The Two Minutes of Silence was started by Sir James Percy Fitzpatrick. He was born in King William's Town in 1862 and died in Uitenhage in 1931, eldest son of James Coleman Fitzpatrick, judge of the Supreme Court of the Cape Colony, and Jenny Fitzgerald, both from Ireland. The couple had 4 children: Nugent, Alan, Oliver, and Cecily.
Our own Tannie Mossie (Joan Abrahams of Bloemfontein) wrote a well-researched book in the 1990s about this. Time from Africa - A two minute silent pause to remember - 11:00 on the 11th of the 11th month.
It shows the tradition started off in Cape Town with the noon gun on Signal Hill. It was the idea of Sir Percy Fitzpatrick, author of Jock of the Bushveld. Joan's book also shows the correct silence - one minute for one person and two minutes (for more than one person - one minute for the dead and one minute for the survivors).
In 1916, Sir Percy attended a church service in Cape Town and a moment of silence was held for dead soldiers. When he heard that 11 November 1918 was going to be observed as Armistice Day in London, he asked for a two minute silence throughout the British Empire as a tribute to dead soldiers.
Sir Percy's son, Percy Nugent George, was a Major in the Union Defence Force. He was killed in France in 1917.
Major P.N.G. Fitzpatrick
South African Heavy Artillery, 71st Siege Battery
Died 14 Dec 1917, age 28
Born in Johannesburg.
Volunteered on 04 Aug 1914 and served in the Rand Rebellion and German South
West Africa with the Imperial Light Horse.
Buried at Red Cross Corner Cemetery, Beugny
Sir Harry Hands, then mayor of Cape Town, and councillor R.R. Bryden, already observed a moment of silence after the firing of the noon gun was started. Sir Percy's suggestion was taken up and a two minute silence was held in Cape Town on 14 December 1918, a year after Nugent's death. Cape Town became the first city in the world to observe the two minute silence.
WWI ended on 11 Nov 1918 with the guns stopped on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. This is why 11 Nov was chosen in 1919 as the day to remember war dead.
At first, it was known as Armistice Day (armistice meaning an agreement between enemies to stop fighting). Now it is mostly known as Remembrance Day or Poppy Day.
The poppy story goes back to 1915 when a Canadian soldier, serving as a doctor, John McCrae, was working in France. He wrote a poem that year about the poppies growing on the graves of dead soldiers: In Flanders fields the poppies blow, Between the crosses, row on row... John McCrae died of meningitis later in 1918.
An American poet, Moina Michael, read the poem and bought poppies to give to friends. She also sold poppies and gave the money to needy ex-soldiers. Eventually the Americans had women in war-ravaged France sewing artificial poppies and the money raised went to war survivors.
In Britain, former soldiers faced another battle - getting on with life. Ex-servicemen's societies united in 1921 to form the British Legion, to provide support to ex-servicemen, especially the disabled, and their families.
A French woman involved in the artificial poppy sewing project in France suggested that the British Legion sell the poppies to raise money. The British Legion signed on and 1.5 million poppies were ordered for 11 Nov 1921. The first Poppy Appeal made £106,000. The British Legion set up its own poppy sewing project, using disabled ex-servicemen. By the end of the 20th century, the British Legion was selling over 32 million poppies per annum.
Poppies were chosen not only because of the poem, but also because they were the only flowers that grew abundantly on the battlefields. They also only bloom for a short time, just like the young men and women killed in wars.
#4
a prayer for the fallen and all who have served honorably defending our freedom and security
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/11/2010 7:41 Comments ||
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#5
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember'd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
#6
I'll be at a Symphony Club lunch at eleven o'clock. They start every meeting by saying the Pledge to the flag, so I imagine we'll be silent for those two minutes -- normally an impossible task except while the musicians are performing.
#7
Anguger: Thanks for posting the link to that polar bear site. My great uncle (who I knew well) was one. I have some memorabilia that would be of interest for anyone who is interested in this part of WWI.
Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army
In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/11/2010 11:24 Comments ||
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#9
My own reminiscence about the great-uncle we never knew, killed on the Somme in 1916 -- at my literary-support blog, here.
#11
VP Joseph Biden (D-PlugzTooDeep), did the Arlington ceremony today. Beautiful day, military looked sharp, yet there was an annoying whistle, even during "Taps". I finally realized it was the breeze blowing through Slow Joe's ears
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/11/2010 16:38 Comments ||
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#13
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
#15
My paternal grandfather was sent to Europe in 1918, and arrived on October 12th, 1918. He returned to the US on August 14, 1919, with never having heard a weapon fired in anger. He was a private, and a mule-skinner.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/11/2010 23:18 Comments ||
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(Xinhua) -- Talibs stormed a police checkpoint in southern Uruzgan province in the wee hours of Wednesday killing seven coppers, deputy to provincial governor Khudai Rahim confirmed. "The attack happened in Khas Uruzgan district at 01:00 a.m. local time as a result seven coppers were killed and two others sustained injuries," Rahim told Xinhua.
However, The infamous However... he did not give more details. What a waste of a perfectly good sentence.
Talibs who vowed to overthrow the Afghan government and evict NATO-led forces from the post-Taliban country have intensified their activities. There wasn't a lot of content in that one, either.
Taliban-linked activities left two security guards of a construction company dead in the eastern Khost province and injured three others on the same day Wednesday.
Furthermore, Taliban-led militancy injured at least 10 civilians in the eastern Nangarhar province and damaged two vehicles of NATO-led forces in the northern Kunduz province on the same day Wednesday.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/11/2010 00:00 ||
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(Xinhua) -- A suicide car boom attack targeted Dwamanda district in Khost province east of Afghanistan Wednesday evening killing at least one police and injured four others, deputy to provincial police chief Mohammad Yaqub said.
"A terrorist slammed his car bomb at the entry gate of Dwamanda district headquarters at around 05:00 p.m. local time leaving one police dead and injured four others including two police constables and two Afghan soldiers," Yaqub told Xinhua.
The boomer was also killed in the blast, he added.
Two police vehicles were also damaged in the blast, he said.
Meantime, Taliban outfit has claimed of responsibility.
Zabihullah Mujahid who claims to speak for the Talibs in talks with media via telephone from undisclosed location said that a Taliban fighter Abdul Ghafar carried the suicide car boom attack killing over a dozen soldiers.
However, The infamous However... the police officer Yaqub rejected the claim as mere propaganda, saying only one policeman was killed in the blast.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/11/2010 00:00 ||
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(Xinhua) -- Ten civilians susatined injuries as a kaboomed in Jalalabad city, the capital of Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province, on Wednesday, local television channel reported.
"Ten civilians were maimed in bomb kaboom and evacuated to hospitals this morning," the private Tolo television channel aired in its news bulletin.
However officials have yet to make comments.
No groups or individuals have claimed of responsibility so far.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/11/2010 00:00 ||
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Somali pirates are becoming more brazen and keeping ahead of the international naval force seeking to end their high seas marauding, a top UN official said yesterday.
The pirates have kidnapped almost 100 new crew and passengers from ships in less than a month and there are now at least 438 seafarers and 20 ships held by bandidos, according to latest International Maritime Organization figures.
The sea gangs may now be making hundreds of millions of dollars a year from ransom payments, Mr Lynn Pascoe, UN secretary general for political affairs, told the UN Security Council.
"Piracy is a menace that is outpacing efforts by the international community to stem it," he said, highlighting the latest "appalling" hijack figures.
"The pirates are also taking greater risks and seeking higher ransoms," he added.
Mr Pascoe said a Spanish warship escorting a food supply vessel was "brazenly" attacked on Saturday. The pirates used a freighter they had seized only a month earlier. The pirates also announced on Saturday that they had received a record nine-million-dollar ransom for a South Korean supertanker.
At the same time, Mr Pascoe added, international navy forces off the Somalia coast "have disrupted more pirate operations and protected more vessels than ever before."
The UN official said international forces had to deter the pirates, secure the shipping lanes and step up development in conflict-stricken Somalia.
"As long as piracy is so lucrative, with ransom payments adding up to tens of millions if not hundreds of millions of dollars, and other economic incentives so bleak, the incentives are obvious," he said.
Dozens of warships from navies around the world now patrol shipping lanes off Somalia's coast and into the Gulf of Aden.
But a UN report released last week said that there have been more successful hijackings in the first 10 months of the year, compared to 2009.
More than 700 suspected and convicted pirates are now in detention in 12 countries, more than half of them in Somalia, according to Yury Fedotov, executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODOC).
Kenya is trying 69 suspected pirates and has convicted 50 and the Seychelles has convicted 22, Fedotov told the Security Council. He added that the trials "pose a heavy burden for countries in the region."
"Combating the problem of piracy is a major priority for the Security Council," said Mr Mark Lyall Grant, the British ambassador and president of the council for November.
He said the council had "agreed that the naval operations on their own would not fully address the issue of piracy.
"It is also important to tackle the root causes of piracy and that those root causes are addressed on the land," he said.
Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch... South Africa's foreign ministry said yesterday that two hostages being held in Somalia after their yacht was hijacked by pirates were South African citizens.
"The two other people who were on the boat have been confirmed to be South African nationals," foreign ministry front man Malusi Mogale told AFP.
The ministry said in a statement that "two South African citizens were kidnapped by suspected Somali pirates from a yacht at a location in the Indian Ocean."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/11/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
"Piracy is a menace that is outpacing efforts by the international community to stem it,"
If those "efforts" weren't so pathetic, maybe they could stem it. As long as they pirates continue to be paid, they will continue doing it.
#2
Just blow up the whole towns that support these jerks.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
11/11/2010 2:53 Comments ||
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#3
No one has the courage to attack their nests. Can you imagine the international uproar of seeing the poor, innocent dead women and children from these helpless African villages, lying about broken and dying in the streets. The brutal rape, torture and murder by their own kind is viewed in gentlemanly circles as an acceptable cultural phenomenon, a tribal right as it were. The laying waste to their hives by former western oppressors is racist and unacceptable. Like the rest back home, these people too, must be socialized through deference and entitlement.
#4
Can you imagine the international uproar of seeing the poor, innocent dead women and children from these helpless African villages, lying about broken and dying in the streets.
You think the Chinese would really care? BTW they are looking for naval ports to protect their overseas trade routes. I see two interests converging.
Can you imagine the international uproar of seeing the poor, innocent dead women and children from these helpless African villages, lying about broken and dying in the streets.
Can you imagine how little I care?
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
11/11/2010 8:51 Comments ||
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#6
Use a Q-ship to assemble the cliches, then arc-light them with F-150s packed with WillyPete.
Posted by: Goldies Every Damn Where ||
11/11/2010 9:22 Comments ||
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#8
Auto-Bartender is gonna be mighty cross with you two boys ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/11/2010 11:26 Comments ||
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#9
I see no reason to destroy villages and kill the women and children there. But it might reduce recidivism if the pirates themselves tended to disappear along with their boats.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Two clan militias clashed near Jowhar town, 90 kilometres north of Mogadishu, in Central Somalia, killing two warriors and wounding five others yesterday.
The armed militias came from pastoralist and farming communities respectively in dispute over animal grazing.
Those injured were reportedly taken to the general hospital in Jowhar town, 18 kilometres away from the scene of the confrontations.
Elders from the farming communities are complaining that the pastoralists who are unsettled nomads are forcing their way to the farms so that their animals feed on plantations and crops.
The pastoralists, however, blame the dry season as pasture and animal feed are fast depleting.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/11/2010 00:00 ||
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(Xinhua) -- Three kidnapped Frenchiessnagged in Nigeria in September were released, the Foreign Ministry said Wednesday. Bet they cost a pretty penny. Or sou, as it were.
Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner announced the release in a statement, saying he shared "the happiness and relief from their families and loved ones." The three Frenchies working for the company Bourbon Alexandre were taken away by a group of gunnies on September 22.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/11/2010 00:00 ||
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(Xinhua) -- The Colombian police seized weapons that allegedly belonged to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in a house in southern Bogota, local media reported Tuesday.
General Francisco Patino, metropolitan police chief, told Caracol TV that police raided the house early Tuesday morning after they were tipped by a phone call in Bosa district.
Police found explosives and weapons in the house, including nine grenades, two mortars, a large amount of cartridges of different caliber, a cannon and other materials.
"There are no detainees, but we have really good information, there are useful documents that we found, which will allow us to continue the investigation," Patino said.
The FARC, Colombia's largest rebel group, has been fighting for 40 years to overthrow the government.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/11/2010 00:00 ||
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Google Translate. For a map, click here.
Three Mexican soldiers were wounded Monday night when armed suspects opened fired on a Mexican Army detachment using small arms and hand grenades in Torreon, Coahuila, according to Mexican news reports.
A total of 21 individuals were murdered in ongoing drug and gang related violence siunce last Sunday in northern Mexico inclduign two Juarez police officers shot to death Sunday. For a map, click here
Three individuals were found murdered in a motel in Juarez Sunday, say Mexican press accounts. The victims, two men and a woman, were found aboard a double cab pickup truck outside the La Vuesta Hotel. Two of the victims were strangled, while one was shot to death.
Two Juarez municipal police officers were shot to death Sunday morning in Juarez, according to Mexican news reports. Blanca Jessica Martinez Puentes, 23 and Cesar Augusto Martinez Hernandez, 24, were shot while aboard a a vehicle parked at a shopping mall near the intersection of calles Ejercito Nacional and Diego de Alcala. Both officers had been with the police just a little more than a year.
An inmate at a Chihuahua Centro de Readaptacion de Social(CERESO) in Juarez was found dead in his cell Sunday, according to Mexican press accounts. Etni Salido Morales, 45, was found dead five hours after bed check. No other information was released.
An unidentified man was found shot to death in Juarez Sunday, according to Mexican news reports. The victim was found with several gunshot wounds in an area known as Cerro del Caballo.
An unidentified woman was found dead in Juarez Tuesday morning, according to Mexican news accounts. The victim was found inside her home near the intersection of Viaducto and Nacozari in the Juarez colony. Reports do not say how she died.
One unidentified man was shot to death and another wounded in Nogales, Sonora Tuesday, according to Mexican press accounts. The victims were shot in the Colinas del Sol colony east of Nogales.
One unidentified man was shot to death and another was wounded in Tijuana, Baja California Thursday night, according to Mexican press accounts. The shooting took place near the corner of calle Tampico and Laguna Salada in the Santos colony when two armed suspects aboard a sedan fired on the two victims.
Five individuals were shot to death in Parral, Chihuahua last Sunday and Monday, according to the Mexican daily El Sol de Parral.
Raul Omar Gardea Villalobos, 27, was found shot to death on the Parral-Villa Matamoros road after an anonymous phone call led state police agents to the location. Several 9mm spent casing were found at the scene.
On Sunday night an unidentified man in his 20s was found shot to death aboard a Ford Lobo pickup truck on the Privada Lago Erie in the San Antonio de las Huertas colony. Several 7.62x39mm spent casings were found at the scene.
Late Sunday night an unidentified man was found shot to death on calle Hacienda Apodaqueña in the El Potrero colony with multiple gunshot wounds.
Finally, on Monday morning a man was fond shot to death on the Parral-Santa Bárbara road Monday morning. Hector Cabrera Herrera, 29, was found dead with multiple gunshot wounds and .223 spent casings nearby.
Two unidentified men were found shot to death and incinerated aboard a truck in southern Chihuahua, say Mexican press accounts. The victims were found on the Yerbitas-Guadalupe y Calvo road aboard a Ford pickup truck. One of the victims was identified as Sergio Escarcega Regulus Ruiz, 26. Reports say a 9mm pistol and magazine was found with the remains.
Five alleged Islamic terrorists arrested in Paris this week were planning to assassinate the city's leading Muslim cleric because he's softer than your average jihadist, it emerged today.
All of the men, who are Muslims French passport holders, are believed to have returned from fighting British and American troops alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan.
The murder plot against Dalil Boubakeur, rector of the French capital's main mosque, was only foiled at the eleventh hour thanks to a tip-off.
Secret intelligence officers were able to move in on two Frenchmen of Algerian descent as they arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport on Monday night from Egypt.
Armed police arrested three other men from religious similar backgrounds in flats in the Paris suburbs on Tuesday morning.
'These were five major arrests,' said Bernard Squarcini, director of France's Internal Intelligence agency, the DCRI. 'All were linked to a major inquiry into jihadists returning from the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area and threatening to assassinate the rector of the Paris Mosque, Dalil Boubaker.'
Mr Boubaker has been under armed guard since last month after radicals issued threats following the introduction of a burka ban in France -- a measure which many see as overtly anti-Muslim.
Osama Bin Laden, the terrorist mastermind behind atrocities including the 9/11 attacks on America in 2001, also released a recorded video message calling for French people to be killed unless the country withdraw its troops from the war in Afghanistan.
Bin Laden is sore about the burqa ban, is irritated by French special forces, and he probably isn't thrilled by France's asylum offer to Iraqi Christians.
Security has also been stepped up around leading public figures in France, including First Babe Carla Bruni, who is seen as an assassination target...
Posted by: American Delight ||
11/11/2010 00:11 ||
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#1
Why did the cops not arrest these peace loving Muslims AFTER they shot the Imam.
Posted by: Dave UK ||
11/11/2010 10:59 Comments ||
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(CNN) -- Five terror suspects jugged in France this week are suspected of planning a suicide kaboom, Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux said Wednesday. The Case of the Detonating Frenchies featuring Inspector Camembert
They were planning a strike in Gay Paree, and one was "prepared to die," he said. "As we embrace life, Legume -- yes, thank you. I will have another glass -- so these Mohammedans embrace death!"
They were jugged on Monday and Tuesday, the ministry said. "I would say 'you are welcome to your demise, M. Headbonquer!' but they insist on trying to take civilized folk with them!"
They are all Frenchies of Algerian origin, according to the ministry. "But they are not pieds noirs, if you get my drift!"
France had jugged 85 people on suspicion of links to terrorism this year, Hortefeux told France 2 television last Thursday, before the arrests this week. Some 27 of them are still in prison, he said. "Inspector! How do you do it!"
(Xinhua) -- A failed parcel bomb found on the cargo plane at East Midlands airport last month was timed to detonate over the Eastern seaboard of the United States, British police said on Wednesday.
The bomb, which originated in Yemen, was discovered inside a printer cartridge. London's Metropolitan Police confirmed that "if the device had not been removed from the aircraft the activation could have occurred over the eastern seaboard of the U.S."
The bomb was removed from the freight plane during a two-hour stopover at the British airport.
"We can confirm that the cargo plane arrived at East Midlands Airport from Cologne at 0213 BST on Friday, 29 October 2010," police said in a statement. "The plane left East Midlands Airport at 0420 BST, after the suspect package had been removed."
The device was disrupted at the airport by explosive officers during the initial examination, and experts had calculated what time the device, one of two sent by courier firm from Yemen, was set to explode.
"Forensic examination has indicated that if the device had activated it would have been at 1030 BST on Friday, 29 October 2010," police said.
A second mail bomb, also sent from Yemen, was intercepted in Dubai. Both parcels contained the powerful plastic explosive PETN, which is difficult to detect, and were addressed to synagogues in Chicago.
An intensive investigation had been taking place in Britain and overseas following the discovery of the bombs.
British Home Secretary Theresa May later announced that Britain will suspend unaccompanied cargo from Yemen and Somalia into the country and review all aspects of air freight security.
The move was based on possible contact between al-Qaeda in Yemen and Somali terrorist groups, May said.
She also announced a ban on toner cartridges over 500g carried in hand luggage on flights departing from Britain.
Direct passenger and cargo flights from Yemen to Britain were suspended following the attempted downing of a plane bound for Detroit on Christmas Day 2009.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/11/2010 00:00 ||
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(KUNA) -- Security forces Wednesday killed more than 15 Islamic fascistiand maimed about 20 others in an operation in Orakzai tribal agency, bordering Afghanistan, said officials.
Military gunship helicopters pounded suspected Islamic fascistihideouts in three different areas of Upper Orakzai tribal agency, security officials told KUNA.
They said more than 15 Islamic fascistiwere killed, 20 were maimed and about three suspected Islamic exemplar compounds were destroyed.
Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch... in a separate incident, two soldiers were maimed in a landmine kaboom in Mohmand tribal agency.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/11/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
A cynical person might look at this as Red on Red. Still a welcome sign. Much better than killing their neighbors in India.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] The UN Security Council today condemned bully boy attacks against religious targets in Iraq as France said there is a deliberate campaign to "destroy the Christian community."
The council asked the UN to provide information on the number of religious minorities driven out of Iraq because of sectarian violence.
The UN Security Council was "appalled by and condemned in the strongest terms the recent spate of terrorist attacks in Iraq, including today's," said British ambassador Mark Lyall Grant reading a council press statement.
The council condemned all attacks in Iraq, "particularly those motivated by religious hatred."
French ambassador Gerard Araud said recent attacks against a Christian cathedral and other targets in Storied Baghdad was part of "a deliberate will to destroy the Christian community."
He said Al-Qaeda's bomb and gun assaults were "an attack on the diversity of Iraqi society."
In Baghdad, a string of anti-Christian bombings has cost six more lives in the wake of a Baghdad church bloodbath, sowing panic in Iraq's 2,000-year-old minority today, many of whom now want to flee.
"Since Tuesday evening, there have been 13 bombs and two mortar attacks on homes and shops of Christians in which a total of six people were killed and 33 injured," a defence ministry official said. "A church was also damaged."
The attacks come less than two weeks after 44 Christian worshippers, two priests and seven security personnel died in the seizure of the Baghdad church by Islamist gunnies and the ensuing shootout when it was stormed by troops.
On November 3, Al-Qaeda grabbed credit for the hostage-taking at the capital's Syrian Catholic cathedral and warned it would step up attacks on Christians. As Christians converged on their churches today to seek counsel from their religious leaders, the capital's Syrian Catholic archbishop made an emotional appeal for Western countries to come to their rescue.
"It would be criminal on the part of the international community not to take care of the security of the Christians," Athanase Matti Shaba Matoka said inside the church targeted on October 31 where he tried to console his flock.
"Everybody is scared," he said. "People are asking who is going to protect them, how are they going to stay on in Iraq. We are trying to encourage them to stay patient."
Vatican secretary of state Tarcisio Bertone described the latest attacks as "very painful."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/11/2010 00:00 ||
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(Xinhua) -- Three Iraqi cut-thoats, known as Awakening Council group members and a Sunni holy man were killed in attacks in south and west of Storied Baghdad on Wednesday, local police said.
Three Awakening Council group members were killed and three others maimed when a homemade bomb detonated while they were guarding a gathering of local tribes in the town of Iskandariya ... named after Alexander the Great, today it's a mostly Sunni-inhabited slum ...
some 60 km south of Baghdad, a local police source told Xinhua.
The Awakening Council, or al-Sahwa in Arabic, consists of some powerful anti-U.S. Sunni bad boy groups, which turned their rifles against the al-Qaeda network after the latter terrorized both Shiite and Sunni Mohammedan communities. "Eventually," he explained patiently, "the Americans will leave. Eventually the turbans won't."
"Duh, hey!" the Arab responded. "Dat's no fair!"
Also in the day, gunniesrubbed out Jassim al-Essawi, the holy man of a Sunni mosque in the town of Garma, near the city of Fallujah, ... the City of Mosques, which might have somthing to do with why it's not called Center of Prosperity ... some 50 km west of Baghdad, a local police source told Xinhua.
Insurgent attacks continue in the once volatile Sunni Arab area in west of Baghdad that stretches through Anbar province to Iraq's western borders with Syria, Jordan and Soddy Arabia. The vast desert area has been relatively calm for more than three years after Sunni tribes and anti-U.S. bad boy groups turned to cooperate with the U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces against al-Qaeda network in Iraq.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/11/2010 00:00 ||
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[Emirates 24/7] Israeli forces jugged senior Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, MP Mahmud Al Ramahi at his home in the West Bank city of Ramallah overnight, his Islamist movement and Israeli forces said on Wednesday.
Ramahi, who is secretary of the Paleostinian Legislative Council and the body's third most senior member, was nabbed at around 3am (0100 GMT), Hamas sources in Ramallah told AFP.
An army spokeswoman said Ramahi had been nabbed "for being involved in recent Hamas activities."
"He was taken in for security questioning," she told AFP, adding that Ramahi was one of 11 people jugged by Israeli forces in the West Bank overnight.
Ramahi's arrest came after representatives of Hamas and the Fatah party of Paleostinian president Mahmud Abbas started a meeting in Damascus on Tuesday night for reconciliation talks.
The long-time political rivals have been fiercely divided since Hamas seized power in Gazoo in a bloody rout of Abbas's forces in 2007, limiting Abbas's authority to the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Several previous attempts to reconcile the groups have failed, with each side accusing the other of undermining trust by persecuting political rivals in the territory under its control.
Omar Abdul Razek, a senior Hamas official in the West Bank, told AFP Ramahi's arrest appeared to be an attempt by Israel to undermine the reconciliation talks.
"There is no justification for Ramahi's arrest unless Israel's aim is to sabotage the reconciliation process," Abdul Razek told AFP.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/11/2010 00:00 ||
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(Xinhua) -- Israel Security Agency (ISA) jugged a Mohammedan imam of a Jaffa mosque on security charges, local press reported Wednesday.
While details on the case are meager due to a court-imposed gag- order, officials said they nabbed on Tuesday 30-year-old Mohammad Ayash, who heads al-Bahr mosque of Jaffa, which is located directly south of Tel Aviv.
Security officials impounded Ayash's personal computer during a search of his home, according to the local Ha'aretz daily. A court extended his remand by eight days.
A lawyer representing Ayash, who is married and a father of four, said his client was innocent and hoped Ayash would be released soon. "Lies! All lies!"
"The imam has no ties with these security offenses. He is a resident of Jaffa and a law-abiding Israeli citizen. We hope his name will be cleared in the coming days," attorney Eitan On told the Ynet news site.
In a previous, similar case, the ISA and Israeli police juggeda holy man who heads a mosque in Nazareth, Nazim Mahmoud Salim.
Last week, Salim, 45, was indicted for incitement to violence and supporting a terror organization.
"Freedom of expression is a superior value, but there are equally superior values such as human life. We find that the defendant crossed all boundaries, including authorizing a murder," the attorney who filed the indictment said, according to Ynet.
Salim was originally jugged a month ago after a murder suspect in the killing of an Israeli cab driver in 2009 said the imam's sermons incited him to commit the deed.
The court also charged Salim with incitement to violence against Pope Benedict and for supporting al-Qaeda and "global jihad."
This article starring:
Mohammad Ayash
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11/11/2010 00:00 ||
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There's a headline you don't see every day...
[Straits Times] A POLICEMAN who witnessed an election-related massacre of 57 people last year told a court on Wednesday that a former town mayor - the main suspect in the deaths - bumped off 40 victims as they pleaded for their lives.
Senior Police Officer Rainier Ebus testified he saw former Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr, the scion of the clan that ruled southern Maguindanao province, shoot about 40 of the 57 victims after stopping their vehicles.
Among the dead in the Nov 23, 2009 massacre - the worst political killings in recent Philippine history - were at least 30 news hounds accompanying supporters of Esmael Mangudadatu, a local politician running for governor.
His rivals from the Ampatuan clan and "militiamen" under their command have been charged with murder. They have pleaded innocent. No, no! Certainly not!
Mr Ebus, testifying for the prosecution, said he was among coppers who accompanied Mr Ampatuan and his gunnies to a village where they stopped a convoy of news hounds and party hacks of Mr Mangudadatu, who was challenging the Ampatuan clan for governorship.
Previous witnesses have said that Ampatuan clan members, including patriarch Andal Ampatuan Sr, had plotted the killings over dinner six days before the ambush. A move of particular brilliance, since it scandalized about half the world.
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11/11/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
There's a cartel job in Mexico awaiting him if he's able to buy get an acquittal, along the advice line to 'take a Michael Corleone vacation' for a while.
[Inquirer.net (PI)] Two days after the 2009 slaughter of 57 civilians in Maguindanao, Andal Ampatuan Jr. allegedly told his close-in security and other henchmen to turn on their TV sets. "You'll see me on TV," Ampatuan Jr. allegedly told his security aides, among them a police officer who took the witness stand Wednesday at the resumption of the trial of the principal suspect and 196 others.
Police Officer 1 Rainier Ebus told the court that he saw Ampatuan Jr. shoot "more or less 40 people" in Sitio Masalay in the morning of Nov. 23, 2009, while he hid in a car "out of fear" of his boss. He also claimed that Ampatuan Jr. inspected at least two checkpoints daily four days before the massacre. That word you're probably looking for is "evil."
The lead defense counsel, Sigfrid Fortun, tried to disparage Ebus' testimony by saying that his sworn statement of Dec. 5, 2009, contained none of what he had said in court.
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
(Xinhua) -- Three 
