Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Happy Birthday/Daily Gam Shot
Nikki Cox aka Tiffany Malloy in "Unhappily Ever After (TV)" aka Gee Mary Connell in "Las Vegas (TV)" aka Karen in "Don's Plum" aka Kayla in "Run Ronnie Run" aka Bambi in "Lonely Street " aka Nikki White in "Nikki (TV)" (age 33)
Nader Nadery of Afghanistan's Human Rights Commission, said war fatigue and the upcoming US Presidential election in the United States and NATO was increasing pressure for talks that, he said, "will bring a short term end to violence but lead to the elephant in the living room more fighting and tribal civil war when the (U.S. and NATO) forces leave."
[Tolo News] At least ten Taliban fighters were killed in a bomb kaboom in southern Helmand Province, provincial security officials said on Tuesday.
A group of ten Taliban fighters were planting explosives in a tractor when there was an accidental detonation, security advisor to Helmand governor said.
They were planning to target district chief building in Marja located in central Helmand.
Meanwhile, ...back at the fist fight, Jake ducked another roundhouse, then parried with his left, then with his right, finally with his chin... early in the morning in a separate kaboom in bustling provincial capital of Helmand, Lashkargah, two coppers were hurt.
The Taliban have recently intensified their attacks nationwide mainly targeting high-profile government officials mostly.
In the latest Taliban assassinations, two senior Afghan security officials including senior police chief in the north Gen. Dawood Dawood and Takhar police chief were killed in a suicide kaboom inside northern Takhar governor's palace.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2011 00:00 ||
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Two planes seized in Somalia with Sh300 million in ransom money were modified without civil aviation authorisation to enable them drop cash to pirates, it was revealed on Tuesday.
An official in the aviation sector said the planes based at the Wilson Airport in Nairobi were given special clearance before flying to Somalia on UN missions but ended up being used to drop money to ships hijacked by pirates.
He claimed the planes usually left Wilson airport in Nairobi on claims that they were undertaking humanitarian evacuations in Somalia under the UN operation in the Horn of Africa country.
He said the planes owned by a senior manager with an international agency in Nairobi had been involved in the operations for the past two years.
The planes are a Citation jet which had left with the ransom money from the Seychelles and a Cessna caravan single-engine which was to drop the money to pirates on the hijacked ships.
President of semi-autonomous state of Puntland Abdurahman Mohamed Farole denied his state had any role in the $3.6 million seized by security officers.
The cash was ransom for the release of two ships and their 56 crew members.
The $3.6 million was for Mv Yuan Xiang and Mv Suez, according to Mr Andrew Mwangura, the maritime editor of Somali Report, a publication that specialises in Somalia news.
Mv Suez was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden on August 2, last year, en route to Eritrea from Pakistain. Her crew members were six Indians, four Paks, four Sri Lankans and 13 Egyptians.
The Panama-flagged Mv Yuan Xiang was taken by pirates alongside her 29 Chinese crew on November 13, last year, 650 nautical miles East of Salalah, Oman.
Somalia Interior and Security minister Abdishakur Hassan Farah said six people, including the pilots, were being jugged.
He said three of those tossed in the clink carried UK passports, another an American passport while two have Kenyan identifications.
Kenya Civil Aviation Authority is yet to issue a statement on the ownership of the planes held in Somalia.
Somali authorities have, however, confirmed that the planes belong to an aviation company based at Wilson Airport.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2011 00:00 ||
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[Ennahar] weapons brought from Libya, scene of an uprising against the regime of Muammar Qadaffy, were used for attacks in Algeria, said Wednesday Algerian Minister Delegate in charge of Maghreb and African Affairs Abdelkader Messahel.
"There was a spate of attacks in our country. It is no a coincidence. It is the feat of arms and ammunition arriving from Libya," he told a presser in Algiers.
"Libya has become a repository (weapons) in the open. There are a lot of weapons circulating in this country and transferred to areas of conflict," said Messahel.
In April and May, Algeria has witnessed a series of arracks against security forces.
Seven soldiers were killed in May in an attack against a military outpost in Jijel, 350 km east of Algiers. In April, a series of attacks attributed to Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) caused thirty dead in the ranks of security forces in the regions of blood-stained Tizi Ouzou (110 km east of Algiers) , corpse-littered Boumerdes and Bouira (125 km south-east of Algiers).
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Libya Tuesday accused NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants... of killing 718 civilians and wounding 4,067 in 10 weeks of air strikes, as African efforts for a truce stalled and Italia said Muammar Qadaffy ... Custodian of Wheelus AFB for 42 long years ... 's regime is "finished."
The toll of dead and injured was given at a news conference in Tripoli by government front man Mussa Ibrahim, who also warned the departure of Qadaffy would be a "worst case scenario" for Libya.
"Since March 19, and up to May 26, there have been 718 deaders among civilians and 4,067 maimed -- 433 of them seriously," Ibrahim said, citing health ministry figures which cannot be independently verified, He said these figures do not include Libyan military casualties, a toll the defence ministry refuses to divulge.
Soon after he spoke, four powerful kabooms rocked the centre of Tripoli, the target of more and more intensive air raids by NATO warplanes for more than a week, an AFP journalist reported.
The first two blasts rumbled across the city at around 9:45 pm as aircraft were heard in the night skies overhead, followed by another two 10 minutes later. It was not possible to determine the targets, the news hound said. Ibrahim ruled out the embattled strongman stepping down from power.
"If Qadaffy goes, the security valve will disappear," he said. "Qadaffy's departure would be the worst case scenario for Libya," he told news hounds, and warned of "civil war."
Ibrahim also denied that South African President Jacob Zuma, who met Qadaffy in Tripoli on Monday, had discussed an "exit strategy" with him.
Zuma "never discussed any exit strategies as they have been described in the media," the front man said.
Earlier, a statement from the South African presidency in Pretoria said Qadaffy would not leave Libya despite growing international pressure and intensified NATO strikes on his regime.
"Colonel Qadaffy called for an end to the bombings to enable a Libyan dialogue. He emphasised that he was not prepared to leave his country, despite the difficulties," Zuma's office said in a statement.
The South African president said raids by NATO, which is enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya and protecting civilians from a government crackdown under a UN mandate, were undermining African mediation efforts.
South African Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane called for an immediate ceasefire after Zuma said Qadaffy was "ready" to implement an African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... peace plan already rejected by NATO and the rebels.
In the rebel capital Benghazi, in eastern Libya, Italia's foreign minister said Tuesday Qadaffy's regime was already staring at defeat.
"The Qadaffy regime is finished, he must leave office, he must leave the country," Franco Frattini told a joint news conference with Ali al-Essawi, the rebels' foreign affairs chief.
"His aides have left, he has no international support, the G8 leaders reject him, he must go." Frattini was speaking ahead of a ceremony to inaugurate a new Italian consulate in the eastern city, in another major blow to Qadaffy after NATO insisted his "reign of terror" is nearing an end.
Italia, the former colonial ruler of Libya and strategic economic partner with Qadaffy's regime, has joined international calls led by Perfidious Albion, La Belle France and the United States for the Libyan leader to go.
In Washington, State Department front man said US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another James Baker ... will visit the United Arab Emirates on June 9 for a meeting of the Libya contact group.
"This meeting will build on the last contact group meeting held in Rome," and will allow the United States and its partners to discuss implementation of UN Security Council resolutions 1970 and 1973, Mark Toner told news hounds.
UN under secretary general B. Lynn Pascoe told the UN Security Council meanwhile that at least 1,200 people have been killed or are missing after trying to flee Libya by boat since the start of the uprising against Qadaffy mid-February.
At the same time, the official TAP news agency reported from Tunis Tuesday that five more officers have joined the flow of defectors from Qadaffy's regime, arriving at the weekend in neighbouring Tunisia.
The colonel and four lieutenant colonels as well as four rank-and-file soldiers arrived by boat on Sunday, the report said.
In Rome on Monday, five generals, two colonels and a major announced they had defected from Qadaffy's forces, calling on other officers to follow their example.
Abdel Rahman Shalgham, a former foreign minister who was Tripoli's UN representative before switching sides, told a news conference that around 120 officers had defected in recent days.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Libia says, Stopped reading right there.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/02/2011 1:26 Comments ||
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#2
South African Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane called for an immediate ceasefire after Zuma said Qadaffy was "ready" to implement an African Union
Another ANC dim light up-and-coming comrade:
Maite Emily Nkoana-Mashabane (born 30 September 1963[1]) is a South African politician. She has been South Africa's Minister of International Relations and Cooperation since May 2009, taking over from Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. She is also a member of the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress (ANC).
Nkoana-Mashabane was born in Ga-Makanye, Limpopo. During the apartheid era she was an activist in the United Democratic Front (UDF). Nkoana-Mashabane went on to be appointed as South African High Commissioner to India and Malaysia. Her former husband, Ambassador to Indonesia Norman Mashabane, was recalled after being charged with sexual harassment.[2] He was subsequently cleared by a foreign affairs inquiry and died in a mysterious car accident in 2007.
On her return to South Africa, Nkoana-Mashabane became Limpopo's Local Government and Housing Member of the Executive Council, winning a wide following in the province for her efforts to root out corruption in low-cost housing programmes and her hands-on approach to rural housing.
Nkoana-Mashabane was elected to the ANC's National Executive Committee in December 2007. She was the lowest scoring candidate to be elected to the Committee, winning the 80th and last seat on the Committee with 1,337 votes.[3]
President Jacob Zuma appointed Nkoana-Mashabane as his 7th wife Minister of International Relations and Cooperation on 9 May 2009. Zuma subsequently disputed suggestions that this was an unusual appointment in light of Nkoana-Mashabane's apparent lack of foreign policy experience, saying that "the ANC knows the strengths of this comrade" and noting that she was a member of the ANC National Executive Committee.
[Iran Press TV] Bahraini activists have called for a fresh wave of anti-government protest rallies across the Persian Gulf country despite government's escalating crackdown.
Activists using the social networking website Facebook called on Bahrainis to stage anti-regime protests in the main streets and squares on Wednesday as a state of emergency imposed during a March crackdown on protesters has ended.
"The protests are to be in main streets and squares ... the movement must return to important places ahead of the imminent return, God willing, to Martyr's Square," said a post on "February 14 Revolution Youth Coalition" Facebook page, referring to the site of Pearl Square, which was the focal point of anti-government demonstrations from February until before being destroyed during the government crackdown in March.
Bahraini activists say their campaign will continue until the nation's demands are met.
The new "protests will confirm that our revolution has not and will not end until our people take their right ... of self-determination," the post added.
An unnamed activist told AFP that most villages have announced that they will participate in the planned protests, adding that demonstrators from all over the country will march towards the Martyr's Square on Friday.
Amnesia Amnesty International has called on Manama officials to allow the planned protest rallies to go ahead and stop using violence against peaceful protesters.
"Bahraini authorities must not make the same mistakes as in February and March, when largely peaceful protests were violently suppressed by government security forces," Malcolm Smart, Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa director, said in the statement.
"As the state of emergency is lifted, the authorities must allow people to peacefully exercise their rights to freedom of expression and association," Smart added.
Bahraini protesters demand an end to the rule of Al Khalifa dynasty.
Since anti-government protests began in Bahrain in mid-February, regime forces, backed by a 1,000-strong Saudi military contingent, have kidnapped many people, including opposition activists, journalists, teachers, students, doctors and nurses, and destroyed dozens of mosques and other religious sites.
Scores of people have been killed and many more tossed in the slammer in the Saudi-backed crackdown on peaceful protests in Bahrain.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2011 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] The Gulf state of Kuwait withdrew diplomatic staff from its embassy in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Wednesday because of the security situation, the foreign ministry said.
The Kuwaiti diplomats "have left Sanaa this morning (Wednesday) due to the tense security situation" in Yemen, the official KUNA news agency reported, citing an official source at the foreign ministry.
The official said that local administrative staff would remain in the embassy to carry out routine work in the mission.
Heavy fighting ... as opposed to the more usual light or sporadic fighting... was raging on Wednesday between government forces and fighters loyal to opposition tribal chief Sadiq al-Ahmar in Sanaa.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2011 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] At least 37 people have died in overnight fighting as festivities intensified in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, doctors and officials say.
Violence escalated after a ceasefire broke down between security forces and fighters loyal to Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar, head of a tribal confederation.
Analysts say the conflict threatens to drag Yemen into civil war.
Yemen is facing increasing unrest in several areas after President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower... refused to step down.
Witnesses reported heavy fighting ... as opposed to the more usual light or sporadic fighting... in the capital overnight as both sides blamed each other for breaking the ceasefire.
On Wednesday morning, witnesses also reported loud kabooms coming from the north of Sanaa, but the reason was not clear.
The defence ministry accused rustics of seizing the headquarters of the ruling General People's Congress and other offices in Sanaa.
However, The mauve However... sources close to Sheikh Ahmar said government forces had attacked his compound in the north of the city.
One report said Presidential Guard units had also shelled the headquarters of a brigade where the commander was suspected of being about to defect to the opposition.
Medical officials in Sanaa said casualties included fighters from both sides.
On Tuesday, another 12 protesters were rubbed out in the southern city of Taiz following a move by security forces to remove the protest camp from the city centre.
There were also further festivities in the town of Zinjibar where government forces have been battling fighters described as al-Qaeda beturbanned goons.
Mr Saleh, who has been in office for 33 years, is refusing to sign a deal to transfer power to help end the crisis.
On Tuesday, a US state department front man urged him to leave office "and to move Yemen forward".
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2011 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] The International Crimes Tribunal on Wednesday directed the authorities concerned to keep four top Jamaat-e-Islami leaders, including its Ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami, ...During the liberation war of 1971, Nizami formed the Al-Badr Force and acted as its supreme commander. Nizami advocated deadly violence against minority Hindus. On Nizamis orders, The Al-Badr militia took active part in rape, extortion, looting and killing of Bangladeshis who supported the liberation, including a pre-planned massacre on December 14, 1971, when the Al-Badr militia along with Pakistan Army rounded up hundreds of doctors, professors, writers, and other Bengali intellectuals, and executed them... jugged until July 12 in connection with crimes against humanity in 1971.
The three other leaders are: Secretary General Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mojahid and assistant secretaries general Muhammad Kamaruzzaman and Abdul Quader Molla.
The three-member tribunal headed by Justice Nizamul Haque ordered the prosecutors to submit the final report on investigation into the allegations against them by July 12.
The court also said the prosecutors will have to submit the progress report of investigation if they failed to place the final report to it on time.
The tribunal passed the orders upon a petition filed by the prosecution for keeping the four Jamaat leaders jugged until completion of investigation into the war crimes charges against them. The prosecution filed the petition in April.
The four leaders were produced before the tribunal in the morning.
The tribunal also rejected two separate petitions filed by Nizami and Mojahid on May 31 seeking bail on medical grounds.
The court also directed the jail authorities to provide proper treatment to them at Birdem Hospital at their own cost if necessary.
It also directed the authorities to arrange special food for them as they are diabetic patients
Meanwhile, ...back at the secret hideout, Scarface Al sneeringly put his proposition to little Nell... the tribunal permitted the Sherlocks to interrogate Kamaruzzaman and Abdul Quader Molla for one day each at the Dhanmondi 'safe home'.
The court passed the order after holding hearing on two separate petitions filed by the prosecution seeking its directives to interrogate them.
The Jamaat leaders will be interrogated from 10:00am to 5:00pm with a one-hour break from 1:00pm, the tribunal said adding that the Sherlocks would fix separate dates for interrogation later.
The tribunal said a doctor and a counsel for the accused will be present at an adjacent room. The doctor will examine the health condition of the accused persons before and after the interrogation.
The tribunal also directed the Sherlocks not to put any pressure on them during interrogation. The interrogation will be held in Bangla so that the accused persons can understand the questions and can reply properly.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2011 00:00 ||
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#5
I will celebrate. The amount of crime will drop to near zero. Drug pushers will be next to bankrupt. Organised crime will be bankrupt.
I Win, drug users win, criminals lose.
Rather than Lose Lose Crime-Win currently enabled by the Drug "enforcement", Drug Profits duopoly.
It's part of the puritan urge to ban people enjoying themselves. I wonder what activity you enjoy that could harm you they'd like to ban? Motorbikes? Commenting on sites that raise your blood pressure?
#6
Since the repeal of Prohibition more people have died on our highways at the hands of DUIs than America has suffered in all the wars since. That doesn't include those killed by someone by other means while under the influence. Society just moves the death count from one column to another and thinks itself clean because it's no longer a 'crime' but the cemeteries can't tell the difference.
#8
...I have long ago come to the conclusion that at the very least marijuana should be legalized, but I keep coming up against the same brick wall that no one else ever seems to consider: does anyone think, even for a moment, that the drug cartels will just suddenly say, "Well, guess we're not making any money there anymore; let's try Kahzakhstan"? They will undercut the official prices so deeply that almost no one with any brain cells left will buy Government Grass (TM). That will happen because once the government decides to get into the business, it will tax the living daylights out of the stuff...and getting caught with anything but official government weed will result in penalties that will make the current foolishness look like timeout with Mr. Rogers.
Putting it bluntly: if you think the current war on drugs is a money-flushing, liberty destroying waste of time, effort, and funds....wait till you see how bad it gets once they're legal.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
06/02/2011 10:29 Comments ||
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#9
There does seem to be some cartel action against independent growers in Colorado.
#10
So you actually want to bring back Alcohol prohibition!?
Humans have failed to end murder and rape as well, so by the logic presented, just end enforcement. The whole cost in prosecution and confinement will disappear. /sarc off
I want the excuse makers to be honest that they're simply trading one big problem for another and that the world will not suddenly magically be 'kinder gentler' in the alternatives.
#11
well, it onlky took them a little over 30 yrs. too realize it.
Posted by: chris ||
06/02/2011 11:23 Comments ||
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#12
It's not a yes/no situation. Sure, make things easy enough that it isn't worth producing and distributing on a mass scale. But we would need measures to deal with problem users in a better way. It won't be perfect, and it might be wrong, but I'd like to see it given an honest try. Personally, I think the balance will work out better.
A force working against this will be all the government agencies and employees whose jobs, power, pride, and stature depend on the existance of this counterproductive effort.
And the hit to the jobs numbers, even if they are just counterproductive, tax-sinking jobs instead of productive private jobs. Which is another cost of the "War on Drugs".
#13
Bottom line: Nanny state wont save anyone. Darwin sorts things out nicely if left alone. Enforcing nanny state laws against non violent offenders is stupid, fascist and a huge waste of resources. Most cops I know think pot should be legal to free up resources to fight real crime.
#15
#13 You are spot on."Darwin sorts things out nicely if left alone". New drug from Brazil will do what we haven't been able to. Highly addictive even just trying it. Six months and the drug users are history. Cheap I understand end of problem.
#16
Besoeker, I think the difference is this... If you murder somebody, it's my business. If you want to fry your brain on drugs or alcohol, or destroy your body on cigarettes or high risk activity, I have no business declaring war on you. The fact that the war is a massive failure, a boon to cartels, and a waste of money and resources is just an added cost to what I see as the injustice of trying to dictate peoples' behavior.
#17
I wouldn't bring back prohibition, but I would make sure all those drunk drivers in accidents were doing lots of hard time. People need to be held responsible for their actions, even when under the influence of a drug, licit or il. That is the key to legalizing these substances. Make people live with the consequences of their actions.
#18
Commenting on sites that raise your blood pressure?
Come on, now. I'm here to raise your blood pressure. So, here goes:
I took a ride recently on mass transportation in San Diego. There were some people sitting opposite from me. It was pretty obvious they were meth freaks. How could I tell? Dull hair, dull complexion, dull eyes, teeth gone. This one chick looked like a little old lady who'd forgotten to put in her dentures before she ventured outside, except that her hair wasn't grey. It was some kind of dull, mousy brown. She looked like death. She was still walking but she was dead. A zombie. She reeked of tobacco. She might have weight about 90 pounds. Her boyfriend was working on a little cardboard sign that read "Hungry. Please help. God bless." Another girl was brushing her hair and applying makeup as if that would hide the fact that she too was dead. You could see it in her eyes. Dead. Might as well have been six feet under. There is no rehab for these people. They are too far gone. At the next stop I jumped off the train because they were too scary for me. Sorry. I'm a wimp.
#19
While it sounds nonsensical on the surface, there is some sense, if marijuana is legalized, in making it widely available to convicted felons in prison.
This is because the best reason to *not* use marijuana, is because it makes you slow, stupid, and apathetic. Which can be a good thing in a violent prison.
The way this would work is that prisoners are given unrestricted availability and use of marijuana, until the last six months of their sentence, then they are sent to a "rehab" prison, where there are no drugs, and where they are put on a healthy, almost vegetarian diet full of fruits and vegetables.
#20
We haven't even started fighting the war on drugs.
I'll believe there is a war on drugs when:
1. Sellers are executed, first offense.
2. Smugglers are executed, first offense.
3. Users are flogged, first offense, executed second.
4. Napalm the growing fields or spray them with persistent nerve agents.
Til then, we're just pissing in the wind and wondering why it's raining.
Posted by: Silentbrick - Lost Drill Bit Division - Halliburton ||
06/02/2011 15:54 Comments ||
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#21
I'm all in favour of harsh penalties for externalities, but for the vast majority of drug users there's no externality.
Most people addicted to drugs have addictive personalities, they'll get addicted to anything they can find. It's called self medication. The more you drive their medicine under-ground the worse it is for them, and more importantly for us.
This is the lesson that prohibition always teaches. All your examples show me that the current model has failed miserably. Try something that worked in the past, end prohibtion.
#22
It calls for drug policies based on methods empirically proven to reduce crime and promote economic and social development.
If you haven't figured out what that means - it's Goverment administerd Social Justice. And notice, if you will, some of the most vocal opponents are from the countries that are top producers of coca and opiates? Yeah thats right - Economic Justice.
The numerous Libertarian arguments posted today for legalizing drugs are the polar opposite of what is actually being advocated here.
#23
Moose's wisdom shines through. Perhaps all violent offenders should be forced to consume mass amounts of marijuana to promote public safety. Just let them grow their own, cause I ain't payin for their stash.
#25
Ebbang Uluque6305 Yes when you see these Zombies it is like looking at death. Terrible waist. Meth is bad enough but this new stuff from Brazil is cheap and making its way north. You start it and you're a goner. Meth heads are causing high crime rates even in small communities. The new drug has people being called Zombies also. You either live with cancer and hope it goes away or you stop it. There is no middle ground. I have seen many young people destroying themselves with just about anything. Like our new wars they never end and cause more loss of life. If they are not dealt with we will lose our cities to these Zombies. When they take this new stuff they don't eat or sleep for ten days. So you have an enemy lurking about 24-7. They want to add Lithium to our drinking water now. What would happen should this stuff be added. A true pandora's box that has been opened. The dangers of curiosity and devilment. An insanely evil pied piper.
#26
Legalized marijuana will not be undercut by illegal stuff. Look at legal versus bootlegged alcohol as an example. Yes there will be illegals like there are now. But they will be very small in scale compared to the money now in illegal drugs drug or the gang money that were formerly in alcohol during prohibition.
Posted by: The Other Beldar ||
06/02/2011 17:16 Comments ||
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#27
Paying for government enforcement of laws aiming at saving drug users from themselves I am somewhat ambivalent. Good riddance to bad rubbish if they wreck the lives of them selfs it is their business not mine, is one side of things. The other is that these are human beings and should be helped compassionately at least once if possible.
The problem that occurs is that the junky must want to come clean. No amount of external motivation will suffice for a lack of internal personal dedication. Many of these have place themself's firmly, knowingly, wantingly, deliberately and repeatedly beyond hope of help.
Posted by: The Other Beldar ||
06/02/2011 17:19 Comments ||
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#28
Oxidado. Do they just use the petrol products as solvents that evaporate or does the petrol remain and get smoked along with the cocaine? Isn't that, like, carcinogenic?
#30
You wish to live in a society where narcotics are legal, cultivated widely, sold openly, and represent the lion's share of the GNP? MOVE TO AFHGANISTAN! You'll love it.
#31
I am sorry if I am about to offend anyone but a drug that is cheap, available, and kills its users within 6 months seems like the drug version of the self-cleaning oven to me. It might smell a bit while it burns off the crud, but it takes care of the issue. Same with the new drug, it is a self-limiting problem that burns through the existing addict base, which I fail to see as a problem for society as a whole.
#32
Of course, there is also Mao's solution to a drug problem in society : execute the junkies and the dealers en masse. It seemed to end China's drug issues for a couple of decades.
#33
#31 "It might smell a bit while it burns off the crud, but it takes care of the issue". I enjoyed you subtle choice of words. I call that sort of thing shop talk. A cruel real world reality.
#34
The fact that there are people zombified by illegal meth walking around is evidence that prohibition is not stopping people from becoming zombified.
Therefore, we need to change our approach to the problem, helping the now and future zombified to recover, rather than continuing what we are doing now.
That there are new bad drugs becoming available only makes the need for change in our approach more urgent.
Criminalizing drug use is a misuse of the justice system. The justice system exists to arbitrate disputes, not impose morality. Murdering people is immoral in Christian theology, not so much in Muslim, but no matter the morality murder causes a dispute between the killer and the family of the killed. Without a justice system to protect the rights of the weaker side of the disputes, their rights would not exist. Furthermore, the strong would spend a lot of effort in vendettas between themselves.
Similarly, providing dangerous drugs could cause a dispute between the provider and the victim and victim's family, but usually the victim is complicit in the exchange. However, the mere use of dangerous drugs does not cause a dispute, except possibly between the victim and the victim's family. In this case the dispute is best solved in the family or possibly through civil (involuntary commitment or divorce) rather than criminal courts. Rarely would the family or victim choose to criminalize the dispute.
It is necessary, for both the reason that criminalization of drug use is not working and that the criminal justice system is not intended to enforce morality, that drug use be decriminalized.
Decriminalization of mere use means that people who do criminal things while impaired get no pass, and people who supply dangerous drugs get no quarter, but most people stay out of the criminal system; so they can focus on recovery, and the police and jailors can focus on criminals causing damage and disputes in the community.
#35
I could be wrong but I always got the impression that Meth users were pretty much zombies beforehand. They had nothing to lose. MOre or less the same with crack (Whitney Houston not withstanding).
#1
The classification system has long been wildly out of control. The trouble is that there is such a vast volume of material that needs to be fractionally accessed at times, that "information overload" has become a nightmare.
The last effort proved disastrous, because PFC Manning was able to get his hands on vast amounts of data.
And the disaster before that was the transfer of data from the nuclear lab at Los Alamos in 2006, that saved the Chinese many billions of dollars.
#2
"Our system was developed with typewriters and carbon paper"
So what? Now we have printers and photocopies!
The Public Interest Declassification Board is all about who has the right to leak info.
To make it easier for the Board. :) Here is a quote from Kai von Fintel (MIT) on CIA Leaks
Epistemic modals are standardly taken to be context-dependent quantifiers over possibilities. Thus sentences containing them get truth-values with respect to both a context and an index. But some insist that this relativization is not relative enough: `might'-claims, they say, only get truth-values with respect to contexts, indices, andâthe new wrinkleâpoints of assessment (hence, CIA). Here we argue against such "relativist" semantics. We begin with a sketch of the motivation for such theories and a generic formulation of them. Then we catalogue central problems that any such theory faces. We end by outlining an alternative story.
(Epistemic modals are used to indicate the possibility or necessity of some piece of knowledge)
[Dawn] US military prosecutors filed new conspiracy and murder charges on Tuesday against five men accused of plotting the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001 and asked that they be executed if convicted in the Guantanamo war crimes tribunals.
Self-described 9/11 criminal mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four alleged co-conspirators were charged with conspiring with al Qaeda to carry out the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in the United States.
All are being held in a high-security prison at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
All five faced similar charges at Guantanamo during President George W. Bush's administration. The charges were dropped while President Barack B.O. Obama's administration tried to move the trials into federal civilian court in New York, near the site of the World Trade Center, which was destroyed in the attacks by hijacked aircraft.
Obama yielded to political opposition and announced in April the prosecutions would be moved back to Guantanamo.
Human rights activists have criticized Obama for failing to make good on his order to shut the Guantanamo detention camp.
But his approval ratings on national security issues have risen since he authorized the military raid that killed al Qaeda leader the late Osama bin Laden ... who has left the building... in Pakistain in early May.
The official overseeing the Guantanamo tribunals, retired Vice Admiral Bruce MacDonald, must decide whether the case will proceed to trial and whether the death penalty should apply.
Hearings could begin around the time of the 10th anniversary of the attacks.
In addition to Mohammed, an al Qaeda leader captured in Pakistain in 2003, the defendants include his nephew Ali Abdul Aziz Ali as well as Walid bin Attash, Ramzi Binalshibh and Mustafa al Hawsawi.
They are charged with conspiracy, murder in violation of the law of war, attacking civilians, attacking civilian objects, intentionally causing serious bodily injury, destruction of property in violation of the law of war, hijacking aircraft and terrorism.
"The prosecutors have recommended that the charges against all five of the accused be referred as capital," the Pentagon said in a news release, referring to plans to seek the death penalty.
During a pretrial hearing at Guantanamo in 2008, all five said they wanted to plead guilty. The charges were dropped before the military judge could determine whether they were all mentally competent to make that decision and whether the murky tribunal rules allowed them to be executed without a jury verdict on their guilt.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2011 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#1
HHHMMMMM, IMO looks the US wants to see iff KSM, etal. are hiding new information.
#2
which is back to the eeeeevil old extremist Booooosh position. Nice job, Bambi and Holder! Doofuses have wasted how much money and at least 3 years?
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/02/2011 9:38 Comments ||
Top||
[Dawn] The armed forces will carry out a limited operation in North Wazoo primarily targeting Al Qaeda, Taliban and imported muscle, as against the widely held belief that the focus will be exclusively on the Haqqani network.
In background interviews with Dawn, military commanders ruled out the possibility of a full-scale operation like the one launched in South Waziristan and said it was 'unfeasible' because of difference in ground realities.
South Waziristan, they said, was a "no-go area" when they launched a major military offensive in October 2009 to flush out terrorists. "But the northern part has a massive presence of military and there are peace pacts with tribes that cannot be ignored."
The army has a division of troops stationed in the agency with headquarters in Miramshah and brigade level command centres in Mirali, Dattakhel and Razmak. The other factors preventing an all-out assault are its inhospitable terrain and geographic isolation.
A senior officer said: "The operation will be very selective and intelligence led."
The military assessment is that there are only two to three pockets having terrorist presence which need to be cleared.
Although the military officials didn't explicitly talk about sparing the Haqqanis, one can make out from the conversation that there is still no shift in policy about the group. They are of the opinion that the Haqqani network is more of a myth and the threat posed by it has been exaggerated.
A major target, it is said, will be Tehrik-i-Talibs who took refuge in North Waziristan after having been dislodged from south. "It will indeed be a big achievement if we succeed in neutralising some of the jacket wallah training centres," an officer said.
Something that lends further credence to the possibility of a very limited scope of the operation is that military commanders aren't expecting a major displacement from the region. On the contrary, press reports have suggested that aid agencies were directed several weeks ago to prepare for exodus of over 350,000 people from the area.
But what appears to be more significant is that the commanders are reluctant to take any technical or intelligence support from the US. It is not clear if the unwillingness is because of mistrust or fears of losing public support in the country rife with anti-Americanism.
"Using American help will be suicidal," another officer said without elaborating.
The disinclination to benefit from US support appears to be a continuation of the policy adopted during Operation Brekhna in Mohmand ... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Bloody Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar... when offer of maintenance support for helicopter fleet was turned down, though the airframes remained beset with less operational readiness.
Almost a year ago Pakistain had agreed in principle with the United States to clear the second largest tribal agency of forces of Evil but remained non-committed on the issue of timing, always insisting that it would be of their own choosing.
That resolve to rid the region of sanctuaries was renewed when both sides began discussions on 'resetting' the ties after the killing of the late Osama bin Laden ... who is currently warming his feet by the fire with Hitler and Himmler... . But during her brief visit last week, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Gray Eminence ... was able to make a breakthrough by securing a pledge that the long-delayed operation would be initiated sooner than later.
At a media briefing after holding talks with the political and military leadership, Ms Clinton indicated that Pakistain would be taking "decisive steps in the days ahead".
North Waziristan is considered to be the springboard for violence in Afghanistan and one of the most potent terrorist organisations operating from the agency is the Haqqani network which is operationally commanded by Sirajuddin Haqqani who is on the list of five top bandidos given by Washington to Islamabad. He is said to be commanding a cut-thoat force of about 3,000 hardened fighters.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2011 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
Compare wid DAILY TIMES.PK > [Pak] ARMY RULES OUT NORTH WAZIRISTAN OPERATION.
Nope, Nada, yeah-h-h riiigghhtt!
versus
* INDIAN DEFENCE FORUM/ DEFENCE FORUM INDIA > CAPTURE [Illyas]KASHMIRI, [Mullah]OMAR BY JULY US WARNS PAKISTAN: REPORT, besides also AYMAN ZAWAHIRI, ARTIA REHMAN, + SIRAJUDDIN HAQQANI.
Expansion of US Drone Strikes? UNILATERAL SPECOP RAIDS in PAK by US widout getting Islamabad's prior review, consent???
* SAME > WIKILEAKS: URGENT CABLES WARN AL-QAEDA IS STOCKPILING MATERIALS FOR "DIRTY BOMB" CAMP.
Uranium, Plutonium, + CHEMWAR, as per "Dirty Nukes" + "Dirty IEDS".
[Dawn] The former district general secretary of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl, Maulana Saleemullah, and a passerby were killed and three others sustained injuries when his rivals opened firing on him in Latambar area here on Tuesday.
Eyewitnesses said that the holy man was returning from a jirga of Khattak Ittehad when his rivals intercepted him. "They first scuffled with him and then shot him dead," they said. Four other persons, including a schoolboy, were maimed in the incident.
The injured were taken to district headquarters hospital in Karak, where one of them identified as Sadiqur Rehman pegged out. The schoolboy, Mohammad Numan, was referred to Beautiful Downtown Peshawar in precarious condition.
The other injured were identified as Mohammad Usman, a local trader, and his cousin Mohammad Bukhtiar.
Sources said that Maulana Saleemullah, also former nazim of Latambar union council, exchanged harsh words with some participants during the jirga, which was convened by Khattak Ittehad leader Malik Hidaytullah to discuss the issue of provision of natural gas to the area.
Sources said when the holy man was returning home from the jirga, he was stopped by some men, who started scuffling with him and later shot him dead.
Maulvi Kaleemullah, brother of Maulana Saleemullah, registered FIR against three accused Sher Dayaz, Qad Ayaz and Mumtaz, sons of Mir Azad, of Aral Adam Banda in the Latamber cop shoppe.
Sources said that Saleemullah was on bail in a kidnapping for ransom case and he also had an old enmity in the area. He was running a seminary for boys and girls in Latamber town.
Meanwhile, ...back at the buffalo wallow, Tex and his new-found Indian friend were preparing a little surprise for the bandidos... a young picnicker drowned while taking a dip in Zebi Dam here on Tuesday.
Police said that a second year student Shahid Mansoor, 19, a resident of Tappi Karak went to Zebi Dam along with his friends for picnic. After lunch they started swimming in the dam reservoir when Shahid drowned.
Local divers fished out the body from the water after a few hours.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2011 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Ulema Islami
[Dawn] Grief-stricken relatives demanded Wednesday that Pakistain investigate the torture and murder of an investigative journalist whose disappearance was blamed on the country's shadowy intelligence services.
Saleem Shahzad, a 40-year-old father of three, vanished after leaving home in Islamabad to appear on a television talk show, two days after writing an article about links between rogue elements of the navy and al Qaeda. Always a dangerous thing to write about rogue elements of anything whilst residing in Pakistain...
Shahzad carved out a career writing about the plethora of jihad boy networks operating in Pakistain, and warned human rights ...which often include carefully measured allowances of freedom at the convenience of the state... campaigners before his disappearance that he had been threatened by the Inter-Services Intelligence.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another William H. Seward ... condemned his murder and said his "reporting on terrorism and intelligence issues in Pakistain brought to light the troubles extremism poses to Pakistain's stability".
Shahzad's body was found Tuesday, about 150 kilometres southeast of Islamabad. Police said it bore marks of torture.
"The cause of death is torture and there are several signs of torture on his body and face," said Ashok Kumar, one of the doctors who carried out a post-mortem at Islamabad's Pakistain Institute of Medical Science.
Another doctor told AFP that Shahzad's lungs and liver had been damaged, that the body was swollen and bore more than 15 signs of having been beaten.
Wasim Fawad, a brother of Shahzad, told AFP that the family was in shock. His funeral was to take place in his home town of Bloody Karachi later Wednesday, after the body was flown from Islamabad.
"The post-mortem was being conducted on our request and we will also lodge a case with police. We want an investigation in this killing," he said.
"My brother was killed for writing the truth. He paid a huge price, he sacrificed his life but always spoke the truth."
Interior Minister Rehman Malik Pak politician, current Interior Minister under the Gilani administration. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. He later joined the Pak Peoples Party and was chief security officer to Bhutto. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Näwaz Shärif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. confirmed that a police investigation had been ordered and promised a reward of 2.5 million rupees.
"Anyone giving us information, evidence or clue about the murder will be given a reward of 2.5 million rupees," he told news hounds.
But police officials in Islamabad and where the body was found each told AFP that the investigation was the responsibility of the other.
"Previous enquiries into the murders of journalists have not been made public and it is not clear if the fate of this enquiry would be any different," the Pakistain Press Foundation said in a statement.
Reporters Without Borders says 16 journalists have now been killed since the start of 2010 in Pakistain, which it ranks 151st out of 178 countries in its press freedom index.
Shahzad worked for Italian news agency Adnkronos (AKI) and Asia Times Online, a news site registered in Hong Kong. After he vanished on Sunday, AKI said they feared he had been kidnapped.
In 2006, he was kidnapped by the Taliban in southern Afghanistan, accused of being a spy. He was set free after seven days.
Ali Dayan Hasan, senior South Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world... , said Shahzad had complained about being threatened by the ISI and said his killing bore the hallmarks of the security services.
Last Friday, Shahzad published an investigative report in Asia Times Online that last week's attack on a naval air base was carried out to avenge the arrest of naval officials nabbed on suspicion of al Qaeda links.
The naval base attack began on May 22 and took 17 hours to repel. Officials said six gunnies destroyed two US-made surveillance aircraft and killed 10 security personnel in the standoff.
Prominent Pak investigative journalist Umar Cheema, who was kidnapped and tortured last year, said he believed that whoever picked up Shahzad had not meant to kill but to torture him to send a strong message to other journalists.
"It is really a very unfortunate incident. It breaks the myth that journalists in Pakistain, both local as well as foreign, are tolerated and work in a safe environment," Cheema told AFP.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2011 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Dawn] Hundreds of mourners turned out Wednesday for the burial of a Pakistain journalist who was tortured and said he was threatened by the country's intelligence services, as his colleagues demanded protection.
Saleem Shahzad, a 40-year-old father of three, vanished after leaving home in Islamabad to appear on a television talk show, two days after writing an article about links between rogue elements of the navy and al Qaeda.
His grief-stricken relatives have demanded a full investigation but have not apportioned blame for his killing, which came five years after he was briefly kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan and accused of being a spy.
Shahzad's body was found Tuesday, about 150 kilometres southeast of Islamabad. Police said it bore marks of torture.
Around 300 people, mostly relatives and journalists, attended the funeral prayers and Shahzad was buried in a local cemetery in his home town of Bloody Karachi.
"We have lost everything. What can we do now?" sobbed his son, Fahad Saleem, resting on the shoulder of an uncle.
The Pakistain Federal Union of Journalists announced two days of mourning and a front man said members would organise protests nationwide on Friday.
"I can't blame anyone at the moment. I'll analyse the whole episode before making any statement," Wasim Fawad, a brother of Shahzad, told AFP.
In the northwestern city of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, which has suffered heavily from attacks blamed on Taliban and al Qaeda beturbanned goons, dozens of journalists carried placards demanding the state provide security to members of their profession.
"Several journalists have been killed in the past years in Pakistain but the government has completely failed to arrest the culprits," said Arshad Aziz Malik, president of the Khyber Union of Journalists.
"We are under threat and we demand protection," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2011 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Dawn] A helicopter with the head of the provincial paramilitary force on board crashed in eastern Pakistain on Wednesday, killing at least two people , military officials said.
Four military officials, including Major-General Mohammad Nawaz, director general of the Punjab Rangers, were on board the helicopter when it crashed into Indus River in eastern Pakistain.
The helicopter crashed in the Indus River near the town of Kot Sultan Bhakri.
"Two bodies have been recovered but they have not yet been identified," a military official said.
Another official said the helicopter was flying in bad weather, adding that the cause of the crash was being investigated.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2011 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] Some 200 Islamic fascististreamed over the border from Afghanistan and attacked a nearby Pak checkpoint on Wednesday, killing at least five security troops, police said.
The incident in Upper Dir district underscores the dangers posed by the porous nature of the Pakistain-Afghanistan border, which both countries have struggled to control as a means of stopping al-Qaeda and Taliban-led thug movements who have ties on both sides of the boundary.
The attack is the latest bloodshed as the Pak Taliban and affiliated groups carry out threats to avenge the May 2 US raid that killed the late Osama bin Laden ... who is currently taking a long nap in the dirt... urm... water... in Pakistain's northwest. But it is more likely a reaction to ongoing Pak military offensives against gunnies along the border.
Upper Dir lies just outside of Pakistain's tribal areas, but it, too, has witnessed al-Qaeda and Taliban jihad boy activity, and the Pak military has carried out operations there in the past. The area is remote and dangerous, making it difficult to independently verify information.
Local police official Bahadur Khan said Wednesday's attack began around noon. A shootout was still ongoing an hour later at the scene in Shaltalo town, which borders Afghanistan's Kunar province. ... which is right down the road from Chitral...
The US has lauded Pakistain's operations against thugs, which have been carried out primarily in the semi-autonomous tribal areas and targeted Islamic fascistiattacking the Pak state.
But Pakistain has, at least publicly so far, resisted American appeals to stage an offensive in the North Wazoo tribal region, the primary haven for jihad boy groups that attack US and NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants... forces across the border in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2011 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: TTP
#1
ongoing, now up to 25 now, with casualties on both sides growing
#2
A good link, Griting Smith6978. Interesting that you put it under the website instead of binding it to a couple of words in your comment using the little globe-with-glasses icon below "Pic-a-Nic". :-). Death toll from your article, as of 2 pm EDT is 45 Hard Boyz, 6 innocent bystanders, 28 of Our Boys in Uniform. Our Expert says there are 500 of 'em from both sides of the border who've been waving guns and making faces for twenty-four hours, since before dawn yesterday.
Credit due to the Pakistani border police -- it takes courage to stand your ground under such conditions.
#1
ION BHARAT RAKSHAK > PROPOSED [Sino-Thai]KRA CANAL PROJECT [South Thailand]TO GIVE CHINA MARITIME LAND ACCESS TO INDIAN OCEAN, BYPASS SINGAPORE + MALACCAS.
and
* WMF > JAPANESE MEDIA: CHINA MAY DEPLOY DF-21 ASBMS, AIR FORCES TO GWADAR, once the wrangling wid Islamabad oer Gwadar is finally worked out + China formally decides to takeover.
Potential threat to India, US Naval operations in Persian Gulf = Bahrain???
[Straits Times] THE head of a powerful Philippine clan pleaded not guilty "Wudn't me." on Wednesday to murdering 57 foes and journalists in his first court appearance on charges of criminal masterminding the country's worst political massacre.
Wearing a yellow prison shirt and closely guarded by police commandos, 70-year-old Andal Ampatuan Snr stood silently as more than two dozen relatives of the victims stared at him from across the courtroom.
He nodded when asked if he understood the charges read out to him, as the judge ordered the trial to proceed after denying his last-minute appeal to delay proceedings.
'Not guilty,' Ampatuan muttered to jeers from emotional relatives of the victims, who packed the small room.
The Mohammedan clan patriarch, his son and namesake Andal Ampatuan Jnr, and four other relatives are among more than 80 people nabbed and charged with murder over the November 23, 2009 massacre of 57 people, 32 of whom were journalists.
More than a hundred other suspects, including Ampatuan relatives and members of a government-armed militia that worked under the family's direct command, remain on the lam.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2011 00:00 ||
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[Beirut Daily Star] The daughter of a prominent veteran Iranian dissident died Wednesday after a scuffle broke out with security forces at his funeral, opposition website Kaleme reported.
Haleh Sahabi, 54, herself an opposition activist and women's rights campaigner, had been allowed out of prison to attend the funeral of her father Ezatollah Sahabi. She fell to the ground in the scuffle and died of a cardiac arrest, Kaleme said.
The semi-official Fars news agency confirmed Sahabi's death but denied there had been a clash with police and accused the opposition movement of seeking to politicize the incident.
"Fars news hounds present at the funeral service said there was no clash between the mourners and security forces," it said.
An Iranian security official Wednesday denied the reports of a fatal clash at the funeral, the students news agency ISNA reported.
Alireza Janeh, head of security matters at the Tehran governor's office, said there were no festivities and that Sahabi, had died of heart problems exacerbated by stress and hot weather at the funeral.
Rooters was unable to verify the events independently.
Sahabi's death is likely to anger women's rights campaigners and supporters of Iran's opposition movement whose massive street protests after the re-election of President Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad in 2009 were crushed by the government and whose leaders have been put under house arrest.
She was tossed in the clink during the post-election crackdown and was given a two-year jail sentence.
"Security forces tried to interfere in the carrying of the body, she objected and security forces confronted her and other people present," Kaleme said, adding that Sahabi was pushed to the ground. Another opposition site, Sahamnews, said security forces punched her in the stomach.
Kaleme said she was holding a picture of her father to her chest and fell when security forces tried to take it from her. "She fell and did not get up," it said.
Prominent opposition figures and former moderate officials attended the ceremony in the northeastern Tehran suburb of Lavasan for Ezatollah Sahabi, who was tossed in the clink both before and after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and spent a total of 15 years in prison.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2011 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
[Al Jazeera] Syrian opposition members have rejected an amnesty offer by President Bashar al-Assad as a token concession in order to contain a crisis that has called the legitimacy of the current leadership into question.
The deal and the leadership has been "rejected and revoked", Ammar Abdulhamid, a Syrian pro-democracy activist, said.
Exiled opposition leaders and members met on Wednesday to close ranks and forge a plan for a "new, democratic Syria", in a gathering of activists 10 weeks since an uprising against Baathist rule began.
During the conference, members of the opposition will form a committee in order to liaise with the international community.
The conference, hosted in the Turkish coastal city of Antalya, brings together a broad spectrum of opposition figures driven abroad over the last three decades; from Mohammedan politicians crushed in the 1980s to Christians escaping repression.
US criticism Meanwhile, ...back at the abandoned silver mine, the water was up to Jack's neck and still rising... in its harshest criticism to date, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Philander C. Knox ... said that the government was ignoring people's pleas.
"President Assad has a choice, and every day that goes by, the choice is made by default. He has not called an end to the violence against his own people, and he has not engaged seriously in any kind of reform efforts."
Answering a question about concerns for a stronger US reaction, Clinton said: "You know, we've obviously, along with others, imposed sanctions, spoken out, we've closely coordinated with allies and partners."
"We've imposed an arms embargo, we've led the call for a special session in the United Nations." ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... The president's amnesty, aired via state-run media, offered a pardon on all political crimes committed before May 31, 2011 and includes all members of political movements, including the outlawed Moslem Brüderbund as well as all political prisoners.
Membership in the Brotherhood, which led an armed rebellion against Assad's father in 1982, had been punishable by death in Syria.
Representative body
Abdulhamid, one of the delegates attending the opposition meeting, said the gathering "hopes to create a representative body that can be accepted by the protesters inside Syria that can meet their demands in terms of the opposition trying to play a role in getting their voices heard by the international community".
"This is not going to be any kind of government in exile," he told Al Jizz, "simply a group of people who are willing to represent the movement internationally because the world cannot engage on a revolution that does not have any recognisable representatives.
"Our hope is to fuel that kind of body on an interim basis until such time that the Syrian people can freely elect a transitional council inside the country that can lead the country to democracy."
Turkey's foreign minister has welcomed Syria's announcement of an amnesty for political prisoners but stressed it should be followed by "comprehensive reform," Anatolia news agency reported.
"A general amnesty has been necessary for political reform," Ahmet Davutoglu said in a television interview.
"The amnesty would be useful "in principle" but would fail to resolve Syria's turmoil unless followed by a reform process that would have the effect of "a shock therapy" on the Syrian people, he said.
"I hope this is the first step of a comprehensive reform. This step is important, like a signal rocket."
Turkey, whose ties with its southern neighbour have flourished in recent years, has piled pressure on al-Assad to initiate reform, but has stopped short of calling for his departure.
While La Belle France, through its foreign minister, Alain Juppe, demanded "more ambitious and bolder" action from Syria: "I fear that it might already be too late," Juppe told La Belle France Culture radio.
Juppe said he regretted that Western governments had been unable to get the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution criticising Syria and blamed the opposition of veto-wielding permanent member Russia for the failure.
Blame negated
Syria has blamed the violence in the country on gangs, Islamists and foreign agitators, saying more than 120 police and soldiers have been killed in the unrest.
The European Union last week ordered an assets freeze and travel ban on Assad himself, the latest in a string of sanctions against his regime.
Stepping up pressure on Assad to halt weeks of relentless violence, the EU earlier this month imposed an arms embargo and targeted the president's innermost circle, including his brother and four cousins.
Activists say that at least 10,000 people have been jugged since the start of the popular uprising almost two months ago.
Accurate information from Syria is difficult to confirm, as journalists have largely been denied access, but human rights ...which often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... groups say that more than 1,000 protesters have been killed since the uprising started.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2011 00:00 ||
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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.
[Tolo News] At least ten Taliban fighters were killed in a bomb 
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Two planes seized in Somalia with Sh300 million in ransom money were modified without civil aviation authorisation to enable them drop cash to pirates, it was revealed on Tuesday.
Libya Tuesday accused 
Soon after he spoke, four powerful 
The South African president said raids by NATO, which is enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya and protecting civilians from a government crackdown under a UN mandate, were undermining African mediation efforts.
Hillary Clinton
[Bangla Daily Star] At least 37 people have died in overnight fighting as 
[Bangla Daily Star] The International Crimes Tribunal on Wednesday directed the authorities concerned to keep four top Jamaat-e-Islami leaders, including its Ameer 
Wazoo
Mohmand
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Clinton
[Dawn] Hundreds of mourners turned out Wednesday for the burial of a Pakistain journalist who was tortured and said he was threatened by the country's intelligence services, as his colleagues demanded protection.
A helicopter with the head of the provincial paramilitary force on board crashed in eastern Pakistain on Wednesday, killing at least two people , military officials said.
An Iranian security official Wednesday denied the reports of a fatal clash at the funeral, the students news agency ISNA reported.
al-Assad as a token concession in order to contain a crisis that has called the legitimacy of the current leadership into question.
Hillary Clinton
