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Today: 60 articles and 234 comments as of 9:36.
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500 reported dead in Uzbek unrest
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
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Page 4: Opinion
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Google ads
Please click on this ad: Play Osama bin Lotto.
I think that it deserves a special consideration for income redistribution from this POS site to Fred. Click as many times as you can. ;-)
Posted by: twobyfour || 05/15/2005 15:23 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Nah, don't do that. We don't want to get Fred blackballed on AdSense.
Posted by: Classical_Liberal || 05/15/2005 18:59 Comments || Top||

#2  Google advertisers set a daily limit. All you are going to do is cause them to spend what they have budgeted for the day anyway. I use Google to advertise my consulting services. I get about two hits a day and have the limit set at three. A competitor can't bust my budget at all and can't knock my ads off unless they work at it early every day. Not that it's a problem.
Posted by: Tom || 05/15/2005 19:44 Comments || Top||

#3  If I have reason to visit eBay, I always go there thru a RB GoogleAd...
Posted by: Seafarious || 05/15/2005 22:04 Comments || Top||

#4  Tom: Google Adwords and Google Adsense (contextual ads in a 3rd party website) are different programs. We can screw it up for Fred with bogus click throughs on Adsense ads.
Posted by: Classical_Liberal || 05/15/2005 22:56 Comments || Top||


Sciam: Skeptic article in June Issue
The Skeptic column in the June issue of Scientific American trashes the conspiricy theories of 9-11 that keep popping up.

Its one of the more brutal half page trashings I have seen.
Posted by: 3dc || 05/15/2005 10:42 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  3dc / mods: the link to the article's gonzo...
Posted by: Raj || 05/15/2005 10:47 Comments || Top||

#2  I think he's referring to the dead tree version. Can't find it on Sci American site...
Posted by: Fred || 05/15/2005 13:58 Comments || Top||

#3  Yes. The dead tree version. It doesn't make it to the internet until (maybe) next month.
Posted by: 3dc || 05/15/2005 14:33 Comments || Top||

#4  I could scan it but don't want them mad at me.
Posted by: 3dc || 05/15/2005 14:34 Comments || Top||

#5  Well if it's on dead tree I won't see it. Cancelled my subscription a couple of years ago. I got fed up with the increasingly incoherent articles they were running on "global warming."
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats || 05/15/2005 19:45 Comments || Top||

#6  I put a link in the O-Club
Posted by: 3dc || 05/15/2005 22:27 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Two al-Qaida Members Sentenced in Yemen
A Yemeni court convicted two men Saturday for being al-Qaida members and President Ali Abdullah Saleh offered amnesty to jailed followers of a slain rebel cleric if they renounce their extremist ideas, officials said. The two men, convicted of belonging to al-Qaida and carrying forged passports, had trained in Afghan terrorist camps a few months before the U.S. invasion in 2001. Al-Khadr Abdel Rabou, deported from Syria earlier this year, was sentenced to three years and four months in prison. Abdullah Ahmed al-Remi was sentenced to four years. But both men planned to appeal the court's ruling.
"Yez got nuttin' on us, coppers! Nuttin'! We'll be out in a week!"
Meanwhile, Saleh, during a meeting with lawmakers and clerics, offered conditional amnesty to some of the jailed followers of Badr Eddin al-Hawthi, the rebel leader who was killed last September after battling Yemeni security forces. Al-Hawthi's father, who the government accuses of reviving the rebellion, has turned down previous offers of amnesty. "One more time, I ask you, honorable clerics to go tell those in the prisons, convince them to change their thoughts," Saleh said. "We do not want one prisoner remaining." It was not immediately clear if the amnesty offer included the senior al-Hawthi, who is at large. At least 540 followers of al-Hawthi have been detained since fighting began last June. Al-Hawthi's followers are angry at the government, saying it has become too closely allied with Washington, and have focused their attacks on security forces.
This article starring:
ABDULLAH AHMED AL REMIal-Qaeda in Yemen
AL KHADR ABDEL RABUal-Qaeda in Yemen
Posted by: Fred || 05/15/2005 10:58 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
500 die in Uzbekistan unrest
A military crackdown in the eastern Uzbek city of Andijan left hundreds dead as President Islam Karimov on Saturday blamed Islamic extremists for the violence and denied responsibility for the bloodshed.
"Nope. Nope. Wudn't me."
As many as 500 people may have been killed when Uzbek troops on Friday fired on thousands of protesters and clashed with rebels, a local human rights campaigner said on Saturday. "The total number of deaths could reach 500 from both sides," Saidzhakhon Zainatbitdinov, the local head of Uzbek human rights group Appeal, told Reuters by phone from the eastern town. At least 40 to 50 bodies littered the streets and troops roamed the city in armoured vehicles, backed by helicopters, in search of gunmen, while witnesses spoke of up to 300 dead and accused soldiers of firing indiscriminately. Hundreds of people braved sporadic gunfire to gather in protest. "Down with Karimov who fires on his own people", the crowd shouted. Although no independent verification was immediately possible, several witnesses referred to seeing hundreds of corpses.

Lutfula Shamsutdinov, a member of the Apelyatsiya human rights group in Andijan, said that he had witnessed soldiers "loading 300 bodies into three trucks and a bus in the street opposite the cinema". The claim was impossible to verify and access to the hospital blocked. In the capital Tashkent, Karimov said only about 30 people had died. He described the turmoil as part of a plot by the outlawed Hizbut Tahrir, an Islamic group, to seize power in the ex-Soviet republic. Meanwhile, some 500 Uzbek refugees broke through a closed border into Kyrgyzstan on Saturday, fleeing violence in Andijan, Kyrgyz authorities said. President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone on Saturday with his counterpart in Uzbekistan and expressed Russia's "serious concern" about the danger of instability in former Soviet Central Asia, the Kremlin said. The European Commission also voiced concern at the escalation of violence in Uzbekistan, but said the government's disregard for human rights was partly to blame.
Posted by: Fred || 05/15/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I wonder how many Uzbekis can count to 50, or estimate 300 accurately, much less 500.

"Pick a number", said the reporter.
"Okay, 25."
Look of disappointment. "Higher."
"50."
Head shake. "Higher."
Thinks really hard. What's the biggest number he's ever heard... "500."
"Cool. Here's your $10. Same time, tomorrow?"
"No, I don't think so. I can retire, now."
Posted by: .com || 05/15/2005 2:04 Comments || Top||

#2  Is that a still from Eisenstein?
Posted by: Shipman || 05/15/2005 8:25 Comments || Top||

#3  From Battleship Potemkin, the Odessa Steps scene...
Posted by: Fred || 05/15/2005 9:04 Comments || Top||

#4  I knew that. :cough:
Posted by: Shipman || 05/15/2005 12:00 Comments || Top||

#5  "Look out! SHE'S CHARGING RIGHT AT US!!"
Posted by: mojo || 05/15/2005 16:40 Comments || Top||

#6  .. *wonders if .com is being sarcastic*
*reads it three times*

.com is not stupidly ignorant...
where is this fraud posting from?
Posted by: dcreeper || 05/15/2005 21:22 Comments || Top||


Europe
Four Small Bombs Explode in Spain
Four small bombs exploded Sunday at industrial sites in the Basque region in a string of attacks that appeared to have been staged by the armed separatist group ETA, Basque police said. Two policemen and a security guard suffered minor injuries after inhaling toxic fumes at a chemical plant where one of the pre-dawn blasts occurred, police said. The explosions came a day after Spain's ruling Socialist party said it is seeking other parties' support for a parliamentary motion supporting the start of talks with ETA if the group renounces violence, although the negotiations would rule out concessions toward ETA's goal of Basque independence. If ETA involvement is confirmed in Sunday's blasts, it would be an embarrassment for Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

The bombs exploded in four towns in Guipuzcoa province, the capital of which is San Sebastian. The injuries occurred in Bergara, where the bomb targeted a chemical plant whose products include a powerful acid for industrial use, an official at the Spanish Interior Ministry office in San Sebastian said. An undetermined amount of acid leaked into a river, she said.
Posted by: Fred || 05/15/2005 10:25 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: WoT
Ex-Professor's Terror Trial Set to Begin
Posted by: tipper || 05/15/2005 13:46 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ahhhhh yes, the Sami Al-Arian = Nelson Mandela card is played before opening arguments!
Posted by: Frank G || 05/15/2005 15:52 Comments || Top||

#2  Which means that round's already expended...
Posted by: Fred || 05/15/2005 18:43 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Hizbullah and Israeli forces clash in reignition of violence
Israeli air strikes pounded Lebanese border towns as fierce clashes erupted between Hizbullah and Israeli forces. The reigniting of border violence occurred as Lebanon approaches crucial parliamentary polls and comes just a day after a rocket was fired from South Lebanon into a northern Israeli town, damaging a building but causing no casualties. Eyewitnesses on the border and Lebanese security sources said Israeli gunfire had reached as far west as the usually tranquil towns of Khiam and Rmeish, some distance from the disputed Shebaa Farms. Security sources said Israeli planes targeted a Hizbullah base in Rmeish as other aircraft launched raids on the western outskirts of Kfar Shouba.

Conflicting reports emerged from both sides, as each claimed the other had begun the attacks. Hizbullah said it had shelled an Israeli post inside the Shebaa Farms, near the border between Lebanon, Israel and Syria's Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, in response to an Israeli attack. The group said: "In response to the Israeli assault that targeted the border town of Kfar Shouba and struck civilian houses, the Islamic Resistance attacked the Israeli enemy position in Rweissat al-Aalam with the appropriate arms and struck it directly."

At the height of the clashes, Hizbullah issued a statement warning "the Zionist enemy that any attacks against civilians would be countered in kind." An Israeli military spokesperson said nine explosions occurred near Israeli positions in the disputed Shebaa Farms area. The spokesperson said Israeli tanks, artillery and warplanes retaliated, destroying four Hizbullah positions. A Lebanese police report said Israeli gunners began the clashes with heavy machinegun fire on the village of Kfar Shouba in the early afternoon, damaging a house but causing no casualties. Israel denied the Kfar Shouba shooting. According to Hizbullah MP Nazih Mansour, who was speaking to The Daily Star from the south, no civilian or Hizbullah casualties had been reported by the time the frontier had calmed down at 6:30 p.m.
"Y'see, we're a resistance group, an' them Zionists keep pickin' on us, so we shouldn't have to give up our shootin' irons!"
Posted by: Fred || 05/15/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'm gonna enjoy the attrition among Hezbollah, especially when resupply becomes more difficult from Syria and Iran
Posted by: Frank G || 05/15/2005 10:53 Comments || Top||

#2  Whats wrong with these idiots? Been too long since you last got your as kicked? Are they yearning to feel what defeat feel like at the hands of Israel? BTW, I am still waiting for that un resolution condeming the rocket/mortar attacks by the terrorists in Lebenon. I don't think I will hold my breath.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 05/15/2005 12:15 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
Anbar governor freed
Insurgents have freed the governor of Iraq's rebellious Anbar province after kidnapping him last week, an Interior Ministry official said on Sunday. Raja Nawaf had been abducted with four bodyguards on the road from the town of Qaim near the Syrian border to the rebel stronghold of Ramadi by followers of Al Qaeda leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, after a dispute with the governor's tribe, relatives had said.
Posted by: Ebbiper Speresing3684 || 05/15/2005 10:57 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So... is this their way of claiming the operation ended because of the kidnapping? Was the kidnapping faked?

What gives?
Posted by: 3dc || 05/15/2005 22:30 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Pakistan's Punjab province is jihad factory
Quoting a survey of ten large jehadi groups, journalist-author Sushant Sareen's The Jihad Factory reveals that over 10,000 people from Pakistan's Punjab have died for jihad, or Islamic holy war.
Of this figure, Afghanistan accounted for some 4,000 deaths while the rest occurred in Jammu and Kashmir.



Posted by: john || 05/15/2005 10:59 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Thinning the herd?

The question triggered by these statistics is, how many left the Punjab for jihad, as compared to how many were killed. And of those that came back, how many were so injured, either physically or mentally, that they could not profit from their jihadi status?
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/15/2005 18:20 Comments || Top||


Soldiers Rescue Abducted Students in Nepal
Soldiers rescued about 600 students who were abducted from their classrooms in western Nepal in a series of bold strikes by communist rebels, army officials said Sunday. The students were rescued during an operation in the mountainous Niskot village, said a statement issued by the Royal Nepalese Army headquarters in the capital, Katmandu. The students were rounded up and taken Friday from village schools in the neighboring Tahanu and Palpa districts, a remote mountainous area 300 miles west of Katmandu, a spokesman at the Royal Nepalese Army headquarters said earlier Sunday. The spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity according to army policy, said authorities had little information on the abductions.
Posted by: Fred || 05/15/2005 10:32 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq-Jordan
Chart: The Network of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq
The Counterterrorism Blog has a PDF graphic of the Zarqawi leadership structure that also lists them as killed, captured, or wanted. Of those, it looks like 2/3 of them have been killed or captured.

Go and take a look at the site. The PDF file (800kB) is here.
Posted by: ed || 05/15/2005 08:39 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Once again ..... B.S. story, or true ?
Anyone heard anything else on this or if any of the major news people are reporting anything. ?
Posted by: tex || 05/15/2005 14:02 Comments || Top||

#2  speaking of his " hopeful" injury of course ....
Posted by: tex || 05/15/2005 14:04 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Kashmir Korpse Kount
SRINAGAR: Suspected terrorists militants in held Kashmir shot dead on Saturday the brother of an ex-terrorist militant who became a moderate separatist leader, police said.

He was one of eight people killed in incidents across the region, they said. Abdul Gani Bhat was a supporter of his brother's party, the Kashmir Salvation Movement, which belongs to the moderate wing of the APHC. Police said Bhat was shot dead near his home on the outskirts of Srinagar.

Bhat's younger brother, Zafar Abdul Fateh, was a former top terrorist rebel commander of the region's biggest group, Hizbul Mujahideen, before he gave up arms and formed his own moderate separatist movement. Separately, Indian troops killed two terrorists militants in a clash near Banihal town, 100 kilometres south of Srinagar, police said. Another terrorist militant and a soldier died in clashes elsewhere, police said.

In Kalakote, 120 kilometres northwest of Jammu, suspected terrorists militants ambushed a group of coalmine workers returning home from work late on Saturday, killing three of them and injuring another, police said. The terrorists militants ran away fled after firing at the mine workers. No terrorist militant group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Posted by: Steve White || 05/15/2005 00:34 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  4 terrorists killed in separate incidents in J&K

Agencies/ Srinagar

Four terrorists, including a top commander of Hizbul Mujahideen, were among seven persons killed in separate incidents in Jammu and Kashmir since Saturday night, police said.

A self-styled battalion commander of Hizbul Mujahideen, Abaas Kuka, codenamed Umer, was killed in an encounter with security forces at Razloo-Qazigund, 80 kms from here, in Anantnag district on Sunday.

Another terrorist of the same outfit, identified as Maqbool Ahmed Khan of Haknoora-Rafiabad, was killed in an encounter with security forces at Mushnar-Kralgund in Kupwara on Saturday night, the spokesman said, adding one AK rifle, three magazines, 72 rounds, one UBGL and some grenades were recovered from the slain terrorist.

In another encounter, two unidentified terrorists were killed and a security jawan injured in a gun battle that broke out at Dar Ganigund forests in Tral, 40 kms from here in Pulwama district.

Also, two unidentified persons forcibly took away a car from Bashir Ahmed Wani, Principal of Sri Pratap College, on the outskirts of the city, the spokesman said.

Wani, a resident of Lal Bazar area of the city, was at home when the two individuals snatched the car from him on Saturday evening, he said, adding they also snatched the Principal's mobile phone and identity card.

Police has launched a hunt to nab the miscreants, the spokesman said.
Posted by: john || 05/15/2005 11:28 Comments || Top||


7-day jail for Bangladeshi 'top terrors' in India
A court of West Bengal on Friday ordered a 7-day imprisonment to nine Bangladeshi citizens, who were arrested on May 5 and identified as 'top terrors' in Bangladesh, for overstaying in India.
This is worse than a European court.
The North 24 Paraganas police produced the Bangladeshis to the sub divisional judicial magistrate court in Bangaon. The lawyers for the accused submitted a prayer that they were visiting India with valid travel documents and there were no criminal records against them. But the public prosecutor opposed the bail prayer. After the hearing, the court delivered the verdict.
"You're guilty! Die, die, DIE-E-E-E!! ... um, okay, seven days."
Police sources said the Bangladeshis during interrogations prayed for political asylum in India and said that they would be victims of 'crossfire' by the law enforcers if they sent back to Bangladesh.
The storied trip to the deserted industrial zone at 3 a.m., the shootout, the desperate attempt to escape, the 11 bullets to the back of the head...
The convicted further said that they were forced to leave the country for political reason, the sources added.
"What political reasons are those?"
"We like to kill people."
However, they did not approach this matter to the court.
"Ummm... Maybe you better not mention that part to hizzoner!"
As per police record the nine Bangladeshis are: Mohammad "Nimrod" Nimul Hassan, Biplob "Plob" Sahid, Musha "Fookie" Farooque, Mohammad "Maurice" Suman, Mohammad "Bippie" Bipul, Hamid "Ham" Mian, Abdullah "Abdullah" Abdul, Ebadul "Eeepers" Sheikh., and Kazi "the Nazi" Mohammad Rezawan Hoque.
Posted by: Steve White || 05/15/2005 00:23 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Indian West Bengal.. run by the Communist Party of India for decades.. its showpiece city of Calcutta demonstrating to the world the wonders of Marxist economic theory.
Posted by: john || 05/15/2005 11:07 Comments || Top||

#2  :) Brutal John.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/15/2005 11:59 Comments || Top||

#3  We had a Bangladeshi friend over for dinner tonight (he left a little while ago), so I asked him about the Rapid Action Battallion and their habit of killing suspects during Crossfire. He explained that the justice system is almost completely non-working, with the courts (British system a legacy from Empire days) so backlogged that the judges will pretty much find guilty everyone who comes before them in an attempt to clear the dockets, even just a little.And the police are a wholly owned subsidiary of the whichever party is in power. So the RAB are actually a force for good, quickly taking out the grossly guilty with no regard to whoever is in power locally. Thus far, anyway.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/15/2005 18:29 Comments || Top||

#4  works until you'r ethe one they're beating on, asking about the cache of shutter guns..and where is your friend's hideout apartment
Posted by: Frank G || 05/15/2005 18:35 Comments || Top||

#5  True, Frank, but according to B., that's what the regular police are doing anyway.

Separately, B. is very concerned at the religious radicalization he saw when he was back home in Bangladesh last week -- when he was a child the girls ran in the streets just as freely as the boys, playing ball and riding bicycles just the same. Now he says the girls seem to be covered up everywhere, and that is new for Bangladesh, which was always very relaxed about its Islam. I trust his perspective on such things -- he is "godfather" to trailing daughter #2, having handled the German obstetrical establishment for me while Mr. Wife was rushing back from Poland.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/15/2005 21:22 Comments || Top||

#6  On the other hand, lovely though B. is, what he knows about the three monotheistic religions (including his own) could be knitted into a small sock.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/15/2005 21:25 Comments || Top||

#7  This is what thousands of saudi Wahabi missionaries and billions of aid dollars will do. They have remade subcontinental islam in their own image and changed the native culture.
Posted by: john || 05/15/2005 21:32 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
British newspaper reports Abu Musab al-Zarqawi wounded
Follow-up on yesterday's story.
LONDON - Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the man most wanted by US-led forces in Iraq, was wounded and treated briefly at a hospital in Iraq last week before he disappeared with his men, a British newspaper reported on Sunday.

The doctor who claims to have treated him told an Iraqi reporter in the western city of Ramadi that Zarqawi was bleeding heavily when he was brought into the hospital on Wednesday, the Sunday Times reported. The doctor was able to recognize the Jordanian-born militant linked to Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network by photographs he had seen of him on television, the newspaper said.

The doctor's claim was supported Saturday by a senior Iraqi commander who had been to Ramadi to investigate the report, the newspaper added. The doctor, who refused to specify the nature of the wounds and asked not to be identified, was detained by the Americans on Friday for questioning, residents were quoted as saying.

"He was bleeding heavily and his escorts were well dressed with a look about them that was different from the casualties and family members we had been receiving," the doctor was quoted as saying. "I treated his injury and asked that he remain in hospital for further observations and told him that we would have to register him and take down his name and details," he was quoted as saying.

"But he became very nervous and agitated. He refused and told me he would not be staying," he reportedly added.
"And we asked to see his insurance card. That really set him off," the doctor added.
"The three hard boyz men with him asked me politely with a gun in my face that he be allowed to leave hospital immediately and that I supply them with a prescription and a list of medication that he may need," he was quoted as saying.

The newspaper said US officials had offered no details as to why they believe Zarqawi might be wounded or ill.
Posted by: Steve White || 05/15/2005 00:09 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Green Crescent Green Shield, Low Options across the board. Prolly didn't cover trauma care.

I dunno. Not convincing to me. I'll wait for Dr Steve to say how many loci / VNTR and STR seqs / alleles need to match, assuming we have both parents' DNA samples. Hell, I dunno if there are sufficient samples in the relevant database for his ethnicity and geographic locale to even calculate the odds accurately. I surrender to the authorities, lol! I just hope the sample comes from a corpse that died an incredibly painful and agonizingly slow death, if it turns out it's a hit.
Posted by: .com || 05/15/2005 1:07 Comments || Top||

#2  "I dunno if there are sufficient samples in the relevant database for his ethnicity and geographic locale to even calculate the odds accurately."

The local custom of intermarrying is sure to complicate matters. Arab family trees can be twisted beasts indeed.
Posted by: Dave || 05/15/2005 3:49 Comments || Top||

#3  thought they'd swabbed his parents in Jordan?
Posted by: Frank G || 05/15/2005 10:02 Comments || Top||

#4  It would be lovely if he got a nice case of gangrene. I gather that if a hospital patient on the 5th floor has it, you can smell it in the lobby.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 05/15/2005 11:32 Comments || Top||

#5  “The three hard boyz men with him asked me politely with a gun in my face that he be allowed to leave hospital immediately and that I supply them with a prescription and a list of medication that he may need,” he was quoted as saying."
Italic:

-- that's what he needed to qualify for the regional health care managed treatment developed by Hillary

Posted by: mhw || 05/15/2005 12:45 Comments || Top||

#6  No medical insurance? On the other hand, I bet he has a wad of term life.......
Posted by: Ebbineter Uneregum4585 || 05/15/2005 13:59 Comments || Top||

#7  ... a prescription and a list of medication that he may need...

Let's hope he wrote one for KCN, 25 mg.
Posted by: jackal || 05/15/2005 14:07 Comments || Top||

#8  Beat me to it, Jackal! Stick it in the pain med pills. It would not violate the Hypocratic Hippocratic oath as you are easing the patient of his pain. He is already terminal, so to speak. And his feeding tube still works.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/15/2005 14:27 Comments || Top||

#9  .45 caliber feeding tube, I hope
Posted by: Frank G || 05/15/2005 14:33 Comments || Top||

#10  The next question is which presciptions? It would be a insight into the injuries.
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 05/15/2005 19:48 Comments || Top||


Africa: Horn
Sudanese Court Jails 28 for Coup Attempt
A Sudanese court sentenced 28 men yesterday to between five and 15 years in jail for involvement in an attempted coup. The men were among 81 civilians, including members of the opposition Islamist Popular Congress (PCP) party, on trial accused of helping organize the September coup. Nine were tried in absentia. All the other men were acquitted and freed. "The men were not given the death sentence or life sentences because they are politicians," the judge said after the sentences were announced. Kamal Omar, the men's lead lawyer, has previously said around 15 to 20 of the men indicted were members of the PCP. It was not immediately clear if any of those found guilty were members. Twenty-one men from the Sudanese armed forces are also being tried in a military court for involvement in the coup.

The court acquitted 53 other defendants, including nine tried in absentia, of all charges leveled against them. Eight of those found guilty received 15-year prison terms, six were sentenced to 10 years and 14 were handed five years in jail. Al-Hajj Adam Youssef, who had been accused of being the group's ring-leader, and Mubruk Mubarak Salim, leader of the rebel Free Lions Movement, were among those acquitted. "The government is a hireling that must be changed," the defendants chanted from their holding pen in the courtroom, after the presiding judge announced the verdicts. "The court is unjust," they added.

The 72 members of the group present during the trial proceedings were arrested last year on charges of involvement in a coup attempt by Darfur rebel sympathizers, allegedly masterminded by the Popular Congress party of Islamist leader Hassan Turabi. Most of them have made little secret of their sympathy for the jailed Turabi, who was not put on trial for the coup plot.
Posted by: Fred || 05/15/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine
Palestinians Begin to Hand Over Weapons in Tulkarm
Palestinian officials said yesterday that President Mahmoud Abbas will meet with President George Bush in the United States on May 26, while in Tulkarm security forces began collecting weapons from wanted militants and incorporating them into the security apparatus. According to the statement issued yesterday by the Palestinian Foreign Ministry, Abbas will call for Bush to pressure Israel to implement its road map obligations, including a total freeze on settlement activity and the immediate dismantling of unauthorized Jewish outposts in the West Bank. "The most important thing is to make the Gaza disengagement part of the road map and not an alternative to it, and the key to this is stopping settlement activities and the wall," chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said, referring to the separation barrier Israel is building in and around the West Bank.

Israel radio reported yesterday that after being disarmed all wanted militants from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade in Tulkarm will be absorbed into the Palestinian security apparatus and offices. Ten out of 50 wanted militants from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade in Tulkarm have already handed over their weapons to Palestinian security officials. Tulkarm Governor Izzadin Sharif confirmed yesterday that the PA had begun collecting the unlicensed weapons of dozens of militants in the northern West Bank town.
Posted by: Fred || 05/15/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  sure they're turning in all their weapons....

"Hey Abudulla, what about the Bulldog?"
"That piece of crap? Throw it in."
"Yo Abbie, the Desert Eagle?"
"You nuts, Sammi? Dem joos make good guns"


Posted by: Ebbavique Whens6406 || 05/15/2005 14:04 Comments || Top||

#2  "Does this boombelt make my hips look wide?"
Posted by: Frank G || 05/15/2005 14:10 Comments || Top||

#3  Boombelts do more for the masculine figure when carefully draped low over the crotch rather than at the waist.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/15/2005 21:29 Comments || Top||

#4  I expect this program to work as well as the ones in Chicago, Philly, DC, Detroit,...
Posted by: jackal || 05/15/2005 22:59 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
Probe clears US marine accused of Iraqi prisoners' murder
NEW YORK: A military probe has concluded that a US marine accused of killing two unarmed Iraqi prisoners should be cleared of all charges, US news media reported Saturday. Marine Second Lieutenant Ilario Pantano was justified when he shot the prisoners on April 15, 2004, a report from the investigating officer has found, according to New York Times and the New York Daily News. Prosecutors had claimed that Pantano, 33, a former Wall Street trader, executed the prisoners as they knelt with their backs turned. He faced a maximum penalty of death on charges of dereliction of duty and murder. But the government "was not able to produce credible evidence or testimony that the killings were premeditated" or even that the prisoners were shot in the back, Lieutenant Colonel Mark Winn, in charge of the investigation, wrote in his report. While Pantano used poor judgment, the shooting was not a crime and fell within the rules of combat in the Sunni Triangle area, Winn wrote.
Posted by: Fred || 05/15/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That God common sense still has a place in the military. I suspected that this would be the outcome but you never know. One malcontent versus a distinguished officer, you do the math.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 05/15/2005 1:25 Comments || Top||

#2  Echo your sentiments, Cyber Sarge. Thank goodness this great Marine was cleared. However, his career is probably over. I hope that they go after the accuser for fabbing up this outrage.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/15/2005 2:05 Comments || Top||

#3  and fire the prosecutor that gave the accuser immunity
Posted by: Frank G || 05/15/2005 9:45 Comments || Top||

#4  LOL I should not comment at night afgter a few beer! 'That' should be 'Thank'. Not that my spelling is ant better this morning. Well off to fufill my obligation as a right-wing reigious nut, check back with you later.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 05/15/2005 12:17 Comments || Top||

#5  A.P, would the authorities really allow the man's career to be affected by this -- given that he was aquitted? It doesn't seem fair!
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/15/2005 21:27 Comments || Top||


Africa: Subsaharan
Arrested suspects were Bangladeshis, not Pakistanis
MOMBASA: Police have arrested 63 Bangladeshis and a Kenyan in Kenya's port city on suspicion of being terrorists or drug traffickers after an anonymous tip-off, said the Coast Province deputy police chief John Mbijjiwe. Mbijjiwe said Saturday that after further investigations the police concluded all 63 men were Bangladeshi and none of them was Pakistani, as they had earlier said. Police picked up the 64 late Friday in two separate swoops in an upscale area of Mombasa and found false documents but no drugs or material linking them to any terrorist organisation in the two houses they were in, the police chief said. "We are pursuing terrorism, drug trafficking, money laundering among other offences. We shall keep you informed as investigations get underway," Mbijjiwe told reporters soon after the arrests late Friday. A Bangladesh Foreign Ministry spokesman in Dhaka said on Saturday that Bangladeshi officials were trying to get details about the arrests through its embassy in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.
Posted by: Fred || 05/15/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Right now, the cops back in Bangladesh are scratching their heads.

"They arrested more than one at a time? How can you arrange a Crossfire™ if you do it that way?"
Posted by: Darth VAda || 05/15/2005 1:37 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Police sharing information on held LJ activists
Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Liaqat Ali Khan said on Saturday that the capital police had not asked for custody of two activists of a defunct religious outfit, Lashker-e-Jahngvi (LJ), who had been arrested by the Multan police. However, he said that the capital police was sharing information with the Multan police to net other LJ activists who might be hiding in the capital or its adjoining areas.

Addressing a press conference, the SSP said that suspects had hatched a plan to blow up the National Assembly. The SSP said that the police were also investigating two suspects Nadeem and Shawaiz who were arrested for their involvement in the murder of Bari Imam's custodian Raja Akram. He added that security around the shrine had been increased because the remaining suspects in this case might attempt to disrupt the urs of Bari Imam being held from May 22 to 26. The SSP said that security had also been stepped up around important buildings including Presidency, Prime Minister House and the diplomatic enclave located near the shrine.
Posted by: Fred || 05/15/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Where DOES Fred get these pictures?!?!?!
Posted by: gromky || 05/15/2005 14:10 Comments || Top||

#2  I thought one time he said he had a bunch of old pulps and was scanning their covers?
Posted by: jackal || 05/15/2005 22:57 Comments || Top||

#3  Well...the picture's just SO appropriate for the article...laff
Posted by: gromky || 05/15/2005 23:05 Comments || Top||


Daily Times correspondent attacked in Wana
A tribal journalist was shot and wounded in South Waziristan Agency early Saturday morning in a second attack on journalists in three months. Mujeebur Rehman, correspondent of Daily Times and Reuters Television in Wana, regional headquarters of South Waziristan Agency, was slightly injured in the hand by a single shot after four masked gunmen opened fire on him in a drive-by shooting at 6:45am on Saturday. "I was lucky to escape death as the gunmen fired metres away from my home in Dhog village near Wana," Rehman told Daily Times by phone from Wana. "I was going to Wana for professional duty when I was attacked," he said.

The attack on Rehman was the second since February 7 when two tribal journalists — Allah Noor and Mir Nawab — were gunned down in Wana. "I have no personal feud or grudge and I received no prior threat. I cannot say who they (assailants) were," Rehman said. Meanwhile, authorities in Wana suspended three tribal police officers for "negligence on duty" in connection with the attempt on Rehman's life. Rehman said the officers could have arrested the gunmen had they moved.
Posted by: Fred || 05/15/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Bomb explodes in Mingora cinema
MINGORA: A time bomb exploded in a cinema hall on Saturday, but there were no casualties as the bomb went off in between shows in an empty hall, a police official said. "There could have been casualties if the bomb had exploded during show time," the police official told Daily Times.
Just a little warning, from your friends down at the mosque...
Palwasha Cinema in Mingora, district headquarters of Swat district, was targeted for the second time since November last year when a bomb blast killed two people. No group has so far claimed responsibility for this recent attempt. The explosion took place at 5:45 PM, minutes before the start of the next show, the cinema management said. It was unclear whether the militants had planted the bomb for the next show or if it went off after its scheduled time. "That is what we are investigating," the police official said. "Judging by the damage, the bomb was of low intensity," he added.

Swat district has been in the spotlight since last year after militants from banned jihadi organisations, including the Maulana Sufi Muhammad-led Tehrik Nifaz-e-Shariah Muhammad (TNSM), began targeting the area. On April 28, two militants were killed while planting a bomb in the district and police linked the two killed militants to TNSM. The jailed Maulana Sufi Muhammad mobilised thousands of volunteers in Malakand division to fight with the Taliban against the US-backed Northern Alliance. Most of them were either killed or arrested while some of them were also taken to the Guantanamo Bay detention centre.
The man's a true Islamic hero.

This article starring:
MAULANA SUFI MUHAMADTehrik Nifaz-e-Shariah Muhammad
Tehrik Nifaz-e-Shariah Muhammad
Posted by: Fred || 05/15/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


4 bomb explosions rock Gwadar
Four explosions in a short span of half an hour shook the coastal city of Gwadar late on Saturday. However, no loss of life was reported. Nor did any group claim responsibility. Two bombs exploded in the fish harbour area at around 10:30pm. Another near the office of the paramilitary forces and the fourth near a post office. Chinese companies are working on a deep seaport project in Gwadar. The port was scheduled to open in early April but was postponed for undisclosed reasons. Police constable Shaukat said that police had cordoned off the area and started investigations.
Posted by: Fred || 05/15/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Not Gondor? I am getting so confused, it is sometimes hard to make a distinction between Earth and Middle Earth.
Posted by: Acrimoniac || 05/15/2005 18:07 Comments || Top||



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  500 reported dead in Uzbek unrest
Sat 2005-05-14
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Fri 2005-05-13
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Thu 2005-05-12
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Wed 2005-05-11
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Tue 2005-05-10
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Mon 2005-05-09
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Sun 2005-05-08
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Sat 2005-05-07
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Fri 2005-05-06
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Mon 2005-05-02
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  Mass Grave With 1,500 Bodies Found in Iraq

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