June 9, 2006: For the U.S. Air Force, Afghanistan has become the major theater of war. In May, American warplanes delivered 750 air strikes in Afghanistan, 14 percent than in May, 2005. Meanwhile, the number of air strikes in Iraq continued to decline, as it has been doing for most of this year. But in May, there were fewer air strikes in Iraq than in Afghanistan. For the last three months in Afghanistan, there have been about 2,000 air strikes.
Most of the air strikes were smart bombs delivered by B-1 bombers (which replaced a departing unit of B-52s on May 1st). The heavy bombers like the B-1 and B-52 operate out of Diego Garcia (a 44 square kilometer island 4,700 kilometers south of Afghanistan). Small (six or so aircraft) units of heavy bombers rotate in and out of the island every three months. One or two are usually in the air over Afghanistan 24/7. Each heavy bomber carries 10- 12 tons of bombs, and stays in the air for some sixteen hours, during each sortie over Afghanistan. Most of the bombs are 500 pound JDAMs. Some of the air strikes are by A-10s, using their 30mm cannon, or missiles. Some AC-130 gunships are also in the area.
The enemy in Iraq has become very wary of smart bombs, especially that 500 pound JDAM. Anti-government forces know that if they are cornered, a JDAM will be arriving shortly, often within ten minutes. Naturally, Iraqis like to exaggerate such things, so most of them think that American troops merely have to point their fingers and mumble the magic words, and the JDAM arrives within a minute or two. This fear of JDAM has caused American troops to adapt as well. More often, the enemy gunmen will try and flee, which puts a premium on mobility and a sharp eye for nervous guys with AK-47s, trying to run away as inconspicuously as possible. Some of the enemy fighters will be more clever and just ditch the rifle and try to blend in. But this is also dangerous, because there are all those UAVs up there, capturing such moves on video. Iraqi police and soldiers usually operate with Americans these days, and they can go in and search for whoever looked suspicious on the UAV video.
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Posted by: Steve ||
06/09/2006 09:30 ||
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#1
Yup, and the Afghan government and increasingly their new Army will take care of those small attacks.
#3
Is there anyone in Afghanistan that doesn't have a gun? I don't think so. So if only three guys come around and bully an entire village, why don't they just kill them and claim they never saw anything? I know what would happen in my little town if 3 or 4 guys showed up and started pushing everyone around.
#4
You point out the flaw in their plan. If there are just a few of them, the locals will add them to the cooking pot just on principle. So they have to concentrate in larger groups for self-protection. But this makes them juicy targets for the black djinns of the USAF that fly by night and steal your soul. Plus make your body disintigrate.
#6
Naturally, Iraqis like to exaggerate such things, so most of them think that American troops merely have to point their fingers and mumble the magic words,
Not an exaggeration, but you must be pure. Not all can do it.
Islamic leaders who have seized Somalia's capital after weeks of fighting are beginning talks with the UN-backed government, while the defeated regional commanders are advancing back towards Mogadishu from their stronghold of Jowhar.
Strong hand suddenly looking not so strong?
The Islamic militia captured the capital and surrounding areas after defeating a US-backed alliance of regional commanders, tightening its grip on Somalia. The weak interim government, wracked by infighting, has not been able to enter the capital because of the violence, instead operating 250km away, in Baidoa. Abdirahman Nur Mohamed Dinari, the government spokesman, said two ministers from the interim government were meeting top leaders of the Islamic Courts Union on Thursday.
Going to surrender already?
The growing power of the Islamic militia, which has alleged links to al-Qaeda, has raised fears that Somalia - which has been in chaos for more than a decade - could fall under the sway of Osama bin Laden's group. US officials have confirmed co-operating with the secular regional commanders in an attempt to root out "terrorists".
Better for the Islamic Courts to remain in the background. If they take over overtly, they could wake up one morning wondering where all the B52s came from.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/09/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Or even more likely, where all the Ethiopian mechanized infantry and tanks came from, and why they are punching through Mogadishu shooting anything that moves.
Breakaway factions from two Darfur rebel groups that rejected last month's peace accord have signed a declaration of commitment to the deal. Although the main faction of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement signed the May 5 peace with the Khartoum government, a splinter faction held out until Thursday. So did the south Darfur faction of the Justice and Equality Movement.
"We shall be bound by the letter and spirit of the [Darfur Peace Accord] and shall assume and implement the relevant obligations therein, especially those related to the comprehensive ceasefire agreement," the letter said. Said Djinnit, the African Union peace and security commissioner, said after the signing ceremony in Addis Ababa that "the former holdouts should do their utmost to urge their respective members and fellow Darfurians to join the peace process".
This will work about as well as agreements usually work in Sudan, which is somewhat less well than they work in the rest of the Arab world.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/09/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Iff and when any DEM POTUS succeeds in capturing the WH in 2008, Africa and Chavez will likely be their main project. And iff the Dem POTUS can't do it, its gonna be a short four years for that Prez and Party,and shorter still for any Dem Congress.
Iraqi and U.S. forces zeroed in Abu Musab al-Zarqawi several times over three years only to see him narrowly escape. In the end, his own terrorist network betrayed him. The hunt closed in two weeks ago, when an insider from al-Zarqawis network helped identify a spiritual adviser who unwittingly led the Americans to his doorstep, prompting the airstrike that killed Iraqs most wanted militant. The success came after three years of near misses, U.S. military chiefs in Baghdad said.
Iraqi forces last year reportedly captured al-Zarqawi, then let him go, not realizing it was him. And just last month, al-Zarqawi was said to have jumped from a moving truck to elude U.S. special forces on his tail, an escape filmed by a Predator reconnaissance craft. And another airstrike earlier in the final two-week hunt also missed him, the officials said.
The chase ended Wednesday evening when two 500-pound bombs flattened a modest two-story house surrounded by palm groves and orange orchards outside Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad. A pair of U.S. F-16s on patrol over Iraq were called in for the attack and one of them fired a laser-guided GBU-12 and a satellite-guided GBU-38, said Air Force Lt. Gen. Gary L. North, who commands U.S. and coalition air operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. We knew exactly where he was and we chose the right moment, North told The Associated Press. The military declined to say whether forces on the ground helped direct the bombs.
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Posted by: Steve ||
06/09/2006 16:11 ||
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#1
Money Makes the World Go Round
Money makes the world go round
The world go round, the world go round
Money makes the world go round
It makes the world go round
A mark, a yen, a buck or a pound
A buck or a pound, a buck or a pound
Is all that makes the world go round
That clinking, clanking sound
Can make the world go round
Bethnal Green and Bow MP George Galloway has distanced himself from a call by one his Respect party activists for Muslims to stop co-operating with the police. He said the plea - made by former journalist Yvonne Ridley at a meeting near the scene of an anti-terror raid in which a man was shot - is not party policy.
But he warned that most young Muslims have no confidence in the police - accusing them of having a "shoot-and-slander" policy."I wasn't there, I haven't spoken to her, but our policy is not to withdraw co-operation form the police," he told BBC1's Question Time. "If she said that, she was wrong. But you are fooling yourself if you think that that is not already the policy being followed by angry young Muslims who see their co-religionists being shot and then slandered by the Metropolitan police."
He added: "People are shot down by the police and then they are slandered by the police afterwards in an attempt to confuse people about the blunders that have been made."
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#9
The muzzies make the same demands everywhere - in Canada, in Britain, in France, wherever there are more than two or three of them - that they be 'respected'. What they mean is that they get to act like muslims everywhere act, as the superior force in the world that must be acknowledged and accepted. NO. Respect is earned by acting in a respectable manner, not like a bunchy of three-year-olds banging their spoons on their highchair table. If musims want to be respected, act like the rest of the respected community - as PART of the community. Unfortunately for US, islam itself tells these jackasses to "stand apart". If that's the way they want to live, they need to go back to where they came from, and if they want to be respected, go where that kind of crap is "respected" - in the muslim-dominated countries of the world. The fact that they're also some of the most dispicable countries of the world, with the lowest human-rights records, the least freedom of the individual, and the worst economic conditions anywhere may just come from how they behave.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/09/2006 16:13 Comments ||
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they're also going to cooperate on nuclear power, according to this. This comes after DOD reversed themselves and let the Brits bid on fighter engines.
France and Britain announced Friday their intention to work more closely on defence projects and expressed the hope that a joint aircraft carrier programme could begin next year.
Following talks between French President Jacques Chirac, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and key ministers from both governments, Paris and London said the aircraft carrier proposal was an "important symbol" of their co-operation. "This is a vital project for France, the UK and for Europe. The aircraft carriers are an important defence capability that will enhance our ability to act," they said in a joint statement after a summit in Paris. "Our programme of co-operation has now reached the detailed definition phase which is due for completion by the end of the year.
"By then, our industries will have to make an attractive offer enabling programmes to be launched in 2007."
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#5
Talk about a cluster fuck!
That poor boat wont know wether to go in circles or sink itself and end it's misery. France and the UK together, wow! Two of the most screwed up bureaucracies in the west, that can't get anything done on their own, setting out on a venture like this.
#6
Does anyonething either nation will have the will to powerproject by the time the carriers are complete? Methinks they'll be fighting urban wars in their Islamic ghetos long before then.
#11
FOX once again had that commentary where the [proposed] EU nations is aware that America is far more richer than the EU despite the EU having 170 Milyuuhn more citizens, and that in 20 years Americans will be twice as rich as EU citizens despite the glories/efforts of leisurely pan-EuroSocialist welfarism.
Muslim leaders pleaded for help Thursday in their struggle against extremists in their midst, saying they can't fight a small minority of radicals alone. "We're not here to say we don't have an issue," said social worker Shahina Siddiqui, president of the Islamic Social Services Association. "Of course we have an issue," she told a news conference on Parliament Hill. "But we can't deal with it ourselves. We're part of the Canadian society and so we demand that the Canadian society come forward, help us root out this."
Demand? Awfully cheeky, eh?
Her group joined the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Canadian Muslim Civil Liberties Association and several other agencies pushing for a related summit by the end of June. They hope the meeting would bring together Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, Toronto Mayor David Miller and a host of community and youth groups. The Ontario government and Miller's office were quick to say they would take part. There was no immediate response from Harper's office, but Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day has asked the Muslim groups for more details.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/09/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Give 'em ex-Toronto top cop Julian Fantino. He'll clean up the mosques for you. (Julian Fantino = Rudy Giuliani).
Posted by: Rafael ||
06/09/2006 0:49 Comments ||
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#2
Let me get this straight....
This VAST MAJORITY OF MODERATE MOOSELIMBS (V-Momm)
can't deal with the teensy, tiny, teeny, weeny minority of radicals.
What a bunch of girly-men, feh. Pooh ittle babies need big brother to fight the scawy bullies.
#3
It's very simple. Give the RCMP a list of all the people who say they want to kill and blow shit up and they will be gone shortly. But they aren't going to do that are they?
#4
Why can't you deal with it yourselves? Rather be able to blame the infidels for any action taken? So you can continue to scream about racism and profiling and lack of riiiights and freeeeedums and do absolutely nothing yourselves.
Fine, we'll expect no objection at all to barging into your mosques to clean them out.
(2006-06-09) As Blackberry devices and cell phones on Capitol Hill hummed with news of the death of terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi yesterday, Congressional Democrats vowed that despite the loss they would fight on in the war on the war on terror.
Zarqawi will be missed because he put a human face on the futility of the illegal U.S. occupation of Iraq, said one unnamed lawmaker, who assured a reporter that Democrats are still optimistic. Were still looking for the silver lining.
Rep. John Murtha, D-PA, a former Marine and vocal critic of the military occupation of Iraq, immediately denounced the Zarqawi massacre and suggested that the F-16 pilot who dropped the bombs had snapped under pressure and murdered the al Qaeda leader in cold blood.
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-PA, demanded an explanation of the secret intelligence gathering techniques and surveillance used to find Mr. Zarqawi.
I want to give the president an opportunity to explain the program to the Congress and to assure the American people that nobodys civil rights were violated, said Sen. Specter.
Meanwhile, Democrat National Committee Chairman Howard Dean and former presidential candidate Al Gore observed a moment of silence as they heard of the passing of Mr. Zarqawi, a fellow Internet pioneer.
#1
listening to KOGO radio, Mark Larson sez Murtha has just announced that he will be a candidate for Majority leader should, God forbid, the Donks take a majority in November
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/09/2006 16:11 Comments ||
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Vice President Dick Cheney Thursday defended himself against accusations by a leading Republican senator that he worked to thwart Senate plans to make telephone executives testify at a hearing about a U.S. domestic spying program.
A day after Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter rebuked Cheney for trying to head off subpoenas of the phone company executives, Cheney acknowledged that he had spoken to Senate leaders and members of Specter's committee.
He said in a letter to Specter that he acted when the administration became concerned about a "compulsory process to force testimony" in a matter that could involve classified information. However, he said, his contacts with senators were "not unusual" and that in his role as vice president, "I have frequent contact with senators, both at their initiative and mine."
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#3
This Specter is a big mistake alright. Are you listening Pennsylvania. This RINO thought he could sleep with Democrat dogs and not get fleas. McCain has the same problem. If he wants to be President, he'd better join the local PTA. It's his only chance.
#4
Spector IS the fleas, or do you not remember him trying to cite Scottish law? He's a tool, and an arrogant one at that. IIRC he once upon a time thought about running for POTUS
Bwaahahaha!
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/09/2006 13:16 Comments ||
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#5
Cheney should also have pointed out to Snarlin Arlen that he (Cheney) is President of the Senate.
#10
The Repubs on the Judicary Committee failed to show up for the Specter convened hearings with telephone company heads. Good.
Perhaps by yanking Specter's leash, he'll get the message: act like a Repub not a donk.
Posted by: Captain America ||
06/09/2006 16:36 Comments ||
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#11
I've got a growing list of senators that need to be "outed" and shoved from public office. Spectre is high on the list, just under McCain and ahead of Feingold (but not by much). Of course, the K-pair from Mass top the list.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/09/2006 16:49 Comments ||
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#12
Of course, the K-pair from Mass top the list.
Fat chance of that. I've been working on that one for years up here, and Teddy's only gotten fatter and Kerry got nominated for Prez. Maybe if I moved away...
#13
As a Pennsylvanian, I am sorry, but I have a request.
Can anyone put Alfred E. Newman's ears on the picture of Specter ?
Every night before I sleep, I pray for God to take Arlen's soul and free us from this curse.
#15
At least ours in CA are openly anti-American Democrat
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/09/2006 18:36 Comments ||
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#16
Ah yeah, well, maybe you people might want to rethink your position on euthanasia, yes? I mean since it makes some so inexplicably nervous when someone even mentions putting half the Senate against the wall... as if you wouldn't, if you could. LOL.
As President Bush and Iraqi leaders on Thursday welcomed the announcement that coalition forces had killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, some in the anti-war community used the development to call for troop withdrawals while others downplayed its significance.
U.S. Sen. John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat who was beaten by President Bush in the 2004 presidential race and had recently renewed his call for speedy troop withdrawals from Iraq, on Thursday praised the service members involved in Zarqawi's killing.
Coalition forces "did an incredible job hunting him down and destroying him, and all of America is proud of their skill and commitment," Kerry said.
He called Zarqawi's killing "another sign that it's time for Iraqis to stand up for Iraq ... and run their own country." He said American troops "have done their job in Iraq, and they've done it valiantly. It's time to work with the new Iraqi government to bring our combat troops home by the end of this year."
Had coalition troops already been outside Iraq as Murtha suggested, most likely Zarqawi would still be breathing. One thing for sure is the success of the subsequent raids would have been impossible. Furthermore, if the coalition bolts now Zarqawi gets his martyrdom and achieves his goal. I used to think all this was partisan rhetoric but Im convinced these people are just plain stupid.
#5
Dubya has now IRAN "weeks, NOT months" to unilaterally agree to halt uranium enrichment and other dubious devprogs. The next step is sanctions - iff MadMoud-Mullahs don't agree to accept sanctions, the next post-sanctions step will be possible UNSC military action, which Dubya & Co, has already made it clear the USA is prepared to go in alone. Ditto likely will also apply to NORTH KOREA. The credibility of the UNO and UNSC + regional Orgs is also at stake. Iran's ambitions for Regional and later Global Caliphate threatens both West and East, just as China's plans for Asian-Pacific hegemony also threatens in the LT even RUSSIA and non-Chinese member-nations of the SCO. STAY ARMED. DUBYA KNOWS HIS NECK = LIFE IS POTENTIALLY AT RISK, BUT HE'S DOING IT ANYWAY. Leadership = Morality = Manhood/Maturity = Self-Worth, etal > shines best in face of adversity and obstructionism.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is warning Americans not to get too excited over the death of Abu Musab al Zarqawi, saying in a statement issued by her office Thursday that it really won't do much to improve the situation in Iraq.
After briefly noting that she was "proud of our troops for their tireless work," the top House Democrat wasted no time in throwing cold water on the good news.
"[Zarqawi's] death does not alter the fact that our brave men and women in uniform are fighting a war of choice in which the President sent our troops into harm's way without a plan for victory and without leveling with the American people," she complained.
"Several hours after Zarqawi's death, 19 Iraqis were killed and 40 were wounded in a roadside bombing in Baghdad," the San Francisco Democrat noted. "These deaths are a stark reminder of the ongoing violence facing our brave men and women in uniform."
Pelosi said she still agreed with Rep. John Murtha that the U.S. should pull out of Iraq, then added: "Zarqawi's death should be a resounding call to President Bush and the Republican Congress that we must have a serious debate about U.S. policy in Iraq."
Statement of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton on al Zarkawi
"As a leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al Zarkawi was responsible for despicable attacks that claimed the lives of too many Iraqis and Americans. I saw firsthand the terrible consequences of Zarqawi's terrorist network when Bill, Chelsea and I visited the hotel ballroom in Amman, Jordan last November where Zarqawi's followers had detonated a bomb at a wedding party, killing and wounding innocent people. We owe our thanks to our men and women in uniform and others in Iraq who have been fighting Zarqawi and other insurgents and who are responsible for today's success.
I hope that this will be a blow to the insurgency in Iraq and affords an opportunity for the new Iraqi government to build on this success and provide greater security and stability for the Iraqi people"
Let the contrast between Pelosi and Clinton be duely noted.
#2
Pelosi's a partisan hack, and Hill's a Presidential candidate. I think the differences in rhetoric here have nothing to do with core beliefs, but in political positioning.
#3
John Kerry is also a presidential candidate, and his response was substantively closer to Pelosi, if his language was more measured.
Clinton has been consistent in her approach to foreign policy and the middle east since she emerged on the national scene. Now maybe that was always calculated - you can say that about any politician.
#4
True enough. But Kerry laid his liberal cards on the table a long time ago. If he crept to center now, everyone would see it for what it is. Hillary's got a lot more wiggle room.
#5
May not have changed anything for the Dems in their war against Bushitler McChimplerburton, but I dare say it has affected Zarky's outlook considerably.
Zarqawi was a monster and the world is a better place for his passing. Civilized people everywhere should be passing out candy and having gun sex.
#6
I agree with liberalhawk about Clinton's consistency on this issue. But I just can't bring myself to trust her. Unfair? Perhaps, but it's not like I have nothing to base my mistrust on.
#7
I trust her. I just think she's a flaming liberal on domestic issues (e. g. single payer health insurance) and she's never hidden that; but on FP, she would be good. She's much more of a patriot than slick willie.
#8
Actually, I doubt that she is more patriotic than Slick Willie, just more bloodthirsty and willing to kill if need be. The women in positions of power in the Clintoon Admin tended towards violence as a solution to embarassing problems, if you have any doubts about that, remember Janet Reno and Waco.
#11
LiberalHawk
It's that contrast that has divided the Democratic Party and made it impossible for them to nominate a "ringer" for 2008. They are split right down the middle on the Iraq issue.
#12
I actually think the Hildebeast is serious about the WoT -- she still sees it mostly as a law enforcement issue, but she understands better than most of the Doinks that there are limits. Her statement yesterday is absolutely in keeping with her previous statements.
I still won't vote for her.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/09/2006 15:57 Comments ||
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#13
All democrats support and embrace organized crime. That is their defining factor. Any political position they may have is strictly for votes. They only believe in gaining money for favors and scams where they can skim and launder funds. Any democrats who do not fit that description are fools who got on the wrong train.
#15
"Fighting a war of CHOICE" - maybe its just me, but is Nancy saying that "CHOICE" = NO CHOICE, OR NOT A CHOICE AT ALL??? GLOBAL SECULAR SOCIALISM = GLOBAL ISLAMIC STATE/CALIPHATE = EITHER WAY, SOLEY OR JOINTLY AS ATTYS SAY, AMERICA IS TO BE DEFEATED AND SUBORNED, VOLUNTARILY = FORCIBLY, IFF NOT DESTROYED, UNDER SOME FORM OF DEDICATED ANTI-AMERICAN SOCIALISM AND OWG!?
National Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain on Friday rejected a Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) demand to offer fateha for the soul of Abu Musab Al Zarqawi in the National Assembly. US and Iraqi officials on Thursday claimed that Zarqawi was killed near the city of Baquba, 65 kilometres north of Baghdad. As the house resumed its session, MMA legislators Maulana Ghafoor Haidri and Dr Fareed Piracha demanded the house offer fateha for Zarqawi. The speaker said that according to the rules, the house could offer fateha only if a present or former member of parliament or their relative die. The MMA members did not press their point.
"We withdraw the question, Mr. Speaker. Don't forget we know where you live."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/09/2006 20:43 ||
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Kashmiri leader Yasin Malik, who is chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, is to undergo surgery on 12 June at a Maryland hospital. The operation, the second to be performed on his ear, has been necessitated to deal with the consequences of injuries he suffered several years ago when he jumped form an upper storey window in Srinagar to escape arrest at the hands of Indian security forces.
"You'll never take me alive, coppers! [THUD!]... Ow."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/09/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
This clown is a "Kashmiri leader" ?
Doesn't say much for the place...
Posted by: john ||
06/09/2006 6:56 Comments ||
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With the intra-party elections of Maulana Fazlur Rehmans Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam (JUI-F) a couple of months away, the growing popularity Hafiz Hussain Ahmed and his differences over party policies with the top leadership have increased the chances for this cleric from Quetta to become the next secretary general of the JUI-F.
Ahmed, who is currently the JUI-F deputy secretary general and deputy parliamentary leader of the six-party religious alliance, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, in the National Assembly, has become estranged with his leaders Fazlur Rehman and Abdul Ghafoor Hyderi, the JUI-F chief and the secretary general, respectively. Known as the most popular leader among the JUI-F cadres, Ahmed has played a pivotal role in the campaign for fresh membership of the party, which ensured his success in the election for the secretary generals post in August.
Party insiders said Hafiz Hussain Ahmed never had friendly relations with Fazlur Rehman and Ghafoor Hyderi for years, but after his removal as a member of the Supreme Council of the MMA as a JUI-F representative, such differences publicly surfaced for the first time. It has been learnt that Ahmed had never had good relations with the partys elite and with his defiance to contest the secretary generals post against the directives and desire of Fazlur Rehman has virtually left him alone. The JUI-F party elections are held every four years and according to its policy a campaign for new membership is launched before the elections. According to a JUI-F leader, who wished not remain unnamed, party chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman tried to remove the differences mainly between Ahmed and Hyderi and sent a message to the former for a meeting with the party leaders but a formal response is awaited.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/09/2006 00:00 ||
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Conservative filmmaker Patrick Dollard, a former Hollywood agent and manager, is working on a major documentary highlighting the heroism and bravery of U.S. Marines and soldiers in Iraq. The series is expected to counter much of the liberal press' view of the war and the troops fighting it.
Mr. Dollard tells us he spent a total of seven months in some of the hottest zones in Iraq and was nearly killed in an improvised explosive device attack on a Humvee. "I was going because it was obvious how left-leaning and biased the coverage of the war was, and because I wanted to get to know what was going on over there, and what these American kids, who I felt were making the world a much better place, were all about and what they thought about what they were doing," Mr. Dollard said.
He covered military operations in Fallujah, Ramadi and the Triangle of Death south of Baghdad and, unlike most journalists, stayed only about a half-day in the secure Green Zone in the Iraqi capital.
Mr. Dollard, who once represented cutting-edge Hollywood director Steven Soderbergh, said he was shocked at the anger most U.S. troops feel toward the press for misreporting the Iraq war. "Not only were the media not reporting the good news from Iraq, but they wouldn't even lift an intellectual pinky to analyze for America how important to the world's security a victory in Iraq is," he said. "Most journalists I met were anti-Bush, and could barely contain their hope for an American loss in Iraq that would sway the next elections to the Democratic Party. And when I taped several Marines and Iraqis telling me stories about outright lies and false quotes by some very big American media players, I got really, really mad."
Hollywood has not warmed to Mr. Dollard's project, and he was the subject of a critical New York Times report. His 600 hours of tape are being developed into a major series of reports for cable television.
#2
It's been a long time since we had a good ol' "hurray for America" war movie! I think I may even go and pay full price to see this one at the theater.
Prime Minister Nouri Maliki on Thursday named the heads of key security ministries appointments Iraqi politicians had fought over bitterly amid increasing death tolls.
Gen. Abdul-Qader Mohammed Jassim Mifarji, a Sunni Arab, was sworn in as defense minister, and Jawad Bolani, a Shiite, was installed as interior minister. Sherwan Waili, also a Shiite, was given the post of minister of state for national security. Sunni Arabs had insisted on the defense portfolio to counterbalance Shiite control of the Interior Ministry.
As sectarian violence has worsened, the disagreement over the security posts became the most pressing problem for Maliki's government. Its apparent solution Thursday was part of a double victory for the new prime minister, who had just announced the death of Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab Zarqawi.
Continued on Page 49
The Iraqi parliament approved on Thursday Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's candidates for defence and interior ministers, ending wrangling that had threatened to plunge the new government into crisis. By a clear majority, it approved Jawad al-Bolani, a Shia, as interior minister and General Abdel Qader Jassim, a Sunni and until now Iraqi ground forces commander, as defence minister. Of 198 deputies present in the 275-seat assembly, 182 voted for Bolani while 142 supported Jassim, the speaker said.
The vote took place shortly after Maliki - who has pledged to crush a Sunni Arab insurgency against the US-backed, Shia-led government - announced that Al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, had been killed.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/09/2006 00:00 ||
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BAGHDAD, June 8 (KUNA) -- Iraqi President Jalal Al-Talabani reiterated on Thursday his call for all Iraqi armed groups who were not implicated in bloody crimes to join the political process in the country, on the heels of the killing of Al-Qaeda chief in Iraq Abu Musaab Al-Zarqawi.
Step right up, that's it sir, step right up ...
Here's their chance. There's no guarantee it'll last forever...
In a a presidential statement, Talabani said lessons could be derived from every penalty and the "most impressive lesson is the end of the evil doer" (in reference to Zarqawi). He said the "killing of Zarqawi instills confidence in our hearts that punishment would ultimately include the hands stained with blood of the Iraqis", adding that this this is a good omen for the bereave mothers, orphans and fathers who lost their sons.
It'll be better when Sammy is swinging, but J-DAMing Zarq was a good start ...
I have the fantasy that some day they're going to round up every sadist associated with the insurgency and hang them. It's probably just that, a fantasy, but still I have it.
In Irbil, chief of Kurdistan-Iraq province Mesoud Al-Barzani said here that the killing of the terrorist Al-Zarqawi and a number of his accomplices is a step on the way for evicting Iraq from the expatriate terrorists.
His computer and papers will go a long way toward helping, too...
Meanwhile Kurdistan Iraq province received the news on slaying Al-Zarqawi with utmost relief at both popular and official levels. Chief of the province's Diwan Dr. Fuad Hussain told Kuna that chief of the province Al-Barzani knew about the slaying of Zarqawi early enough and was very happy for uprooting the lynchpin of terror in Iraq. Barzani added that his killing is a painful blow for the terrorists and would scale down the tempo of terror in Iraq.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/09/2006 00:00 ||
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I would love for the new minister of defense and the head cop to come out with the 2 top Leaders and say you have X days after that you will die no trials ,no nothing, we are not taking prisioners. You will die where we find you.
Jubilant Iraqi Shiites distributed sweets and jumped for joy in the streets Thursday to celebrate the killing of Al Qaeda chief in Iraq Abu Mussab Zarqawi, who had declared all-out war on their community. In the capital's Shiite-dominant Kadhimiyah neighbourhood, women and children were seen distributing chocolates to Iraqi soldiers as they danced in the streets. Iraqi army soldiers were also seen dancing at city checkpoints, while in the neighbourhood's revered Kadhim shrine many Shiites were seen offering prayers to thank Allah for the death of country's most wanted militant.
Seventy-year-old Shiite woman Shams Abdallah came to the shrine to annoint herself with henna as a symbol to thank God for Zarqawi's death. "My sons were killed in 2005 by Zarqawi's people as they travelled between Ramadi and Fallujah," she told AFP, naming Iraq's two most restive cities in the west, a one-time operational ground of Zarqawi.
"We don't need water, we don't need electricity, the most important is that Zarqawi is dead," said Majid Hashim Assadi, 60. "With the death of the great Satan, you have began the defeat of the infidels. This is a major victory for the Iraqi people. We can say that today the Iraqi and US forces stopped terorrism."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
06/09/2006 00:00 ||
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Majid Hashim Assadi, 60: "With the death of the great Satan, you have began the defeat of the infidels. This is a major victory for the Iraqi people. We can say that today the Iraqi and US forces stopped terorrism."
Interesting commentary. Zarky=The Great Satan. From the context, the "kuffars" here means Satanists--people without a shred of human decency. The infidelity means then opposition to human decency.
I know, it is just one man. Perhaps one in 1000. But sometimes that is all you need to make a difference.
#3
Majid Hashim Assadi, 60: "With the death of the great Satan, you have began the defeat of the infidels. This is a major victory for the Iraqi people. We can say that today the Iraqi and US forces stopped terorrism."
ISLAMIC militant group Hamas called off a 16-month-old truce with Israel on Friday after attacks blamed on Israeli forces killed 10 Palestinians, including three children playing on a beach. Israel's army, which had been shelling northern Gaza to curb rocket fire by militants, said it was investigating the deaths.
Hamas, in charge of the Palestinian government, threatened to renew attacks on the Jewish state. The group, sworn to destroying Israel, carried out nearly 60 suicide bombings in an uprising before agreeing to cease fire early in 2005. Renewed violence could bury Western hopes of pressuring Hamas to soften its stand. But a senior official from President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah said he still planned to go ahead with a referendum on a statehood proposal implicitly recognising Israel. Hamas rejects it. "The Israeli massacres represent a direct opening battle," Hamas's armed wing said in a statement echoed by its political leaders. "The earthquake in the Zionist cities will resume and the herds of occupiers have no choice but to prepare the coffins or the departing luggage."
There was no immediate comment on Hamas's announcement from Israel, or from Abbas, locked in a power struggle with the Islamists. Palestinian officials said Israeli air strikes and artillery fire killed 10 Palestinians in Gaza, the highest Palestinian toll in a single day since 2004. Seven people, including five from the same family, were killed in what Palestinian officials said was Israeli shellfire from boats on to a crowded beach. Among the dead were three children, aged 1, 3 and 10. Their sister, who had been swimming, survived. Twenty people were wounded. Covered in blood, children screamed as adults carried the wounded and dead from the sand.
Continued on Page 49
Head of the IDF's Southern Command, Maj.-Gen. Yoav Galant ruled out that navy shelling off the coast of Gaza or bombs fired by IAF jets brought about the death of the 12 Palestinians earlier in the day.
According to Galant, the IDF is currently investigating two possible options: misfiring of an artillery round or a dud that exploded on the Gaza beach.
I'll go for kids playing with unexploded munitions, doubtless while their parents look on.
#2
"The earthquake in the Zionist cities will resume and the herds of occupiers have no choice but to prepare the coffins or the departing luggage."
A open delecration of War from the elected government of "Palestine." Israel should go into open total warfare mode. It is totally legitimate for them to do so. The Donks, UN, EUropeans and "Arabs" will just have to get over it. Egypt should prepare for some new residents.
ZARQA, Jordan - Abu Musab Al Zarqawis favourite sister refuses to believe the Al Qaeda frontman has been killed and hopes God will find someone even better to replace him as an Iraq insurgent leader. In her home in the impoverished Jordanian town of Zarqa, Umm Qudama, 33, sobs repeatedly as the news of her brothers death in a US air raid north of Baghdad sinks in. Are you really sure he is dead? she asks people gathered around her as a camera crew from Al Jazeera television prepares to interview her husband.
Oh yeah-yeah-yeah, sweetie, Baby-Bo'kins is dead-dead-dead!
If the dreadful news is true, she says, her only consolation would be that God may give the mujahedeen somebody even better.
In his interview with the Arabic news channel, her husband Abu Qudama, also known as Saleh Al Hani, paid lavish tribute to his slain brother-in-law, prompting Jordanian police to cut the live broadcast in mid-transmission. If he had lived in a European country, the president would have kissed his feet, Abu Qudama said, before being cut off.
I'm guessing Abu doesn't get out much and doesn't have the firmest grip on world affairs.
It was Zarqawi who organized the couples marriage. After meeting Abu Qudama in Pakistan in 1990 and hearing his complaints that he would never find a wife after losing a leg to a landmine, Zarqawi sent for his sister, then just 17.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/09/2006 00:00 ||
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FREEREPUBLIC.com > NANCY PELOSI > ZARKEY'S death changes little or nothing about Dubya or Amer's probs in Iraq. FR also reports that Zark's DNA will be tested by Quantico and has arrived in Quantico for such.
#10
I don't care where "sis" is located, if she publically grieves over this piece of shit and supports his work, that makes her a legitimate *target*. Finish her off, and wrap her remains in bacon grease.
#11
The kids next door pelting the journalos is a nich touch... how paleostinian of them (70% of jordanians are actually "palestinians", IIRC)! This is truly an ingrained arab trait, found everywhere there's a Youth to pick up a stone, and an infidel to aim at, be it an european no-go area, or garbage-dump zarqa.
Slightly OT : I once read that the fact that young (arab) muslims stone jews (even if they're soldiers) has an HUGE symbolic value in muslim lands, some kind of recovered honor... since one of the traditional unwritten laws of dhimma is that muslim kids grow up bullying dhimmis, adult included, notably by stoning them at will... to remind them that even a muslim children is superior to an adult unbeliever.
So, the pelting of jews is some kind of restoration of the broken natural order (jews being superior to and victorious over the Master Race). Supposedly, it resonates deeply in the muslim psyche, or so i've read, don't know if it's true.
#12
I once read that the fact that young (arab) muslims stone jews (even if they're soldiers) has an HUGE symbolic value in muslim lands,
It's due to two factors. First, the Paleos are very fixated on what happened in the past. Second, they steal all their advanced technology from the Jews. Apparently they didn't see David's sling when he threw the rock at Goliath. Please don't correct this misapprehension.
#18
According to relatives, Zarqawis nephew, Mohammed Al Harahsheh, was arrested by Jordanian authorities last month on suspicion of links with the Al Qaeda frontman.......recently released and was seen yesterday purchasing 5 new Bentley sedans at an Amman dealership.
#19
Anon5089: Supposedly, it resonates deeply in the muslim psyche, or so i've read, don't know if it's true.
There is a post by an Iranian blogger in Canada that illustrates your point better than I could. In a word, yes- it's very true. And very muslim. I would quote it, but it's a little long.
#21
Are you really sure he is dead? she asks people gathered around her as a camera crew from Al Jazeera television prepares to interview her husband.
Well...(as the joke goes): He has no respiration, and no pulse and his brain is in a jar in the office of the coroner. But hell, for all I know he may be out some where practicing journalism.
Police on Thursday interrupted a live Al Jazeera broadcast from Zarqa and briefly detained the satellite channel's crew and confiscated their camera and tapes. The incident took place as Al Jazeera's correspondent Yasser Abu Hilala was interviewing the brother-in-law of the former Al Qaeda frontman in Iraq Abu Mussab Zarqawi.
Government Spokesperson Nasser Judeh, however, said Abu Hilala had not been held by police, stressing that the live interview was halted due to high emotions among local people. "Maybe some people felt that Al Jazeera's coverage or approach wasn't balanced and so emotions were charged, especially for the families of those who died in the 11/9 bombings," he said. The interview was cut off as Zarqawi's in-law, known as Abu Qudama, was praising the dead Al Qaeda leader and depicting him as a hero.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/09/2006 00:00 ||
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Dunno - some news websites are claiming he was arrested, not just held or questioned.
The Palestinian president will hold a referendum on July 31 on a statehood proposal that implicitly recognises Israel, officials say. The plan by Mahoud Abbas favours a two-state solution to end the conflict with Israel. "Mr Abbas is to sign the decree setting the date for the referendum on Saturday, which means it will be held 50 days later," on July 31, Nabil Abu Rudeina, a spokesperson for Abbas, said.
A referendum would be seen as a confidence vote on the government run by the Islamic militant group Hamas, whose election led the West and Israel to sever funds to the Palestinian Authority. After initially calling the referendum earlier this week, Abbas gave Hamas a few more days to reconsider its position on a manifesto written by Palestinian prisoners in an Israeli jail. But the officials close to Abbas said Hamas had shown no sign of accepting the document, so the president was going ahead with setting the referendum date. "The Palestinian people in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza Strip will be invited to take part in a referendum on the basis of the prisoners' document on Monday, July 31," a Palestinian official said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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"...and try and get your parts right this time, ya buncha drooling morons! Sheesh!"
Jakarta, 9 June (AKI/Jakarta Post) - The Indonesian government has issued a warning to members of hardline groups in the country: You will face the full weight of the law if you promote unruly radicalism or are involved in acts of terror. "Acts promoting anarchy, threats of terror, or moves to take the law into one's own hands are classified as crimes, which will be processed under the country's existing laws," Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Widodo Adi Sutjipto said Thursday. "We have never tolerated any wrongdoing, regardless of who or what groups are implicated in it. Our (the government's) stance is clear, that we must enforce the supremacy of the law and equality before the law," he said.
Widodo chaired a meeting on political, legal, and security affairs on Thursday to discuss the presence of groups promoting violence and radicalism in the country. "I know that law enforcers at all levels have faced a certain amount of pressure from various parties when they deal with these groups, and I am assuring them now that the government will provide protection to them when they carry our their duties," the retired four-star Navy admiral said.
Present during the meeting were Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Air Chief Marshal Djoko Suyanto, National Police chief Gen. Sutanto, Home Minister M. Ma'ruf, and expert advisor to the Justice and Human Rights Ministry Ramli Hutabarat. "We put respect for people's freedom foremost in establishing mass organizations as stipulated in Law. No. 8/85 (on the freedom to organize). But if these (organizations') activities disturb public order, we do have a right to disband them," Ramli said.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve ||
06/09/2006 08:39 ||
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Well, that ought to just about take care of it.
Case closed, moving on.
Iran accelerated uranium enrichment on the same day this week that world powers asked it to halt the work and open talks on guaranteeing it will not make nuclear weapons, the UN atomic agency said Thursday in a report obtained by AFP. Iran stepped up enrichment on June 6 the same day European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana visited Tehran to present a package of benefits to be discussed if Iran would suspend uranium enrichment, which makes nuclear reactor fuel or in highly refined form atom bomb material, the report said. On that Tuesday, it said, Iran started feeding the raw material of uranium hexafluoride gas, or UF6, into a connected series of 164 centrifuges known as a cascade to produce enriched uranium.
Iran is also building new production lines of the centrifuges that carry out the sensitive nuclear work, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a confidential report to be discussed by the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors next week in Vienna.
And Iran confirms it: An Iranian official has confirmed that the country has stepped up its nuclear activities, following a report from the UN atomic agency that said Iran has accelerated uranium enrichment.
"Iran has started another stage of injecting hexafluoride gas into centrifuge machines," the student news agency ISNA quoted an unnamed official as saying on Friday. "Iran is also pursuing a plan to have a 3,000-centrifuge cascade by the end of the current year (March 2007)," he noted, adding that all the material used in uranium enrichment facilities has been produced domestically.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/09/2006 00:00 ||
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In situations like this, I ask myself, "What would Roddy Piper do?"
#4
Iran is definitely giving us the finger. The Euroweinees have been ignored, so they have only one option....Bolton's way.
Do we have the balls to bomb their facilities ?
When ?
On a cold and blustery evening in December 1989, Huthaifa Azzam, the teenage son of the legendary Jordanian-Palestinian mujahideen leader Sheikh Abdullah Azzam, went to the airport in Peshawar, Pakistan, to welcome a group of young men. All were new recruits, largely from Jordan, and they had come to fight in a fratricidal civil war in neighboring Afghanistanan outgrowth of the CIA-financed jihad of the 1980s against the Soviet occupation there.
The men were scruffy, Huthaifa mused as he greeted them, and seemed hardly in battle-ready form. Some had just been released from prison; others were professors and sheikhs. None of them would prove worth rememberingexcept for a relatively short, squat man named Ahmad Fadhil Nazzal al-Khalaylah.
He would later rename himself Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Once one of the most wanted men in the world, for whose arrest the United States offered a $25 million reward, al-Zarqawi was a notoriously enigmatic figurea man who was everywhere yet nowhere. I went to Jordan earlier this year, three months before he was killed by a U.S. airstrike in early June, to find out who he really was, and to try to understand the role he was playing in the anti-American insurgency in Iraq. I also hoped to get a sense of how his generationthe foreign fighters now waging jihad in Iraqcompare with the foreign fighters who twenty years ago waged jihad in Afghanistan.
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.
Islamic leaders who have seized Somalia's capital after weeks of fighting are beginning talks with the UN-backed government, while the defeated regional commanders are advancing back towards Mogadishu from their stronghold of Jowhar. 
Breakaway factions from two Darfur rebel groups that rejected last month's peace accord have signed a declaration of commitment to the deal. Although the main faction of the rebel 
Bethnal Green and Bow MP George Galloway has distanced himself from a call by one his Respect party activists for Muslims to stop co-operating with the police. He said the plea - made by former journalist Yvonne Ridley at a meeting near the scene of an anti-terror raid in which a man was shot - is not party policy.
Muslim leaders pleaded for help Thursday in their struggle against extremists in their midst, saying they can't fight a small minority of radicals alone. "We're not here to say we don't have an issue," said social worker 
Vice President Dick Cheney Thursday defended himself against accusations by a leading Republican senator that he worked to thwart Senate plans to make telephone executives testify at a hearing about a U.S. domestic spying program.
U.S. Sen. John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat who was beaten by President Bush in the 2004 presidential race and had recently renewed his call for speedy troop withdrawals from Iraq, on Thursday praised the service members involved in Zarqawi's killing.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is warning Americans not to get too excited over the death of Abu Musab al Zarqawi, saying in a statement issued by her office Thursday that it really won't do much to improve the situation in Iraq.
National Assembly Speaker 
Kashmiri leader Yasin Malik, who is chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, is to undergo surgery on 12 June at a Maryland hospital. The operation, the second to be performed on his ear, has been necessitated to deal with the consequences of injuries he suffered several years ago when he jumped form an upper storey window in Srinagar to escape arrest at the hands of Indian security forces.
With the intra-party elections of 
Prime Minister Nouri Maliki on Thursday named the heads of key security ministries appointments Iraqi politicians had fought over bitterly amid increasing death tolls.
BAGHDAD, June 8 (KUNA) -- Iraqi President 
Jubilant Iraqi Shiites distributed sweets and jumped for joy in the streets Thursday to celebrate the killing of Al Qaeda chief in Iraq Abu Mussab Zarqawi, who had declared all-out war on their community. In the capital's Shiite-dominant Kadhimiyah neighbourhood, women and children were seen distributing chocolates to Iraqi soldiers as they danced in the streets. Iraqi army soldiers were also seen dancing at city checkpoints, while in the neighbourhood's revered Kadhim shrine many Shiites were seen offering prayers to thank Allah for the death of country's most wanted militant.
ZARQA, Jordan - Abu Musab Al Zarqawis favourite sister refuses to believe the Al Qaeda frontman has been killed and hopes God will find someone even better to replace him as an Iraq insurgent leader. In her home in the impoverished Jordanian town of Zarqa, Umm Qudama, 33, sobs repeatedly as the news of her brothers death in a US air raid north of Baghdad sinks in. Are you really sure he is dead? she asks people gathered around her as a camera crew from Al Jazeera television prepares to interview her husband.
The Palestinian president will hold a referendum on July 31 on a statehood proposal that implicitly recognises Israel, officials say. The plan by Mahoud Abbas favours a two-state solution to end the conflict with Israel. "Mr Abbas is to sign the decree setting the date for the referendum on Saturday, which means it will be held 50 days later," on July 31, 
Iran accelerated uranium enrichment on the same day this week that world powers asked it to halt the work and open talks on guaranteeing it will not make nuclear weapons, the UN atomic agency said Thursday in a report obtained by AFP. Iran stepped up enrichment on June 6 the same day European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana visited Tehran to present a package of benefits to be discussed if Iran would suspend uranium enrichment, which makes nuclear reactor fuel or in highly refined form atom bomb material, the report said. On that Tuesday, it said, Iran started feeding the raw material of uranium hexafluoride gas, or UF6, into a connected series of 164 centrifuges known as a cascade to produce enriched uranium.
