[Guardian] A British woman fighting alongside Kurdish forces in Afrin, northern Syria, has been killed, her Kurdish commanders have said.
Anna Campbell, from Lewes, East Sussex, was volunteering with the US-backed Kurdish Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) ‐ the all-female affiliate army of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) ‐ in the besieged city of Afrin when the convoy she was travelling in was struck by a Turkish missile on 16 March.
Sources say the 26-year-old initially travelled to Syria to join the Kurdish struggle against Islamic State, but begged her Kurdish commanders to send her to the Afrin front after Turkey launched a ground and air offensive to oust Kurdish forces from its borderlands in January.
"They refused at first, but she was adamant, and even dyed her blonde hair black so as to appear less conspicuous as a westerner," a YPJ source told the Guardian.
"Finally they gave in and let her go."
She is not only the first British woman killed fighting alongside Kurdish forces in Syria, but also the first Briton to die there since Turkey launched its incursion into Kurdish-held territory on 20 January.
In a statement to the Guardian on Sunday, YPJ commander and spokesperson Nesrin Abdullah said: "[Campbell’s] martyrdom is a great loss to us because with her international soul, her revolutionary spirit, which demonstrated the power of women, she expressed her will in all her actions ... On behalf of the Women’s Defence Units YPJ, we express our deepest condolences to [her] family and we promise to follow the path she took up. We will represent her in the entirety of our struggles."
Posted by: Besoeker ||
03/19/2018 07:17 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11125 views]
Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
#1
It's truly sad to lose the very best for the trash in the middle east...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/19/2018 8:36 Comments ||
Top||
Rantburg does that sometimes. Sometimes if a moderator goes into the Edit function without changing anything, the problem resolves itself. It looks like somebody did that.
#5
Oooohh after a careful viewing of the video, I know exactly what caused the collapse!
If you view the top video, you see a guy on top of the bridge on the left. He was too fat and the extra weight made the bridge do a "London bridge".
All joking aside, it appear to me the left most strut broke at the base, starting a 'domino' effect. Hard to be sure as it all happened so fast. I did notice in an earlier video of the bridge being installed that base seemed rusty to me.
Guess we'll have to wait for the experts to figure it out.
All of Wales and most of England is covered by the yellow Met Office warning, which is in place from Monday evening until Tuesday at 9:00 GMT.
Hundreds of schools closed in south-west England and Wales because of heavy snow.
Temperatures are expected to rise this week but the weather could turn colder again by the weekend, forecasters said.
Over 20cm (8ins) of snow has been recorded in central and southern England as temperatures fell widely below 0C overnight with lows of -5C in Scotland.
In Wales, a total of 207 schools were closed on Monday, with GCSE pupils at Brynmawr School in Blaenau Gwent being taught in a cinema instead.
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/19/2018 10:35 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11126 views]
Top|| File under:
[AFRICANEWS] Rwanda’s Moslem leaders have said they will appeal the government’s decision to ban the use of loudspeakers for the call to prayer (Adhan), arguing that the ban infringes on their rights of worship.
Sheikh Suleiman Mbarushimana, an adviser to Mufti of Rwanda told regional newspaper, The EastAfrican, the ban violates Islamic liturgical practices.
"Stopping Adhan is inappropriate, instead we would seek to do it in a way that doesn’t hurt anyone like agreeing on sound levels not to exceed," he said.
The Moslemholy mans believe they should have been consulted before such drastic action could be taken by the authorities.
"The government needs to carefully approach this as it could affect its image in terms of granting freedom of worship. Of course we are not saying we should be allowed to infringe on others’ rights in the name of religious freedom," said Sheikh Said Mukhtaar Mbabajende.
The ban was issued on Wednesday this week, directing mosques in Nyarugenge sector in the capital to stop using loudspeakers and find alternative ways for the call to prayers.
The ban comes a few weeks after the Rwanda Governance Board (RGB), which regulates faith-based organizations, closed more than 700 churches and one mosque over building safety and hygiene and noise pollution.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2018 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11129 views]
Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists
[All Africa] Former first lady Grace Mugabe says she convinced her husband to stand down after last year's military takeover when he was determined not to, it has emerged.
Grace Mugabe made the claim during a surprise presser her husband gave at the couple's Harare mansion this week.
'It was me who urged him to resign'
"Baba (father) did not want to put pen to paper, in fact it was me who urged him to resign for the sake of peace because Baba did not want to," Grace Mugabe said, in comments carried by the private NewsDay.
Mugabe confirmed his wife's role in helping to persuade him. "Under the circumstances I didn't want to step down because I felt it was not proper and I insisted that everything was done unconstitutionally," the 94-year-old said.
'Anarchy and bloodshed'
He said he was willing to face impeachment proceedings by MPs from his party and the main opposition but his wife had convinced him that "the process would take long and in between, the country could plunge into anarchy and bloodshed."
Mugabe told news hounds that last November's takeover was a "military coup" - a phrase his successor Emmerson Mnangagwa has done everything to avoid.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2018 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11124 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
...Smart move, Gracie.
Mind you, I don't believe a word of it.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/19/2018 4:49 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Going to disconnect from Bob, now is as good a time as any. Wonder if she get's half his pension when he kicks, SBP ?
#3
Every investment advisor should have to study how dictators and their kin "diversify their portfolios." I'm sure Grace will land on her feet, the interesting detail will be who takes her in...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/19/2018 8:56 Comments ||
Top||
[All Africa] President Emmerson Mnangagwa says he is willing to meet his predecessor Bob Muggsy Mugabe Nonagenarian President-for-Life of Zim-bob-we who turned the former Breadbasket of Africa into the African Basket Case. Dumped in November 2017 when the Missus decided she wanted to be president, and opposed heer might against Crocodile Mnangawa Important safety tip: If your opponent goes by the name Crocodile andf your title is Shopper in Chief let him win.... who has demanded a meeting with him.
The two have not formally met since November last year and have been communicating over the phone.
Mugabe, on Thursday, told journalists in his first press briefing since he was forced out of power in November last year on the back of a military coup, that he wants to "help" Mnangagwa "return to legitimacy".
Mnangagwa became President during the coup.
Mugabe, whose forced resignation ended a 37 year rule, said as much as he would want to work with President, the incumbent must be legal in is post.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2018 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11125 views]
Top|| File under:
[All Africa] Sithembiso Mutukura beat 12 other contestants to claim the crown at Zim-bob-we's first-ever Miss Albinism beauty contest -- an achievement she hopes will inspire others living with the rare disorder.
"We must continue to advocate for our rights and I hope my win will empower the girl child," the 22-year-old social work student said.
"I have gone through a lot, but I want people living with albinism to be brave and persevere in life."
During the event in Harare on Friday night, the contestants had to respond to questions on stage and model a range of gowns and traditional African robes. Mutukura was awarded US$85 (almost €70) in prize money after being named winner.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2018 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11127 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
The murdering and harvsting of Ambino body parts for sale to the the Sangoma (witch doctor) is quite common throughout southern Africa. Our own Planned Parenthood has added a more inclusive, western twist....parts sales, anti-aging body creams, etc.
More western media scrutiny is given the slaughter of elephants for their ivory tusks and harvesting of Rhino horns however. New people are produced at a much higher rate.
[Financial Times] UK defence secretary Gavin Williamson will on Thursday pledge an additional £48m for Britain’s defence science and technology laboratory at Porton Down, in the wake of the poisoning of a former Russian spy with a weapons grade nerve agent.
The laboratory was instrumental in identifying Russia as the source of the nerve agent used to target Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia 10 days ago in Salisbury. The pair remain in a critical condition in hospital.
Scientists from Porton Down have also been at the centre of the clean-up operation in Salisbury following the attack, which has prompted one of the biggest crises in UK-Russian relations since the end of the cold war.
Mr Williamson will use a speech to Policy Exchange, a think-tank, to make the case for increased defence spending to meet the growing threat from Russia and other hostile state actors. The Ministry of Defence is facing a £20bn shortfall in funding over the next 10 years.
“In the face of intensifying threats, we must prioritise investment in military capabilities,” he will say. “We cannot sit back and let events overtake us.”
The attack in Salisbury has raised questions about whether the government should invest more in its programme to deal with chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats.
A specialist regiment focused on this area was disbanded in 2011 following deep defence cuts ordered by David Cameron’s coalition government — a move that may be reversed as part of a defence review led by Mr Williamson and due to be completed in the summer.
Senior Whitehall officials have conceded that “inadequate attention” has been paid to chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats in discussions about the review so far. Mr Williamson will point to the attack in Salisbury as an example of the new threat faced by Britain and its allies.
“If we doubted the threat Russia poses to our citizens, we only have to look at the shocking example of their reckless attack in Salisbury,” he will say. “We know the chemical threat doesn’t just come from Russia but from others.”
Garth Whitty, a former British army specialist in the disposal of chemical weapons, said the Salisbury incident highlighted how unprepared the UK was for such an attack. He added that the UK’s biological and chemical warfare capabilities had inevitably fallen victim to budget cuts in recent years.
Mr Whitty, who served as a United Nations chemical weapons inspector in Iraq in the early 1990s, said that once it had become clear the Salisbury attack involved a nerve agent, a detailed response should have been followed to “identify . . . contain, detect and decontaminate”.
“This fundamental requirement to minimise contamination, the number of potential victims and potential terror/hysteria management was not followed,” he added.
But he also acknowledged a chemical weapon attack on the streets of the UK would have come some way down the UK’s list of probable threats.
#3
This is by definition what submarines do. The run under the surface where they can't be seen (stealth) and look at stuff that doesn't know it's being looked at (spying).
It's the getting away with it part that's hard.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/19/2018 8:24 Comments ||
Top||
#4
I was going to make a quip about that Argentine submarine identifying a Britsh anti-submarine helicopter but someone beat me to it.
#9
Poorly chartered waters and unplanned high speed encounters? Remember the USS San Francisco (SSN-711) back in 2005? Luckily our ship made it home -- their's did not.
[ALMASDARNEWS] Former CIA employee and current whistle blower "Jeffrey Sterling" announced that US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... had ordered former CIA chief Mike Pompeo to stop taking any sensitive action in the upcoming Russian presidential election.
"In return for this order, Trump asked the Russians to end the tensions between the two countries and to not interfere in the next US elections."_ Sterling added.
It is noteworthy that the authorities of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) have taken a decision to prevent such incidents from occurring in the wake of speculation over Russia’s intervention in the 2016 election.
Pompeo also said at a meeting of the Senate select committee on intelligence on February 13 that Russia could intervene in the congressional mid-term elections in November.
On the other hand, at the Dartmouth Summit held in September 2017 between US and Russian security officials, the level of pessimism between the two countries was reduced and it was decided to find a solution for the challenges between the two countries at the next meeting. The next meeting was held at the Russian security officials visit to Washington in mid-February, and the meeting was held secretly, the result of which was Russia’s guarantee of non-interference in the Senate’s mid-term elections, against US not meddling in the Russian presidential election.
Trump’s encounter with the Russians has been a weak one is precedent, he offered cyber assistance to President Vladimir Putin ...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead... at the first meeting with the Russian leader, which was heavily criticized by some American politicians.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2018 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11131 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
As if it would have had any effect at all. That's throwing money down a rat hole, better spent elsewhere, so good call for Trump.
[AnNahar] Vladimir Putin ...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead... won Russia's presidential election on Sunday with almost 74 percent of the vote, according to an official exit poll, with the opposition reporting ballot stuffing and other cases of alleged fraud.
Putin, who has ruled Russia for almost two decades, stood against seven other candidates, but his most vocal critic Alexei Navalny was barred from the ballot for legal reasons and the final outcome was never in doubt.
The Kremlin was hoping for high voter numbers to give greater legitimacy to Putin's historic fourth term as Russia faces increasing isolation on the world stage over a spy poisoning in Britannia and a fresh round of U.S. sanctions.
About 107 million Russians were eligible to cast ballots and the central election commission said turnout was 60 percent, after the authorities used both the carrot and the stick to boost participation.
Selfie competitions, giveaways, food festivals and children's entertainers were laid on at polling booths in a bid to create a festive atmosphere around the election.
But employees of state and private companies reported coming under pressure to vote, while students were threatened with problems in their exams or even expulsion if they did not take part, according to the opposition-leaning Novaya Gazeta newspaper.
The exit poll by state-owned pollster VTsIOM at 1,200 voting stations around Russia projected that Putin had won 73.9 percent of the vote, up from 64 percent six years ago.
Communist candidate Pavel Grudinin performed better than expected, with 11.2 percent according to the exit poll, but the results of all other candidates including former reality TV host Ksenia Sobchak were forecast to be in single figures.
- 'Unprecedented violations' -
Navalny -- who called on his supporters to boycott the "fake" vote and sent over 33,000 observers across the country to see how official turnout figures differed from those of monitors -- said there had been "unprecedented violations."
His lawyer Ivan Zhdanov said the actual national turnout at 1700 GMT, when polls closed in Moscow, was 55 percent, according to data collected by monitors.
Navalny's opposition movement and the non-governmental election monitor Golos reported ballot stuffing, repeat voting and Putin supporters being bussed into polling stations en masse.
One election commission worker in the republic of Dagestan ...a formerly inoffensive Caucasus republic currently bedevilled by low-level Islamic insurgency, occasional outbreaks of separatism, ethnic tensions and terrorism, primarily due to its proximity to Chechnya. There are several dozen ethnic groups, most of which speak either Caucasian, Turkic, or Iranian languages. Largest among these ethnic groups are the Avar, Dargin, Kumyk, Lezgin, and Laks. While Russers form less than five percent of the population, Russian remains the primary official language and the lingua franca... , which traditionally registers extremely high official turnout figures, told AFP around 50 men entered the station where he was working and physically assaulted an observer before stuffing a ballot box.
But the electoral commission dismissed most concerns, saying monitors sometimes misinterpret what they see.
[Reuters] WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) will announce on Monday that it plans to invest $340 million to build a new sport utility vehicle at its Chattanooga, Tennessee, plant in the United States as demand surges for larger vehicles, according to a person briefed on the announcement.
Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam is set to be at VW’s plant in Chattanooga for a 2:30 p.m (1800 GMT) announcement for a new project, his office said, without elaborating on what that project would be.
In 2017, VW Group of America Chief Executive Officer Hinrich Woebcken told reporters at the New York auto show that the automaker planned to build a five-seat SUV in Tennessee, but he declined to say when production would begin.
#3
Back in the day, Toyota made a car called the Tercel. They also made a car called the Starlet. I was waiting for them to make one called the Terlet...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/19/2018 21:14 Comments ||
Top||
#4
I put a Chevy 350 (355 when I was done) in a '77 FJ40 Toyota. I called it a Chevota. My friends called it a Toyolet. Once.
I still have it
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/19/2018 21:48 Comments ||
Top||
[DAWN] A man allegedly killed his wife and minor son over a family dispute in Darwazai Banda area of Shakardarra town in the wee hours on Saturday.
SHO Azfal Awan told Dawn on contact that Zafranullah killed his wife and then cut into pieces his one-month-old son. Then he bundled the minor in a bag and threw him in the Darwazai Dam, he added.
Later, the accused created hue and cry and gathered the neighbours and told them that three dacoits had entered his house and killed his family and fled away.
Ibraheem, the father of the dear departed woman, told the police in the hospital during autopsy of her body that his son-in-law was lying, and in fact he had killed his wife and minor son.
He said Zafranullah had divorced his wife on two occasions
Is that even possible?
and that his wife had filed a case in court that her husband did not give her expenses and tortured her.
The police incarcerated Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! the accused, who admitted to having killed his wife and minor son. A pistol used in the crime was also recovered from his house.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2018 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11129 views]
Top|| File under:
[Forum.NASAspaceflight] SpaceX has an income of some 3 billion, counting various NASA contracts, rockets at higher than list price, ...
NASA has a budget of some 4 billion for development of HSF, mostly going to Orion and SLS.
SpaceX may have a 'profit' of some $1B, right now, or in the very near future(*) that it is investing in future HSF relevant items. (BFR/Mars)
It only takes the assumption of SpaceX being three times or so more efficient to put their HSF development program budget over NASAs.
This doesn't even require any future profits from Starlink or other customers.
* (part of the current budget is going into not-very-relevant going forward architecture such as Dragon, that may be systematically less efficient than a program with reduced oversight).
Once StarLink has 800+ satellites it goes commercial, very likely bringing in several $billion more even before peaking with full deployment.
Their revenue estimates, printed by WSJ, put StarLink's revenues at about $30 billion by the mid-2020's. Given anchor tenants (local/municipal ISP's, govt agencies, DoD*...) and hosted sensors on their satellites, this could be quite conservative.
If SpaceX 'only' has $1B profit available per year, they already have more human space flight money than NASA because they get 10x more out of each development dollar[1]. Look at what they've spent and created over last ten years compared to what NASA has spent and created...
And they are just hitting their stride -- BFR isn't their first launch vehicle, Raptor not their first engine, Boca Chica isn't their first pad.
#5
NASA should have had a zero budget since the end of Apollo.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/19/2018 8:29 Comments ||
Top||
#6
NASA has to spread out it's expenditures and hiring in such a way as to make congresscritters happy. SpaceX not so much. Any function run by the government will eventually turn into a jobs program. Doing the work well is not good enough; you have to generate votes.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/19/2018 8:31 Comments ||
Top||
#2
#1 Where they the same people who trained and commanded that Jimmy Carter special force Iran mission?
...Fortunately, no. The training and leadership for that mission were absolutely first rate. The problem was that you had several highly secret organizations that weren't talking to one another, an overly complex plan (that probably shouldn't have been executed in the first place, but Carter was desperate and the military couldn't say no), and the planners just kept hoping that nothing could go wrong.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/19/2018 5:03 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Ref #1: Huge push at the time to operate in the new... mix & match "Joint environment." Second big push - make the POW political pain somehow go away. Upshot, many 'Lessons Learned' gains, but both challenges still linger.
Wasn't there, sleeping in my own bunk at the time. Just my opinion.
#5
The key lessons learned from asymmetrical conflicts is to not take prisoners and if you do for intel purposes don't keep after their expiration date.
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.
[AFRICANEWS] Rwanda’s 
[DailyMail] 
...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
