UN agencies warned yesterday that Sudan's decision to expel 13 international aid groups will leave more than a million people without food or health care and could threaten thousands of lives.
The 13 Non Governmental Organisations, including Save the Children and Doctors without borders (MSF) account for half of the relief aid delivered in the region of Darfur, the UN humanitarian coordinator's office (OCHA) said. They often act as subcontractors to UN agencies delivering official international relief aid, especially to some 4.7 million people affected by strife in Darfur, including 2.7 million displaced.
"If the government does not reconsider its position, with the departure of the NGOs 1.1 million people will be without food, 1.5 million people will be without health care and more than one million without drinking water," OCHA spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs told journalists.
The office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights indicated that it would be examining whether the deprivation of aid in a conflict area might constitute violations of international law or war crimes.
"Certainly we will be looking into that, evidently, but I can't pronounce a position at this point," said Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the High Commissioner Navi Pillay in response to a question on the issue.
Colville said Sudan's decision to expel the NGOs "could threaten the lives of thousands of people".
Sudan earlier this week ordered the expulsion of the 13 NGOs it accused of helping the International Criminal Court issue an arrest warrant for President Omar al-Beshir for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.
Meanwhile, the United States and other countries are urging Sudan to reverse its decision to expel aid groups who help vulnerable populations throughout the country, a US official said Thursday. US officials are expressing deep concern that, if carried out, the order "could prompt a humanitarian crisis of staggering proportions in Sudan," according to US State Department acting deputy spokesman Gordon Duguid.
"A number of countries are trying to convince the Sudanese government to reconsider this action," Duguid told reporters. "The United States is one of them."
Duguid, who did not identify the other countries, said the United States was pressing its case "both on the ground (in Khartoum) and in New York," where the United Nations is based.
Sudanese ambassador to the United Nations, John Lueth Ukec, has accused some aid agencies of spreading "lies" among the population as well as having "fabricated" reports.
Duguid said the expulsion decision "seems to me to be against Sudan's own interest and is certainly not helpful to the people who need aid in the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2009 00:00 ||
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#3
So they issue this meaningless arrest warrant that they have no hope of ever enforcing and then they wonder why the guy expels the NGOs thereby making a bad situation even worse. They kick Uncle Sam in the shorts for taking action against dictator Saddam and then they wonder who is going to do anything about al-Beshir? Cause meet effect. Dumbasses.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/07/2009 13:25 Comments ||
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A Moroccan appellate court Thursday (March 5th) upheld a 20-year prison sentence imposed last December on Abdelillah Ahriz, 29, for involvement in the 2004 Madrid train bombings that killed nearly 200 people, local and international press reported. Ahriz left Morocco for Spain in 1999. About a year ago, the Moroccan judicial police remanded Ahriz into custody upon request by Spanish authorities.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2009 00:00 ||
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The government will form a special tribunal to try those involved in the February 25-26 mutiny and killings at Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) headquarters in the capital only after getting inquiry reports.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2009 00:00 ||
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So far, only a few of those arrested in the BDR mutiny case have admitted their role in the carnage that left 74 people including 55 army officers killed and scores injured on February 25-26.
An official involved in the investigation said, "A few of the arrestees have talked about their role in the massacre and other offences committed at the BDR headquarters."
However, for the sake of investigation, he would not disclose identity of the accused who have confessed their involvement. Neither would he elaborate on their role.
Investigators are now grilling the arrestees in the Taskforce for Interrogation cell to glean further information about the mass killings.
In another development, Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court in Dhaka yesterday placed BDR cook Amirul Islam on a five-day remand. Investigation Officer and ASP Abdul Kahar Akand of CID produced Amirul before the court and sought 10 days' remand. With the cook's arrest at Pilkhana Thursday, the number of people rounded up in the case filed with Lalbagh Police Station stands at 28.
Meanwhile, as the hunt for rebels and firearms and ammunition missing from the BDR headquarters continued across the country, a pistol and 42 rounds of bullets meant for government use were recovered from the city's Shahbagh area yesterday morning.
Locals found the small gun and ammunition beside a drain at Shivbari and informed the police. Police suspect those had been dumped by fleeing mutineers.
Abdul Kahar Akand yesterday said there has been some progress in their investigation into the carnage. He said he hopes they will be able to submit their report soon. Talking to The Daily Star, he said, "We have almost finished the work of gathering evidence."
Sources in the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) said they are now working to detect offenders through fingerprints on the firearms, helmets, belts, nameplates and uniforms that the mutineers left before fleeing the scene.
Intelligence agencies and committees formed to investigate the Pilkhana carnage are working in coordination to help CID submit a watertight charge sheet after investigation.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2009 00:00 ||
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Campaigners from the Centre for Social Cohesion have pledged to seek an arrest warrant for Dr Ibrahim Moussawi, an Islamic extremist, who is due to visit Britain this March
South Korea on Friday blasted North Korea's warning on South Korean flights flying over the North's airspace and the Sea of Japan, calling the move an ''inhumane act.'' The North's ''military warning on civilian flights flying in accordance with international flight regulations is an inhumane act and should never be tolerated under any circumstances,'' Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho Nyoun said, reading a statement at a press briefing.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Hint, If y'all haven't figured it out by now, The NORKS turned their ears off around 40 years ago, You're talking to yourself.
Hell they don't even listen to themselves anymore.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/07/2009 20:05 Comments ||
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A FREED Guantanamo Bay prisoner claims conditions at the US detention camp in Cuba have worsened since President Barack Obama was elected, claiming guards wanted to "take their last revenge".
Binyam Mohamed, who became the first detainee to be transferred out of Guantanamo since President Obama took office, also said British agents "sold me out" by cooperating with his alleged torturers.
In his first interview since being released, Mr Mohamed, a 30-year-old Ethiopian-born former UK resident, gave further details of what he called the "medieval" torture he faced in Pakistan, Morocco, Guantanamo and a secret CIA prison in Kabul.
"The result of my experience is that I feel emotionally dead," he told the Mail on Sunday.
President Obama had promised during his campaign to shut down the Guantanamo prison and two days after taking office announced it would close this year.
"Since the (US) election it's got harsher," Mr Mohamed said.
"The guards would say, 'yes, this place is going to close down,' but it was like they wanted to take their last revenge."
Mr Mohamed said he was beaten at Guantanamo and while he was held in Morocco his chest and penis were slashed with razors.
In Afghanistan he lived in constant darkness and "came close to insanity" after being forced to listen to the same album by rapper Eminem at top volume for a solid month.
He flew back to the UK last month, tasting freedom for the first time since 2002 when he was arrested in Pakistan on suspicion of attending an al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan and plotting to build a radioactive "dirty bomb".
The US never charged him, and British police who questioned him on his return let him go free.
India successfully tested an indigenous missile interception system on Friday for the third time, the Defence Ministry said, boosting the chances of turning it into a viable defence system by 2010. The incoming "enemy" missile was fired from a ship in the Bay of Bengal and intercepted at an altitude of 75km, the Defence Ministry said in a statement. "The mission control room burst into raptures as the radar display indicated the interception and destruction of the decoy enemy missile by the interceptor," the statement said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Interceptor missile being launched from the Wheeler Island on Friday.
Posted by: john frum ||
03/07/2009 8:16 Comments ||
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The interception took place at an altitude of 80 km over the Bay of Bengal. The Dhanush missile was destroyed in its path in both a direct-hit and detonation of the warhead of the interceptor, which is an advanced Prithvi missile.
Dhanush was simulating the trajectory of ballistic missiles with a range of 1,500 km, similar to PakistanÂ’s Ghauri.
The interceptor used for the first time a manoeuvrable warhead called gimballed directional warhead (GDW), which can rotate 360 degrees.
As the single-stage Dhanush, 9.4 metres tall and weighing 4.5 tonnes, lifted off at 4.17 p.m. from the ship located 150 km away from the Wheeler Island, radars at Konark and Paradip in Orissa tracked it 50 seconds into its flight. The Mission Control Centre (the MCC) on the island also received information about it.
The MCC declared it a hostile target and that it would impact very close to the island. This data was used by the Launch Control Centre (LCC) to compute the trajectory of the interceptor, called Prithvi Air Defence (PAD II), to engage the target missile at an altitude of 80 km. The LCC also automatically decided when the interceptor should lift off and the launch computer gave the command for it.
About 160 seconds into the flight of Dhanush plus 150 seconds after the lift-off of the interceptor, the interceptorÂ’s homing seeker acquired the target. Using this information, the interceptorÂ’s computer guided it towards the target and brought it very close to it. At this point of time, the radio proximity fuse (RPF) of the GDW computed the time at which it should explode.
Dr. Saraswat, who is also Chief Controller, DRDO, said: “When the target and the interceptor were practically colliding with each other, the warhead was detonated which led to the fragmentation of the target and the interceptor. It was a direct hit and also warhead detonation. The large number of fragments formed due to collision and detonation were tracked by the ground radars and we could see that hundreds of new tracks had been formed, confirming that the target was destroyed in both a direct hit and detonation.”
The interceptor was a two-stage vehicle, with the first stage fuelled by liquid propellants and the second stage by solid propellants. It was 10 metres long and weighed 5.2 tonnes.
Posted by: john frum ||
03/07/2009 8:18 Comments ||
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#3
The club for countries that can intercepts missiles is a small one. The US, Russia, India ... who else?
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/07/2009 10:26 Comments ||
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The "Swordfish" tracking radar the Indians are using for this is based on the "Green Pine" that they bought from Israel (used in the Israeli Arrow ABM system).
That the Indians are quite serious about this can be seen from the budgetary outlays. They have spent more on the ABM program than they spent on the IGP (the Pritvi SRBM, Agni MRBM, Akash SAM, Nag ATGM and Trishul SAM missile families).
Posted by: john frum ||
03/07/2009 10:53 Comments ||
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Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said that kidnappers of UN official John Solechi have been identified. The Foreign Minister told newsmen in Multan today (Friday) that though abductors have been identified, but the government will not do anything in haste that may endanger Solecki's life. Â"We have identified the place where Solecki is being kept by the kidnappers,Â" he said, adding that security forces have besieged the area. Qureshi said that the government was very careful in this connection, as it wanted safe return of Solecki. It may be reminded that John Solecki was abducted from Quetta on Feb 2 by Balochistan Liberation United Front (BLUF).
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2009 00:00 ||
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Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LT) rejected on Friday media reports that it was involved in an attack on a visiting Sri Lanka cricket squad in Lahore. "These media reports are false ... and baseless," said LT spokesman Abdullah Ghaznavi. "The attack on Sri Lanka's team was an attack on Pakistan's sovereignty and Kashmiris could never even think of that," said Ghaznavi. "The attack is the handiwork of Indian agencies to defame Pakistan and bring instability to the country," said Ghaznavi.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
The disclosure by the interior ministry followed the leak of a "secret" report which warned the federal and provincial Punjab governments that India was planning an attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team.
The report, dated Jan 22, warned officials: "It has reliably been learnt that RAW [the Research and Analysis Wing, India's intelligence agency] has assigned its agents the task to target Sri Lankan cricket team during its current visit to Lahore, especially while travelling between the hotel and stadium or at hotel during their stay ... Extreme vigilance and heightened security arrangements indicated."
Posted by: john frum ||
03/07/2009 10:27 Comments ||
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"Knowing" that RAW had an attack team in place, a busload of guards was all that Pakistan assigned? Why, it's as if they wanted the attack to succeed!
Pakistan is not in danger of becoming a failed state, Indian Union Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said in an interview with Tehelka magazine on Friday. "It is true Pakistan is facing a very dangerous moment in its history," he said. "There is a large body of opinion in India that thinks it is a failed state or a failing state. But I do not think so." Aiyar said Pakistan was paying for allowing itself to become "an international pawn" and "reaping the wages of both what it has done and what has been done to it".
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2009 00:00 ||
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India's home minister has said Pakistan is threatening to become a failed state and it is not clear who was in control of the country, the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported on Friday. "It (Pakistan) is not a failed state, but it is threatening to become one," Palaniappan Chidambaram said at a seminar in Mumbai. "A great concern is weighing on our minds. In Pakistan, with regret, I would say we don't know who is in control there. Whether it is the army or the president or the government," Chidambaram was quoted as saying.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2009 00:00 ||
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Pakistan police suspect local terrorists were likely responsible for an attack on a visiting Sri Lankan team that killed eight people in Lahore on Tuesday, said an investigator on Friday as Punjab Police chief Khaled Farooq told AFP that an interim report on the attack will be wrapped up within 24 hours -- after authorities claimed the perpetrators have been identified.
Right track: Salahuddin Niazi, the officer in charge of the probe, refused to confirm or deny if local terrorists were involved, saying only police were "on the right track ... we are progressing well and will release our findings very soon, but at the moment any comment or disclosure would jeopardise our efforts".
Foreign involvement: However, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Interior Rehman Malik said on Friday that he could not rule out foreign involvement in the attack.
"I cannot rule out (involvement of a) foreign hand in the incident," Rehman told reporters in Lahore.
Asked if Sri Lanka's Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam could be linked to the attack, he said, "We are keeping this aspect in mind."
Rehman's comments appeared to contradict remarks widely attributed to him on Thursday, denying any foreign involvement in the attack. "We have not found any leads suggesting the involvement of any religious elements," he said, but refused to divulge information about how the probe was progressing.
Interim report: Meanwhile on Friday, the Punjab police chief said, "A little more time is required to complete the investigation ... we hope to complete the investigation by evening or tomorrow morning."
Police have already released sketches of four suspects and have brought in around two dozen people for questioning over the attack, but no leads have been announced despite press speculation that home-terrorists were responsible.
"We have identified the people who did the operation," provincial governor Salman Taseer told reporters in Lahore late on Thursday.
Up to 12 men attacked the convoy of officials, coaches and players, firing automatic weapons, grenades and a rocket launcher as the vehicles approached Lahore's Gaddafi Stadium on Tuesday. All the attackers fled without trace.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2009 00:00 ||
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Pakistan's interior ministry chief said yesterday he could not rule out foreign involvement in the Sri Lankan cricket attack, as press speculation mounted that home-grown militants were to blame.
The preliminary investigations in the attack on Sri Lankan cricket team have suggested that Lashkar-e-Taiba activists, who went underground after a crackdown on the group last year, could have carried out the assault.
Local newspapers on Friday suggested that preliminary investigations pointed to the involvement of home-grown militant outfits, including Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which India blamed for the Mumbai attacks.
The initial probe suggested that a group of "headstrong" LeT activists, who went underground and hid in the garrison city of Rawalpindi after the crackdown on the terrorist group and its front organisation Jamaat-ud-Dawah, had acted on its own and carried out the attack, the Dawn newspaper quoted its sources as saying.
Though officials did not confirm the involvement of the LeT, the daily said they categorically ruled out the possibility of the involvement of India's Research and Analysis Wing or the LTTE in the attack as no evidence had been found so far in this regard.
Investigators probing the assault on the cricket team believe the attackers received commando training in the camp of LeT's operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi as their modus operandi had similarities with that of the terrorists involved in the Mumbai attacks.
Six Pakistani police and two civilians were killed on Tuesday when gunmen ambushed the team en route to a Test match in the eastern city of Lahore. Seven Sri Lankan cricketers and a coach were among 19 people wounded.
"I cannot rule out (involvement of a) foreign hand in the incident," Rehman Malik told reporters in Lahore.
He was asked if Sri Lanka's Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam could be linked to the attacks -- which have triggered serious international concern about Pakistan's ability to combat Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked militants.
"We are keeping this aspect in mind," said Malik.
Malik's comments appeared to contradict remarks widely attributed to him on Thursday, denying any foreign involvement in the attack.
"We have not found any leads suggesting the involvement of any religious elements," Malik said.
But he refused to divulge information about how the probe was progressing. Up to 12 men attacked the convoy of officials, coaches and players, firing automatic weapons, grenades and a rocket launcher as the vehicles approached Lahore's Gaddafi Stadium on Tuesday. All the attackers fled without trace.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2009 00:00 ||
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Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman hoped that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Mian Nawaz Sharif would not be misled by Amir Jamaat-e-Islami Qazi Hussain Ahmed.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2009 00:00 ||
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The attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Pakistan shows the Pakistan government lacks the will or is incapable of tackling terrorism, Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Friday.
He said India had warned that the world would not remain immune to "the flames ignited" in Pakistan unless the international community ensured Islamabad dismantled the terror infrastructure on an urgent basis.
Mukherjee said in his keynote address on the first day of the India Today Conclave 2009 in New Delhi that developments in Pakistan were the "most disturbing for every right thinking person in the world" and "without doubt, for us Indians".
He said the nations "that have used terror as an instrument of state policy" should be left with no choice but to dismantle their infrastructure of terrorism and "actively cooperate" with the international community to eliminate terrorism.
"This threat needs the efforts of the international community at large to ensure that it is eliminated on an urgent basis," he said.
The world is "slowly but surely" moving in the direction of "reaching the threshold of zero tolerance on terrorism", he said.
He said the US government's stimulus package discouraging American firms from hiring foreign workers is not in keeping with the spirit of global cooperation.
"It runs counter to current efforts to stem the sharp decline in the economic growth worldwide," Mukherjee said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2009 00:00 ||
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Pakistan is facing a "mortal threat" from its internal enemies amid worsening security in the country, Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband said on Friday.
It is now vital that rival democratic forces unite to combat the "very grave" security situation, he told BBC radio in the wake of the attack on the Sri Lanka cricket team in Lahore.
"It's now vital that whatever the political differences between President (Asif Ali) Zardari, Nawaz Sharif, the leader of the opposition ... [they should] come together to unite against the mortal threat Pakistan faces, which is a threat from its internal enemies, not its traditional external enemies," Miliband said.
"This is a very grave situation and it's intimately linked to the situation in Afghanistan. It's getting worse in a number of respects."
He added, "The tempo of terrorist attacks has risen and the combination of political uncertainty, economic decline... and then the security side mean that this is a particularly challenging time for any government."
"The degree of political disunity that exists at the moment is only contributing to the problem."
Miliband said the safety of British citizens was at risk. "The majority of terrorist attacks in Britain have links back into Pakistan," he said.
"There's obviously a large number of British troops and troops from a number of other countries at direct risk in Afghanistan and I think that is a potent brew."
He was quoted by BBC News as saying that it was not known who carried out the Lahore attack but added that the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LT) had "deep roots in the Punjab".
He urged the central and local governments to take action against groups he described as "front organisations" for the LT.
Pakistan faced criticism this week over security arrangements for the visiting Sri Lanka cricket team.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2009 00:00 ||
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PALESTINIAN Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has resigned from his post to pave the way for the formation of a national unity government, his office said today.
"Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has submitted his resignation from the government of president Mahmud Abbas. This resignation will take effect following the formation of a national unity government by the end of this month," the statement said.
Fayyad, a politically independent former World Bank economist, was appointed Prime Minister following the Hamas movement's bloody takeover of the Gaza Strip in June 2007, which cleaved the Palestinians into two hostile camps.
#2
Amazingly, if unbelieveably, this may be the one guy who actually knows what he's doing. I know it's asking too much, but it would be nice if the arrangements included an ongoing role for him.
Actually, Israel annexed East Jerusalem a long while back. They're just now getting around to incorporating it.
A confidential EU report accuses the Israeli government of using settlement expansion, house demolitions, discriminatory housing policies and the West Bank barrier as a way of "actively pursuing the illegal annexation" of East Jerusalem.
The document says Israel has accelerated its plans for East Jerusalem, and is undermining the Palestinian Authority's credibility and weakening support for peace talks.
How on earth could anyone undermine the credibility of the PA?
"Israel's actions in and around Jerusalem constitute one of the most acute challenges to Israeli-Palestinian peace-making," says the document, EU Heads of Mission Report on East Jerusalem.
The report, obtained by the Guardian, is dated 15 December 2008. It acknowledges Israel's legitimate security concerns in Jerusalem, but adds: "Many of its current illegal actions in and around the city have limited security justifications."
Other than stopping hard boyz and boom bitches, they mean. Apparently the writers of the report haven't ever faced getting exploded while riding a bus downtown to work ...
"Israeli 'facts on the ground' - including new settlements, construction of the barrier, discriminatory housing policies, house demolitions, restrictive permit regime and continued closure of Palestinian institutions - increase Jewish Israeli presence in East Jerusalem, weaken the Palestinian community in the city, impede Palestinian urban development and separate East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank," the report says.
Sounds like a plan to me. The Paleos could have had East Jerusalem had Yasser Arafat (PTUI) agreed to the peace deal offered to him years ago. Now they can't. As Kissinger once said, the Paleos never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
The document has emerged at a time of mounting concern over Israeli policies in East Jerusalem. Two houses were demolished on Monday just before the arrival of the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, and a further 88 are scheduled for demolition, all for lack of permits. Clinton described the demolitions as "unhelpful", noting that they violated Israel's obligations under the US "road map" for peace.
The EU report goes further, saying that the demolitions are "illegal under international law, serve no obvious purpose, have severe humanitarian effects, and fuel bitterness and extremism." The EU raised its concern in a formal diplomatic representation on December 1, it says.
The demolitions keep the stone throwers and boomers away from the women and kiddies ...
It notes that although Palestinians in the east represent 34% of the city's residents, only 5%-10% of the municipal budget is spent in their areas, leaving them with poor services and infrastructure.
Since the authorities recognize what happens to good infrastructure, as witness what happened to the greenhouses in Gaza ...
Israel issues fewer than 200 permits a year more than I would for Palestinian homes and leaves only 12% of East Jerusalem available for Palestinian residential use. As a result many homes are built without Israeli permits. About 400 houses have been demolished since 2004 and a further 1,000 demolition orders have yet to be carried out, it said. If you don't like houses being knocked down, don't build 'em without a permit. Idiots.
City officials dismissed criticisms of its housing policy as "a disinformation campaign". "Mayor Nir Barkat continues to promote investments in infrastructure, construction and education in East Jerusalem, while at the same time upholding the law throughout West and East Jerusalem equally without bias," the mayor's office said after Clinton's visit.
However, the EU says the fourth Geneva convention prevents an occupying power extending its jurisdiction to occupied territory. Israel occupied the east of the city in the 1967 six day war and later annexed it. The Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.
The EU says settlement are being built in the east of the city at a "rapid pace". Since the Annapolis peace talks began in late 2007, nearly 5,500 new settlement housing units have been submitted for public review, with 3,000 so far approved, the report says. There are now about 470,000 settlers in the occupied territories, including 190,000 in East Jerusalem.
The EU is particularly concerned about settlements inside the Old City, where there were plans to build a Jewish settlement of 35 housing units in the Muslim quarter, as well as expansion plans for Silwan, just outside the Old City walls. The goal, it says, is to "create territorial contiguity" between East Jerusalem settlements and the Old City and to "sever" East Jerusalem and its settlement blocks from the West Bank.
There are plans for 3,500 housing units, an industrial park, two police stations and other infrastructure in a controversial area known as E1, between East Jerusalem and the West Bank settlement of Ma'ale Adumim, home to 31,000 settlers. Israeli measures in E1 were "one of the most significant challenges to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process", the report says.
Mark Regev, spokesman for the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, said conditions for Palestinians living in East Jerusalem were better than in the West Bank. "East Jerusalem residents are under Israeli law and they were offered full Israeli citizenship after that law was passed in 1967," he said. "We are committed to the continued development of the city for the benefit of all its population."
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/07/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
"undermining the Palestinian Authority's credibility"
"PA" and "credibility" don't belong in the same sentence - unless "complete lack of" is also involved.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/07/2009 0:12 Comments ||
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#4
I believe the "miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity" quote was Abba Eban, no? Just a fading memory (I WAS a kid at the time ... honest).
As to the rest of the piece, very well annotated. I don't believe we mark down for degree-of-difficulty in snarking the Paleos or the EU around here - heck, if we did, there'd hardly be any fun to be had.
Lessee. Bolivia once had a Pacific coastline. Whole lots of Germans lived in parts of eastern Europe. Okinawans could hike across the breadth of their island without hitting barbed-wire fences and US bases.
Wars have consequences. Repeated, aggressive, terroristic, perfidious wars of extermination have, uh, even more serious potential consequences - esp. when ya lose 'em. The Palestinians have gotten off easy, if one considers self-inflicted squalor - moral, physical, and financial - easy.
If I weren't tired, I'da post that Sympathy Meter thinggy, one of my favorites .....
#5
I wish the Israelis hadn't screwed around all these years and just annexed and integrated East Jerusalem, and been done with it. It is just another of the open sores of the region, and had they done so, it would no longer be on the table.
Next up, Israel should make it crystal clear that ALL holy sites are OWNED by Israel, who permits others to use them only as they behave themselves.
#6
According to scripture, when Israel returns from exile to the land of "Zion" and takes control of all Jerusalem, the age of the Gentile has ended setting the stage for a series of major Biblical events.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/07/2009 17:27 Comments ||
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#10
Hell, Frank G, bet on the Padres in the Series, if'n ya REALLY want to get biblical. (Oh - they DID lower beer prices from something like $8 to $7.50 down at Petco Park for the coming season. Nimble customer sensibilities right there. I only go when tickets are freebies, parking the same, and I don't eat or drink a thing there)
#11
Verlaine - I have a project building the $26 Million Ped bridge across Harbor Dr. and the RR tracks )from the convention ctr to Petco) . Let me know if you need the padlock code to the ofice yd ;-)
btw - cheaper to load up in the Gaslamp at Dick's Last Resort
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/07/2009 21:19 Comments ||
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#12
jeebus, PIMF
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/07/2009 21:19 Comments ||
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After years of fruitless requests, Indonesian intelligence and counter-terrorism officers have finally met former Jemaah Islamiah (JI) operations chief Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, in the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, The Straits Times has learnt exclusively. A senior Indonesian counter-terrorist official and Western police sources confirmed yesterday that the meeting took place about two weeks ago, near the time of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's first official visit to Jakarta.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2009 00:00 ||
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Philippine communist rebels blamed government forces on Friday for the killing of a guerrilla leader's daughter, saying her death made a resumption of peace talks impossible.
The body of teacher Rebelyn Pitao (20) was found in an irrigation canal in the southern Philippines with three stab wounds to her chest late on Thursday, a day after she was abducted in Davao city, said Chief Superintendent Pedro U Tango, the regional police chief.
The victim was the daughter of Leoncio Pitao, a prominent regional commander of the New People's Army rebels, who have fought for a communist state for more than four decades.
The killing and other human rights violations allegedly committed by government troops under President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's administration "render peace talks with the Arroyo regime untenable," chief rebel negotiator Luis Jalandoni said in a statement from exile in The Netherlands.
Jalandoni said Pitao's brother was abducted and killed last year.
Military spokesperson Major Randolph Cabangbang condemned the killing and promised to investigate possible army involvement. But he said rebels could be trying to discredit the government.
Left-wing human rights group Karapatan called for an independent investigation by a team representing human rights groups, the church, the local government and the government-funded Commission on Human Rights.
The rebels have intensified attacks on small army and police units and poorly guarded jails to seize weapons and thwart Arroyo's order to crush their insurgency by next year.
Peace talks, brokered by Norway, stalled in 2004 when the rebels accused the Philippine government of instigating their inclusion on a US list of terrorist organizations.
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03/07/2009 00:00 ||
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A RUSSIAN businessman dubbed the 'Merchant of Death' for allegedly arming dictators and warlords said on Friday there is no proof showing he's the world's biggest arms dealer and accused the US of pressuring Thailand to extradite him.
Viktor Bout, a former Soviet air force officer, also complained of inhumane treatment at a Thai prison that he said was cramped, hot, uncivilised and 'worse than Guantanamo'. The 41-year-old Bout has long been linked to some of Africa's most notorious conflicts, allegedly supplying arms to former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor and Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.
He is purportedly the model for the arms dealer portrayed by Nicolas Cage in the 2005 movie Lord of War.
He has been jailed in Thailand since his arrest in Bangkok a year ago and is accused of conspiring to arm Colombian rebels.
Bout's extradition hearing started in June but it has been repeatedly postponed by a shifting cast of attorneys and defence witnesses who have failed to appear. His hearing was again delayed on Friday because his wife complained she was sick and could not testify. The hearing will resume on Monday with the defence planning to call Bout to testify.
Shackled at the ankles with his face pressed against the bars of a holding cell, Bout shouted to reporters ahead of Friday's hearing. 'If they say I am the biggest arms dealer - so, where is the proof?' Bout said at Bangkok's Criminal Court, calling the accusations against him 'lies and rumours'.
When asked by reporters if he felt politics were behind his arrest, Bout shouted, 'It's a theatre!'
Dressed in an orange prison uniform, Bout also yelled at guards who tried to prevent him from speaking during a 10-minute exchange with reporters in French, English and Russian.
One of Bout's lawyers, Lak Nitiwatanavichan, told the court Bout was illegally detained and requested his immediate release. Judges said they would consider the motion.
The United States is seeking the extradition of Bout, who was arrested March 6, 2008, at a Bangkok luxury hotel. Agents from the US Drug Enforcement Administration posed as rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or Farc, looking to buy millions of dollars in weapons.
Bout was charged with conspiracy for allegedly trying to smuggle missiles and rocket launchers to Farc, which is a US-designated terrorist organisation. He was later indicted in the US of four terrorism-related charges. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.
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03/07/2009 00:00 ||
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Thai prison that he said was cramped, hot, uncivilised and 'worse than Guantanamo'.
Like Moscow in summer.
Posted by: ed ||
03/07/2009 12:40 Comments ||
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The recent recoveries by the Security Forces have made a startling revelation that the LTTE was in possession of state-of-the-art weaponry and most modern communication equipment that have been transported to uncleared areas after getting clearance from Colombo harbour and Customs, Government Defence Affairs Spokesman Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said yesterday.
Addressing the weekly security press briefing at the Media Centre for National Security the Minister said that those communication equipment and most modern printing presses have been channeled to Tiger controlled areas after they got clearance from the Colombo harbour. "Investigations have revealed that some people based in Colombo had worked in connivance with the LTTE to send those most modern equipment to uncleared areas clearing paths for them to transport them from Colombo to uncleared areas," the Minister added.
He said names of who had worked in connivance with the LTTE to bring in those equipment to the country and transport them to Tiger controlled areas will be divulged to the public very soon.
Minister Rambukwella recalled that there were certain instances where LTTE acquired those state-of-the-art communication equipment with some officials getting involved to clear the path for them to transport them to uncleared areas.
It was after the signing of the Ceasefire Agreement during the Ranil Wickremesinghe administration that the LTTE acquired modern communication equipment and transported them to uncleared areas through the Omanthai Entry-Exit point amidst protests by the Security Forces.
The 58 Division troops captured some hi-tech equipment believed to have been imported to the country during the Ceasefire period after they found a communication centre in Ampalavanpokkanai area in the North West of Puthukudiyiruppu on February 27.
Television transmitting equipment with satellite antennas were found inside this communication centre and later it was found that they were used to transmit TV programs locally and internationally to tarnish the image of the Security Forces internationally. "Investigations are now on to ascertain who had helped them to acquire them and transport them to the North after getting them released from the Customs," the Minister added.
Meanwhile, the Government with the support of the diplomatic community has launched investigations to ascertain as to how the LTTE acquired those weaponry including 130 mm artillery guns, light aircraft and other lethal weapons internationally.
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03/07/2009 00:00 ||
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Iranian Foreign Minister Monouchehr Mottaki on Saturday said Tehran found Morocco's decision to sever ties with the Islamic republic both surprising and questionable. In the first official reaction to Friday's move by Morocco, Mottaki said Iran will "offer a response in a statement" later today to Rabat's decision. "The action by the Morocco government is surprising and questionable," Mottaki told reporters.
On Friday, Rabat announced it was cutting ties with Tehran, resurrecting a row sparked by a senior Iranian official who questioned Bahrain's sovereignty. The decision followed Rabat's express backing for Bahrain -- despite Iran moving to patch up their differences -- with Morocco accusing Tehran of seeking to impose its Shiite Muslim ideology on the Sunni-ruled Arab state.
Iran weighs the Obama administration's plans to invite the country to attend an international conference on Afghanistan later this month.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, wrapping up a trip to the Middle East and Europe, said Thursday that the Obama administration has plans to invite Tehran to attend a confab on Afghanistan.
"If we move forward with such a meeting, it is expected that Iran would be invited as a neighbor of Afghanistan," Clinton told reporters in Brussels.
While the move was regarded in the West as a "major overture" and a "dramatic turnaround," it was met with skepticism from some Iranian officials.
"This [invitation] is not a new phenomenon," said the head of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, on Friday.
"Washington and Tehran have previously discussed the Afghan security and development in the Bonn conference, during which Iranian officials played a constructive and active role," he said.
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03/07/2009 00:00 ||
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Iran's Parliament speaker says the ICC arrest warrant for Sudan's president is an insult to the African country and the Muslim world.
After arriving in Khartoum on Friday, Speaker Ali Larijani said the so-called human rights guardians in the International Criminal Court (ICC) showed that they are on the wrong path by issuing the warrant.
The ICC on Wednesday issued an international warrant for the arrest of President Hassan al-Bashir.
The warrant was issued at the request of The Hague-based court's Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo who holds Bashir responsible for the atrocities committed in the western Sudanese region of Darfur.
Six years of armed rebellion in the Darfur region against the Khartoum government has reportedly claimed 300,000 lives.
Bashir had earlier blamed the West for conspiring against him, saying that issuing an arrest warrant would be of "no value".
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
"How dare the kufrs sit in judgement over a member of the Master Religion?!?"
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.
The government will form a special tribunal to try those involved in the February 25-26 mutiny and killings at Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) headquarters in the capital only after getting inquiry reports.
So far, only a few of those arrested in the BDR mutiny case have admitted their role in the carnage that left 74 people including 55 army officers killed and scores injured on February 25-26.
Pakistan is facing a "mortal threat" from its internal enemies amid worsening security in the country, Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband said on Friday.
Iran's Parliament speaker says the ICC arrest warrant for Sudan's president is an insult to the African country and the Muslim world. 
