2017 to develop the prototypes. The space agency’s proposed funding for 2020 includes $500 million to kick-start development of an initial version of Gateway.

The companies are giving NASA ideas ‐ such as where to place astronaut toilets, how big the beds should be and how many windows the station should have. Those will inform a blueprint that NASA is due to release in the coming months.

NASA wants the habitats to include exercise equipment, a small kitchen, noise-cancelling sleep stations that also block out light and "a reliable and easy-to-use toilet that’s in a location that minimizes the potential for cross contamination with science and meal preparation activities," Gernhardt told Rooters.
I guess that Muslim outreach is over?
Gernhardt and two other astronauts spent three days living in each prototype habitat.

For its Gateway habitat mockup, Lockheed Martin is outfitting beds, tables and windows in a 15-foot-wide and roughly 22-foot-long stainless steel structure originally designed as a shipping container to carry supplies to and from the International Space Station.

"The space that you’re living in has to be reconfigurable for the task at hand," Bill Pratt, Lockheed’s habitat program manager, told Rooters. "Like in an RV, your table becomes the bed that you sleep on at night."

Bigelow said his B330 habitat has two toilets for a crew of up to six to use, and that entertainment in the form of virtual-reality Earth simulations for astronauts to feel at home was in the works for future habitats that will revolve around Mars.

Posted by: Fred || 10/18/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Toileting activities not to contaminate food preparation. Check!
Posted by: Albemarle Gray4543 || 10/18/2019 2:28 Comments || Top||

#2  My neighbor has one of those... I think. His kids love the darn thing.☺

Posted by: Dron66046 || 10/18/2019 4:26 Comments || Top||

#3  ...your neighbor's kids have a major atmosphere to burn up incoming projectiles.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 10/18/2019 8:04 Comments || Top||

#4  Ha ! Took me a while ... ☺
Posted by: Dron66046 || 10/18/2019 8:50 Comments || Top||

#5  your neighbor's kids have a major atmosphere to burn up incoming projectiles.

Let me see, Moon Escape velocity 2380 m/sec. Does it matter if it's an inflatable or a meter of ferroconcrete?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 10/18/2019 8:58 Comments || Top||

#6  Transhab inflatable is a great idea to get large volumes up into space with current payload limitations. It's hard to get your mind around inflatables but we've gotta think beyond Buck Rogers rocket-ships if we are going to colonize the solar system before the left totally takes over and makes this planet unlivable.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 10/18/2019 12:19 Comments || Top||


An Active Brain is Ultimately Debilitating
[GreenwichTime] One key to a longer life could be a quieter brain without too much neural activity, according to a new study that examined postmortem brain tissue from extremely long-lived people for clues about what made them different from people who died in their 60s and 70s.
I want to become comfortably numb.
"Use it or lose it" has dominated thinking on how to protect the aging brain, and extensive research shows there are many benefits to remaining physically and mentally active as people get older. But the study, published in the journal Nature, suggests more isn't always better. Excessive activity - at least at the level of brain cells - could be harmful.
Possible translation: epilepsy and anxiety are bad.
"The completely shocking and puzzling thing about this new paper is . . . [brain activity] is what you think of as keeping you cognitively normal. There's the idea that you want to keep your brain active in later life," said Michael McConnell, a neuroscientist at the Lieber Institute for Brain Development, who was not involved in the study. "The thing that is super unexpected is . . . limiting neural activity is a good thing in healthy aging. It's very counterintuitive."
So my naps are a good thing. I try not to think, it makes my head hurt.
Betcha when they have actually usable data, it will turn out that panicking about everything is life-limiting as well as no fun.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 10/18/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Naps are glorious
Posted by: Frank G || 10/18/2019 6:54 Comments || Top||

#2  I use bourbon.

For medicinal reasons only of course.
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 10/18/2019 7:05 Comments || Top||

#3  If you like rye whiskey, Jack Daniels makes a pretty good rye.
Posted by: JohnQC || 10/18/2019 9:38 Comments || Top||

#4  The completely shocking and puzzling thing about this new paper is... it has actively decreased the lifespan of those who who did considerable mental labor over it.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 10/18/2019 11:05 Comments || Top||

#5  Excessive activity - at least at the level of brain cells - could be harmful.

Yeah, tell me about it.
Posted by: Skidmark || 10/18/2019 12:32 Comments || Top||

#6  Studies on the effects of making worms epileptic may not have insights into human ageing.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 10/18/2019 13:16 Comments || Top||

#7  If you like a Rye. And i really do. I highly recommend Rabbit Hole Rye. I know it can be found in the Knoxville TN metropolitan area. And my recommendation comes with my guarantee that if you don't like it I'll take it off your hands and make sure it doesn't go to waste.
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 10/18/2019 17:01 Comments || Top||

#8  So we shouldn't try to worry our pretty little heads with thinking, and just watch the nice shows that tell us what to say?
Posted by: james || 10/18/2019 23:09 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
A Fan Raised Almost $43K to Hand Out
[LAMag] *Snicker*
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 10/18/2019 05:47 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  This will be fun to watch. What will NBA do? Ask the local municipality to deploy cops to shut down free speech?
Posted by: M. Murcek || 10/18/2019 8:03 Comments || Top||

#2  > the project raised nearly $43,000 before donations were disabled.

WHY?
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 10/18/2019 12:01 Comments || Top||


N.B.A. Commissioner: China Asked Us to Fire Daryl Morey
[NYTimes] and they resisted? How courageous! Pffft
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 10/18/2019 05:43 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  I think this guy's gone sometime next month, after people put this on their back burner and no one's really looking.
Posted by: Raj || 10/18/2019 8:52 Comments || Top||

#2  Shitshow, Part 135
Posted by: Lex || 10/18/2019 9:02 Comments || Top||

#3  Mike Flynn was fired from the DIA for calling the enemy by its name.

Why shouldn't China expect a mere entertainment executive to be fired as well?

The West has made a great effort to let the rest of the world know that it has become a finlandized joke.

Now the West is being treated like a finlandized joke by the rest of the world.
Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 || 10/18/2019 16:43 Comments || Top||


Black high school security guard fired for telling student not to call him the N-word
[Washington Examiner] A black high school security guard was fired after the school said he violated their zero-tolerance policy for using the N-word when he told a student not to call him the N-word.

Marlon Anderson, a security assistant at Madison West High School in Wisconsin, said he got called a "bit@# @ss N----" by a student and responded do "not call me n----!" The school then fired him.

"Regardless of context or circumstance, racial slurs are not acceptable in our schools," Karen Boran, the principal at the high school, said in an email to parents Wednesday, according to Madison.

Anderson said he was planning on "fighting" against the school district over his firing. The employee handbook allows for the security guard to appeal the school's decision, and the teacher's union said they had already filed an appeal.

The students at Madison West planned a walkout Friday to support Anderson. The school had five incidents last year where teachers or staff used racist slurs in the presence of students. This is the only incident of the school's zero-tolerance policy being used this year.

Gloria Reyes, the school board president, said the school board will "review our approach, the underlying policies, and examine them with a racial equity lens understanding that universal policies can often deepen inequities."
"Yeah, we know it looks bad, is indefensible, but we need zero-tolerance brainless policies because we're smart enough to teach your kids. Err...."
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/18/2019 03:41 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So what zero-tolerance sanction applied to the student mentioned in the story? Same as what happened to the security guard? No? Whutasurprise...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 10/18/2019 7:46 Comments || Top||

#2  Gloria Reyes, the school board president, said the school board will "review our approach, the underlying policies, and examine them with a racial equity lens understanding that universal policies can often deepen inequities."

What glorious Newspeak - this guy's not getting his job back, and these chumps might as well formally hand over control of this school to the feral brats that used to be called students.
Posted by: Raj || 10/18/2019 8:56 Comments || Top||

#3  Time to find a lawyer...
Posted by: 49 Pan || 10/18/2019 12:34 Comments || Top||

#4  Regardless of context or circumstance

Hardly the words expected from a learned person.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 10/18/2019 12:37 Comments || Top||

#5  School Demographics

Hispanic - 19%
Black - 12%
White - 54%
Two or more races - 5%

Student calling Mr. Anderson a N---- was probably from one of the first two groups.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 10/18/2019 15:41 Comments || Top||

#6  There was a 1000-strong demonstration today: "(The students) had brought to our attention things that we had not thought about," Belmore said. " I assume that translates to "we're idiots."

FWIW, I would not trust the news reports very far. I would not be surprised to find that the incident was just a (stupid) excuse to get rid of him.
And yes, there've been a number of "disturbances" this year at the high schools. Mullah Richard is almost certainly correct.
Posted by: james || 10/18/2019 23:06 Comments || Top||

#7  Say Sharpton, Obama, Sarandon,
"Restore Mr. Anderson's standing
Since he's really special
In ways that are racial.
Sir, blacken the air with abandon!"
Posted by: Captain Hupinesh4743 || 10/18/2019 23:59 Comments || Top||



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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

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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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Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2019-10-18
  Heavy fighting between Turkish/SNA and YPG/SDF
Thu 2019-10-17
  Pence announces ceasefire at the US Embassy in Turkey.
Wed 2019-10-16
  Spain, Sweden, Canada, UK halting sales of military material to Ankara
Tue 2019-10-15
  Notre-Dame plot: Five women jailed over foiled car bomb attack
Mon 2019-10-14
  Trump tells Pentagon to begin withdrawing remaining troops from northern Syria
Sun 2019-10-13
  Syria now considers itself at war with Turkey!
Sat 2019-10-12
   Palestinians riot on Gaza border; 49 said wounded
Fri 2019-10-11
  Orange Man confirms bomb maker and terrorist Ibrahim al-Asiri is Tango Uniform
Thu 2019-10-10
  2 ISIS 'Beatles' transferred from Syrian prison to US military custody
Wed 2019-10-09
  Possible terror attack with automatic guns in Halle (Germany)
Tue 2019-10-08
  Turkey starts bombing Kurds
Mon 2019-10-07
  Iraqi premier rejects resignation of seven ministers, Baghdad governor steps down
Sun 2019-10-06
  91 protesters killed by Iraqi police over week of demonstrations
Sat 2019-10-05
  Masked gunmen attack TV stations reporting the protests in Iraq
Fri 2019-10-04
  At least 35 Russian mercenaries killed fighting for Haftar in Libya

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