[AnNahar] Egypt will need further international assistance to put its economy back on track despite receiving huge loans from Gulf Arab states, the IMF said Friday.
"Egypt will need financial support which could come from its partners in the Gulf or, if the government wants that, from the IMF and from other international financial institutions," Christopher Jarvis, the International Monetary Fund's Egypt mission chief, told news hounds.
The IMF had been in talks on a $4.8 billion bailout package for Egypt, which has been coping with violence and economic woes since the 2011 overthrow of president Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... But the discussions broke off last year due to political instability after the military overthrew elected president Mohammed Morsi ...the former president of Egypt. A proponent of the One Man, One Vote, One Time principle, Morsi won election after the deposal of Hosni Mubarak and jumped to the conclusion it was his turn to be dictator... of the Moslem Brüderbund.
Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... recently announced a $5 billion support package for Egypt before the country holds May 26-27 elections in which retired army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is seeking to be president.
Two fellow oil-exporting Gulf monarchies, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, have together promised $7 billion.
Despite the influx of cash, Egypt still faces "big challenges" including low growth, high unemployment and an aggravated budget deficit, Jarvis said.
Jarvis renewed calls on Egypt to take the politically sensitive step of reducing fuel subsidies, saying that they were painful for the budget.
"The sooner the reform is started the better. But we see it as a process that will take several years," Jarvis said, adding that the IMF stood ready to assist.
#2
True, Pappy. But Egypt has been living on borrowed money for a year now, and with the tourism trade down, and irregular power impacting manufacturing as well as the quality of life of the citizenry, the financial outlook doesn't seem likely to improve any time soon.
[Ennahar] From Annaba where he hosted a popular meeting, Abdelmalik Sellal campaign manager of the candidate, Abdelaziz Bouteflika ... 10th president of Algeria. He was elected in 1999 and is currently on his third or fourth term, who will probably die in office of old age... in the presidential election of April 17, said Saturday that the latter has managed to build a "strong, modern and professional" army capable of defending the nation and deal with all the threats facing the country.
Sellal preferred, during a meeting in Annaba on the penultimate day of the electoral campaign for the presidential election of April 17, 2014, to focus his speech on the work done by Bouteflika during the last 15 years, in his capacity as Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, Minister of National Defence, to build a professional army, noting that reducing the period of national service from 18 to 12 months is the result of this effort.
For Sellal, ANP (National People's Army "now has all the capabilities to deal with all kinds of threats and it reassures us and allows us to live in peace and tranquillity."
Recalling the role of ANP during the terrorist attack against Tiguntourine gas plant In Aménas, Sellal noted that the Army is the "true guarantor of stability in the country and the merit in all this amounts to the work undertaken by Abdelaziz Bouteflika."
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An Egyptian court sentenced a hardline Islamist former presidential hopeful to one year in prison on Saturday for insulting the court, state news agency MENA reported, Reuters reported.
Salafist preacher Hazem Salah Abu Ismail is on trial for fraud in a case related to presidential elections in 2012 which brought the now ousted President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood to power. Abu Ismail, who has links to the Brotherhood, was disqualified from that election after reports that his late mother had held a U.S. passport. Under Egypt's election rules, both a candidate's parents must hold only Egyptian citizenship.
During his short-lived presidential campaign, he built a passionate base of followers among Salafists who broadly opposed Mursi's ousting a year later.
Abu Ismail interrupted his court-appointed attorney during Saturday's session and told the judge, "I don't feel like I am before a court," a judicial source told Reuters.
He was sentenced to a year in prison in January after making a similar statement.
A ruling on the fraud charge is expected next week.
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[AnNahar] Stifled by the heat inside a barn in the Central African Republic town of Boda, dozens of emaciated and often sick displaced people subsist in fear of the vigilantes who surround them.
The group, members of an extended family, fled to Boda from the village of Danga 25 kilometers (15 miles) away, seeking shelter from the anti-balaka -- or "anti-machete", mainly-Christian militia groups that have been hunting and killing members of the crisis-torn country's Moslem minority.
But days after the family arrived in Boda, fierce festivities broke out between the anti-balaka and local Moslems, ending with the Christian militia forces encircling the southwestern diamond-mining town.
More than 14,000 Moslems, including the displaced family from Danga, are now trapped inside with no way out and very limited supplies.
"I am suffering very much. No house, no food. The anti-balaka are killing people -- many," said Saifou, one of those sheltering in the suffocating barn.
"I have lost many things, even my cattle. I had 800 of them," said Saifou -- who, like some 200 other displaced people stuck in the town, is from the Fula ethnic group, a predominantly Moslem, herding people whose members are scattered across west and central Africa.
Boda began its bloody downward spiral at the end of January, after coup leader-turned-president Michel Djotodia gave up power under international pressure.
Djotodia was accused of letting ex-fighters from Seleka, the mainly Moslem rebel coalition that swept him to power 10 months earlier, wage a campaign of atrocities against the Christian majority.
Seleka fighters abandoned Boda after Djotodia stepped down, and horrific fighting broke out between people of both faiths. More than 100 people were killed in a week.
The bloodshed -- which typifies the terrifying plunge into ethno-religious violence that has swept the country -- was halted by the arrival of French peacekeeping troops.
- No milk for baby -
Since then, however, anti-balaka forces have laid siege to the town, once called "Boda the Beautiful" for its majestic, centuries-old trees.
A woman in the barn who was nursing a malnourished baby lifted up her shirt and squeezed her breast to show that she had no milk for her infant. Her mother, Khadidja Labi, lay immobile on a mat, already looking like death.
Labi was unsuccessful in signing on for the scarce food handed out each morning by staff of the U.N. World Food Program (WFP). The last distribution was four weeks ago, time enough to weaken the family and make them more susceptible to diarrhea and less resistant to diseases such as scabies and malaria.
The most feeble have died. Yet those who could still stand on trembling legs proved ready to stumble forward and greet visitors.
Karim, clad in a brightly colored shirt, came back from the food handout disgruntled.
"The WFP isn't giving us sugar, no honey, no firewood, just rice and maize," he said.
"The Christians wanted to kill us in order to take away our property. We can't even go the mosque in our district," added Karim, who was born in Boda and had wanted "to stay here".
He vented the anger felt by Boda's Moslems over businesses that had been looted and destroyed around the town center, which is crossed by a single long road of red earth, lined by small stalls with virtually nothing to sell. The road is the only territory still open to the Moslems, all gathered into a single district.
Frightened inhabitants can no longer cross three small wooden bridges that traverse the filthy waters of a canal because death is all but certain on the far side. The bridges today lead to a no-man's land of burned-out houses owned by Moslems and Christians alike.
- 'Moslems showed wicked side' -
Facing the main road and watching over the no-man's land with machine-guns, about 100 soldiers from La Belle France's 2,000-strong peacekeeping force guard the frontier between communities. Three armored cars are posted on the square in front of the town hall.
To the right of it, a battered old road rises up to the church and Christian districts, which have become home to 9,000 displaced people. Here, a small market remains, along with street kitchens and the sound of music. The mood is less desperate than in Moslem territory and meat, vegetables and fruit are available.
"We want the Moslems to go, since they have shown us their wicked side," said Miguez Wilikondi, a youth leader who has taken charge of the displaced people.
Wilikondi said the Christians had been saved from Moslem militias by anti-balaka forces.
"Thanks to them, we're still alive," he said.
Back in the Moslem enclave, Mahamat, a diamond miner who converted from Christianity to Islam and has 13 children, tried to find room for hope.
"Fortunately we have a well of pure water, otherwise we would be dead," he said.
#1
When you are the prime antagonist in EVERY Civilization no matter how lacking, I do not shed tears anymore. Find a new shtick, moslems. You are doing it wrong.
#2
Whenever I feel bad about something like this I recollect how my (then) wife carrying my (then) 2 years old almost got on a bus that exploded 1/2 hour later.
From 38North, an activist organization that doesn't have the best record for reliability. But it's an intriguing issue, and answers why the Norks were willing to blow up the cooling tower at Yongbyon back in 2007 to appease the Bush administration and get sanctions lifted -- they had another way to cool the reactor already planned.
Yongbyon is another tempting target for the Fly Ash Liberation Brigade...
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/13/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Their equipment has probably been contaminating everyone for years. 1950 grade pressure seals, rickety rick hand mad machine parts for precision use, sabotage, and lackluster science - fun tims.
#2
Unless my geography is off, the facility appears to sit close to the northern border. General proximity and southerly winds might account for the recent Chinese shift in attitudes toward the Norks.
The roof of a luxury villa in Wonsan belonging to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has collapsed, apparently due to faulty construction.
The Fly Ash Liberation Army strikes again!
A comparison of a photo of the villa taken by South Korea's Arirang 3 satellite and an earlier image of the area on Google Earth shows a building in the compound with a collapsed roof.
One U.S. satellite image expert who analyzes photos of the luxury villas and government buildings used by the North Korean elite said the building appears to be an aquarium that was built in 2011. A satellite photo on Google Earth in 2012 shows a building with a complete roof in North Korean leader Kim Jong-unâs villa compound in Wonsan, while in another taken by South Korea's Arirang 3 in March this year the roof has gone.
Kim had the aquarium built with materials imported from Italy and Germany and filled with US$3.3 million worth of marine life, including dolphins brought in from China.
Clearly the shark jumped...
According to North Korean defectors, military engineers are responsible for building Kim's villas. Experts say that Kim has engaged in massive construction drive since coming to power, and the push for speed is leading to faulty construction. One source said, "Once Kim Jong-un sets a completion date, there is no arguing. This frantic push to meet deadlines is everywhere causing problems with quality."
Let's hope the Norks have a similar quality problem for their military installations...
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A new face has joined North Korea's powerful National Defense Commission at the first session of the newly-elected Supreme People's Assembly on Wednesday. Cho Chun-ryong appears to have replaced Paek Se-bong, the ousted chief of the Second Economic Commission in charge of the munitions industry, according to a government official here Thursday.
The National Defense Commission is the North's top governing body consisting of only nine members, including leader Fat Boy Kim Jong-un. But Cho is an almost unknown quantity to outsiders.
"It seems probable that Cho had been a vice chairman of the Second Economic Commission or head of its missiles bureau and worked in the missile development sector for a long time," the official speculated. "The regime may have concealed his identity for security reasons."
At one stage, Paek was rumored to be a son or heir of former leader Kim Jong-il when his identity was an equal mystery.
The Kangdong No. 76 electoral district, where Cho ran for the rubber-stamp parliament, is in Pyongyang's Kangdong District, where the Second Economic Commission has its offices.
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[AnNahar] Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... said on Friday it will hand over to Tunisia $40 million (29 million euros) stashed in Swiss bank accounts by the family of ousted dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
It simply doesn't pay out to be a dictator anymore, if one can't keep the ill-gotten gains after fleeing with only the clothes on one's back.
Swiss authorities had frozen the funds as part of a probe launched following the revolution that forced the longstanding Tunisian leader from power in 2011.
Speaking on Swiss public radio, chief prosecutor Michael Lauber said the transfer of the funds had been made possible thanks to the cooperation of Tunisia's new authorities.
The Swiss launched their investigation after Tunisia filed a request for legal assistance alleging that ill-gotten gains had been hidden in the Alpine country.
The Ben Ali family still has the option of contesting the money's handover by filing an appeal at the Swiss supreme court.
Ben Ali's January 2011 ouster after a groundswell of demonstrations marked the start of the Arab Spring.
He has since gained asylum in Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
And what a great day that will be.
while his son-in-law Sakher El Materi, once considered a potential successor, has fled to the Seychelles.
A World Bank report last month detailed the family's grip on the economy during Ben Ali's 23-year reign.
It found 220 companies owned by family members, accounting for 21 percent of net private sector profits in Tunisia, with regulations often tailored to benefit their businesses.
In the wake of Ben Ali's overthrow, Switzerland blocked the equivalent of $68.5 million (50 million euros) in accounts held in the country.
With $40 million set to be handed over, investigations into the origin of the remaining $28.5 million are continuing.
Lauber said he hoped to be able to transfer those remaining funds in the near future.
"There are still several million dollars frozen in Switzerland. We're trying to make progress on this issue," he said, without offering a likely timeframe.
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[AnNahar] Two prominent U.S. senators introduced legislation Friday that would remove Iraqi Kurdish organizations KDP and PUK from a terrorist blacklist.
The B.O. regime supports the move, which officials have said requires legislative action rather than an executive order from the White House.
Washington designated the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan as terrorist groups in 2001 in part for their bad boy activity in the 1990s Kurdish civil war.
In introducing their bill, Senator Robert Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Senator John Maverick McCain ... the Senator-for-Life from Arizona, former presidential candidate and even more former foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution... argued that the two groups took up arms against Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein and have since helped stabilize the region.
"It is time we stop treating the KDP and PUK as terrorists," McCain said in a statement.
Their designation in the Patriot Act as Tier III terrorist organizations "betrays our Kurdish friends and allies who have served as a stabilizing force in the region and displayed consistent loyalty to the United States throughout the years."
The two groups are now the main political parties in autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani is a PUK founder, while KDP chief Massoud Barzani ... hereditary head of the Kurdish Democratic Party, maybe a little too close to the Medes and the Persians for most people's tastes... is the current Iraqi Kurdish leader. Both men have met with President Barack Obama We're gonna punish our enemies and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us... at the White House.
A U.S. official told politicians in February that the administration was seeking a legislative fix that would remove the two groups from the list.
"The PUK, the KDP have been among our closest friends in the region, going back decades. We think they should be removed from this list as soon as possible," Brett McGurk, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iraq and Iran, told members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
"We are 100 percent supportive of an immediate legislative fix to this problem."
The State Department designated another Kurdish group, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a foreign terrorist organization in 1997.
The PKK launched an insurgency in 1984 seeking self-rule in southeastern Turkey that has claimed about 45,000 lives.
[DAWN] A crucial meeting of the outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP)'s shura was held at an undisclosed place in North Wazoo on Friday to decide about extending or ending the ceasefire as US drones conducted low altitude flights in parts of the tribal region.
At the beginning of peace talks with the government, the TTP announced a month-long ceasefire on March 1.
Later, it extended it for 10 days (until April 10) to give peace talks a chance. But no important development has taken place during the 10-day period.Sources said that Taliban were not satisfied with the negotiations and that some TTP commanders had reservations over what they perceived as the government's 'non-serious' attitude to the dialogue. They are said to be insisting on calling off ceasefire.
Taliban have presented two conditions for further progress. The first is an immediate release of non-combatant prisoners and the second calls for declaration of a "peace zone" for talks in tribal area where gunnies can freely move about
The TTP thinks that the government has yet to show a positive gesture in this regard.
However, there is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened... sources said, other members of the shura were in favour of extending the ceasefire for another short period. The sources are hopeful about an extension in ceasefire. As the government had not backtracked from the talks, the TTP was also willing to push forward the grinding of the peace processor, they opined.
Meanwhile, ...back at the saloon, Butch got the bill for the damage caused by the fist fight, the mirror broken in the shootout, and drinks for everyone...... locals said drones kept hovering over the sky in different areas of Ghulam Khan, Dattakhel, Shawal, Miranshah ... headquarters of al-Qaeda in Pakistain and likely location of Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Haqqani network has established a ministate in centered on the town with courts, tax offices and lots of madrassas... , Mir Ali and Razmak tehsils on Friday. They said that the drones first appeared early in the morning and continued to operate till late in the night.
The drone flights and reports of the TTP shura meeting have created fear among the local people.
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[Pak Daily Times] Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who is the lightweight's lightweight... has said that Pakistain's current democratic system is a form of monarchy where friends and relatives are being awarded. Khan said in a tweet on Saturday that Pakistain's political elite never took merit as criteria, adding that the considerable criteria instead was nepotism and to reward personal relations and friendships. "Democracy remains quasi-monarchical in nature in Pak with Parl seats & public offices handed down from father 2 children/siblings/relatives," he tweeted.
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[Beirut Daily Star: Region] The commandos infiltrated Syrian rebel-held territory near the Lebanese border, watching rebel fighters come and go from a two-story villa before slipping inside to plant a powerful bomb.
The next morning, they detonated it as three rebel explosive experts and four assistants met inside, turning the villa to rubble in seconds.
The operation late last month in Syria's western Qalamoun region was carried out by fighters from Leb's Hezbollah group, several Lebanese officials close to the Death Eaters have told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named. The Shiite group has sent hundreds of its fighters into Syria to shore up Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Scourge of Qusayr... 's overstretched troops, helping them gain ground around the capital, Damascus, and near the Lebanese border.
But with its own casualties mounting in a civil war that activists say has killed more than 150,000 people in three years, officials say Hezbollah has turned to a variety of new tactics - including complicated commando operations - to hunt down rebels and opposition commanders.
The aim of the new strategy, that includes hit-and-run attacks as well as reconnaissance missions, is to help Assad hold onto power, limit Hezbollah casualties and attack groups that want to launch attacks inside Leb itself.
" Hezbollah is also well aware of its comparatively limited manpower capacity," said Charles Lister, an analyst with the Brookings Doha Center. "So exploiting an ability to inflict damage on the enemy without expending significant resources ... is a natural strategic development."
Hezbollah has a long history of guerrilla attacks. It fought Israel in the wake of its occupation of south Leb until it pulled out in 2000, relying on hit-and-run assaults to combat Israel's army.
In Syria, the turning point in Hezbollah's strategy came after the group helped secure the Syrian border town of Qusair last June, said the Lebanese officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss Hezbollah military tactics. After that battle, they say rebels ambushed and killed four elite Hezbollah fighters after Syrian troops told them the area was secure.
Now, Hezbollah sends small groups of fighters to observe areas before entering, the officials say. One official said Hezbollah also has linked Syrian territories where it is present to its bases in Leb via a secure, hard-wired telecommunication network it has been using back home for years. The fighters avoid using mobile phones or other equipment easy to monitor, the official said.
The attack on the villa in Qalamoun also showcases the turn to commando-style fighting. Syrian state media said Syrian troops carried out the attack. However, a good lie finds more believers than a bad truth... Lebanese daily newspaper Al-Akhbar that is sympathetic to Assad, said both Syrian troops and Hezbollah special forces carried out the attack.
Observers of the group and experts say the Qalamoun attack was consistent with similar operations carried out by Hezbollah in the past.
"Covert and targeted Hezbollah operations further into Syria's interior or into 'enemy territory' is not such a surprising development," Lister said. "After all, Hezbollah training incorporates all the capabilities necessary for such operations, and there is a precedent for similar tactical evolutions, particularly against Israel."
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[Iran Press TV] A leader of the foreign-backed Syrian opposition calls for forging a coalition with Israel against the government of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Leveler of Latakia...
Kamal al-Labwani, of the so-called Syrian National Coalition (SNC), said that a coalition with Tel Aviv is the only way to oust the Syrian government.
Labwani noted that the overthrow of Assad is among Israel's main interests in Syria.
He also said strengthening of opposition groups in Syria could defuse the power of al-Qaeda-linked bad boy groups in the war-torn country.
The opposition leader spent 10 years in jail in Syria before being released two years ago at Assad's order.
According to al-Alam, Labwani had earlier offered handing the Golan Heights to Tel Aviv in return for receiving military aid from the Israeli regime and using Israel's assistance to enforce a no-fly zone over southern Syria.
"Why shouldn't we be able to sell the Golan Heights because it is better than losing Syria and Golan at once," he told al-Arab newspaper in March.
In January, representatives of the Syrian government and the Western-backed opposition convened in Geneva to hold their first round of direct talks since the start of the crisis in Syria more than three years ago.
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#1
First of all, Kamal, it's Jerusalem. Second, drop dead.
[AnNahar] State security forces incarcerated Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! on Thursday a car theft gang in the eastern Bekaa Valley as part of the implementation of the security plan in the region, reported the National News Agency on Friday.
This security plan thingy is going gangbusters. If they did this as a general practice, think how much safer Lebanon would be....Just a silly thought, I know.
It said that the five-member Lebanese gang's activities were limited to robbing vehicles and later selling them or trading them for drugs.
They do not have a history of murder or kidnapping, said NNA.
The arrest was made when a Syrian vehicle was reported stolen in the Bekaa region of Taalbaya.
State security forces then dispatched a patrol in the area, arresting a thief who was driving the car on the Ghayda road, east of the city of Zahleh.
The suspect confessed to committing car theft along with four accomplices.
They all later confessed to stealing seven old model vehicles, selling them to a man identified as A.M.
[AnNahar] As he pushes a cart full of tomatoes and cucumbers in the market at Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon, nothing marks out Mahmoud as an experienced Hizbullah fighter.
The stocky vegetable vendor in his fifties, who sports a red beard, fought Israel in 2006, but that battle is now old news.
He has just come back from another front: in Syria, where he fought for 25 days against the rebels who have sought to overthrow President Bashar Assad for the past three years.
Since the Shiite movement's chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah gave the order more than a year ago, thousands of Hizbullah fighters have fought in Syria, playing a decisive role in key victories for the regime.
I think it's a brilliant idea -- thinning the ranks of those inclined to violence on both sides.
Street vendors, farmers, restaurant owners, medical professionals and students have all joined what they call an "existential battle" against "takfiris" -- Sunni extremists.
"When the party called on me to go, I responded. I left my job and I went to stop the takfiris from entering Lebanon," says Mahmoud.
"I fought in several regions and took fighters from the region and elsewhere prisoner," he adds.
"Our cause is just. They are mercenaries from Chechnya, Yemen and Libya who want to overthrow Bashar Assad, who supported us enormously during the 2006 war against Israel," Mahmoud insists. "It's our duty to help him."
Mercenaries vs. mercenaries. Have at it, lads!
Hizbullah presents its role as protecting Syria from Sunni-dominated rebels who they say want to overthrow the regime because they hate Alawites, including Assad, whose faith is an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
In another southern Lebanese village, Fatima has not let the death of her husband in the June 2013 battle for Syria's Qusayr stop her from encouraging her son to join the fight.
"I've send Khodr, with dozens of other young men, to do one month of training in Lebanon," she says.
"He must learn to handle weapons so that he can become a fighter like his father."
Next to her, Khodr sorts tobacco seedlings for planting. His beard is just coming in and his eyes are sad.
He wears a picture of his father around his neck and has a pin on his T-shirt bearing Nasrallah's picture and his phrase "Victory awaits us".
"My mom wants my brothers and me to die -- of course I'm sad," Khodr did not add aloud.
His older brother Wissam, 25, came back from Syria a week earlier.
"We obey Sayyed Hassan (Nasrallah) when he invites us to fight. My father died a martyr and we must follow his path," he says.
There are no official figures on how many Hizbullah fighters have been killed in Syria, but some put the toll at around 300.
"Should we let them come and kill us like sheep, like they have done to the Shiites in Iraq and Syria? No, we will defeat them as we defeated Israel," Wissam adds.
When they first began fighting in Syria, Hizbullah members refused to discuss their involvement, but now they talk about it with pride, while declining to offer details of their numbers or operations.
At a school in southern Lebanon, Hizbullah posters advertise scouting sessions, but the accompanying photos of young men in military uniforms suggest the training is more combat-based.
In some places, there are voices of dissent against the group's involvement in the conflict next door.
"They sent my son to his death without my approval. Who told them that I wanted my son to die in Syria?" one man asks, declining to be named for fear of incurring Hizbullah's wrath.
But that sentiment is rare among the party's constituents, who also know Hizbullah will support them if their loved ones are killed.
"My family's future is safe if I die. They'll take care of the schooling for my nine-year-old son and look after his health," says Osama, a 38-year-old party member in the city of Tyre.
In Baalbek, a Hizbullah stronghold in eastern Lebanon, 22-year-old Hussein is heading to Iran to undergo a commander training course.
The psychology student's parents are both party members and he has already fought in Syria's northern province of Aleppo.
"I'm very excited about going to Iran to become a battalion chief. It's a promotion," he says, under his mother's watchful eye.
Go and be killed or maimed with our blessing, so that the next generation is fathered by the less violent.
h/t Gates of Vienna, Frontpage
Where does Medea Benjamin invest her money? In classic "Do as I say, not as I do" mode Medea's money is working hard for her in Intel, General Electric, and wait for it...Caterpillar. All objects du rage for the BDS cru. Apparently divestment does not begin at home.
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.
Bouteflika
John 
Massoud Barzani
Wazoo
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
