[Shabelle] Since the Westgate shopping mall attacks, many Kenyans now live in fear. But the government's anti-terror crackdown has angered many Mohammedans, some of whom have flocked to al-Shabaab ... the personification of Somali state failure...
The worsening security situation in Kenya is very worrying. The al-Shabaab assault on the Westgate shopping mall in 2013, which resulted in the deaths of 67 people, grabbed international headlines, but it wasn't the first.
Grenade attacks and other bombings have become commonplace since the Kenyan army invadedSomalia in 2011. Only last week both Nairobi and Mombasa were struck. The Somali terrorist group was accused by Kenya of being behind both these recent attacks, even though the group has not grabbed credit.
In response to the attacks, thousands of Somalis in Kenya have been rounded up, imprisoned and some deported to Mogadishu. In response, human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... groups have urged a stop to the crackdown: "Kenyan police and other security agencies should stop arbitrary arrests and detentions, extortion, and other abuses against Somalis".
In the coastal region, mostly populated by Mohammedans, law enforcement agencies are accused of intimidation, arrest and extrajudicial killings.
Assassination campaign
Sheikh Abubakar Sharif, known as Makaburi, who was killed last month, was the latest in an on-going liquidation campaign that's targeting high-profile Mohammedanholy mans in Kenya. It came days after a top government official announced "a shoot to kill order on all terrorism suspects".
Makaburi, who had defended al-Shabaab terrorist attacks on Kenyans, was the third high-profile Mohammedan figure to be rubbed out in less than two years. No one grabbed credit for the killings. Kenyan authorities say the crackdown is part of a necessary campaign to counter the threat of al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamists like al-Shabaab.
However, the man who has no enemies isn't anybody and has never done anything... the on-going battle looks like a scenario which an al-Shabaab commander described to me in 2010. He was talking about "how to win a war". Back then, the Islamist fighters were in control of most of southern and central Somalia. Kenya and al-Shabaab had a mutual understanding: "Don't touch me, I won't touch you."
Both parties had something to lose. All that has now changed. Kenyan forces are in Somalia while al-Shabaab and affiliated groups are active in Kenya. They are now at war.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: al-Shabaab
[An Nahar] Canada's Kim Bolduc was on Monday named as the head of the United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), a statement from secretary-general the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... 's office said.
Bolduc, 62, will also serve as Ban's special representative for Western Sahara, replacing Germany's Wolfgang Weisbrod-Weber who steps down on July 31.
Bolduc has more than 30 years of experience working in U.N. agencies or missions.
She most recently served as U.N. coordinator and U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) resident Representative in Panama from 2010 to 2014.
Previous posts included stints in Haiti and Brazil, a statement said.
Western Sahara is controlled by Morocco and claimed by Polisario Front separatists backed by Algeria.
MINURSO is mainly charged with monitoring a ceasefire in the former Spanish colony.
Rabat has proposed autonomy under Moroccan illusory sovereignty for the vast region, which has fewer than one million inhabitants.
The Polisario Front wants a referendum on the territory's status.
The United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... appointed on Monday the first woman to command one of the world body's peacekeeping operations.
UN Secretary-General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... named Major General Kristin Lund, of Norway, as the force commander for the UN peacekeeping operation in Cyprus. She will replace Major General Chao Liu, of China, on Aug. 13. "Major General Lund has had a distinguished military career, with over 34 years of military command and staff experience at national and international levels," Ban said in a statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
[Al Ahram] Magdy Qorqor, a leading member of Egypt's largest Islamist alliance, said the binary division currently engulfing the country could have been prevented if Moslem Brüderbund supporters had agreed to hold a referendum on deposed 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... prior to his ouster.
In a Sunday evening interview with privately-owned Al-Tahrir TV channel, Qorqor -- a long-time member of the Islamist New Labour Party and a leader in the pro-Morsi National Alliance to Support Legitimacy (NASL) -- also said the alliance acknowledges that Egypt's current reality now exceeds their demand for Morsi's reinstatement.
The prominent Islamist additionally stated that he denounces violence, whether practised by protesters or security forces.
His comments come only days after a number of pro-Morsi political forces unveiled in a presser in Brussels what they dubbed a "charter of principles" to reclaim the 25 January uprising, urging "revolutionary forces" to rally behind the document.
The 10-article document listed a series of demands including: a pluralist administration of the country, the army's return to the barracks and disengagement from politics, transitional and social justice, the safeguarding of general freedoms and rights, the protection of dignity and the uprooting of corruption.
Representatives of the NASL, a 14-party Islamist coalition, said they were still considering the initiative, adding that some of the group's members have "individually" endorsed the document.
"The alliance is not making any demands that contradict the Brussels' document," said Qorqor, stressing that those who announced the initiative from the Belgian capital did not insist on Morsi's reinstatement per se but, rather, on what they described as a "return to the democratic path".
Islamists and supporters of the deposed president have consistently refused to acknowledge the mass protests that contextualised his ouster last summer, accusing the military of staging a coup that sabotaged democracy.
Qorqor added that the alliance remains committed to its three demands: "regaining the 25 January revolution and the democratic path, defeating the coup, and safeguarding the rights of the deaders and the injured".
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[Daily Caller] "Islam is not the problem," said Ahmed Bedier, a Florida-based Islamic advocate. "We're tired of people coming on television and asking where does this ideology come from," Bedier said. "Well, this ideology comes from nowhere," he insisted. Are we then to assume that the alleged conversion of these kidnapped Christian girls to Islam was a coincidence? The ideology came from nowhere? That's closer to the truth than he'd care to admit...
Posted by: Besoeker ||
05/13/2014 08:59 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Boko Haram
#1
Of course not. Book Haram is just following the Quran.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
05/13/2014 9:48 Comments ||
Top||
#2
he could have gotten extra giggles by blaming it on Israel (or maybe Global warming or, as Kerry implied, on the Tea Party)
Posted by: lord garth ||
05/13/2014 11:11 Comments ||
Top||
#3
"U.S. Muslim groups" are another reason why State didn't designate them as a terrorist organization (in addition to all those Africa and human rights 'experts'.)
#5
well, I was given an English Language translation of the Quran while I was in Libya and I read it, cover to cover.
I can tell you from my understanding, none of this stuff Boko Haram is spewing around is in the Quran.
The problem with most Muslims is they don't read the Quran and whatever the local imam or leader says is in the Quran they believe it and do it. So a complete nutjob, an illiterate dolt could set himself up as an imam and begin blathering the most irrational crap imaginable and he would have followers.
Islam needs to get a grip on their "leaders" and Muslims everywhere need to disavow what these idiots are doing.
When Ahmed Bedier says this ideology comes from nowhere, he means it doesn't come from the Quran and this psychopath that leads Boko Haram is pulling this crap out of thin air or his own ass.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
05/13/2014 11:20 Comments ||
Top||
#6
"U.S. Muslim groups" are another reason why State didn't designate them as a terrorist organization (in addition to all those Africa and human rights 'experts'.) Posted by Pappy
#7
Ask any muslim and they will tell you the Koran is supposed to be read in the original Arabic. Perhaps nuances are missing in the English version (sort of like an Arafat speach).
Somehow Death to infidels reads as religion of
peace.
there are many translations of the quran, some are done to obfuscate or sanitize the harsher verses
the key verses in the quran on this issue include
4:92
23:1-6
24:33
33:50
these verses are the subject of commentaries and also explained by hadith (the sayings of Mohammud and his companions) and the Sunna (the authorize biog of Mohammud)
these latter sources explain the idiomatic expressions (as noted by rjs, these are in a paleo arabic that is no longer spoken) in the quran ('what your right hand takes' = what you capture in war or in a raiding party)
when you look at all these together there is no doubt at all the kidnapping infidel women and using them for sex slavery is permitted in islam
there are various opinion on where the limit is on the use of such women, e.g., may you punish them the same way as you would a wife or concubine or in a different way, but these are 'in the weeds' compared to the basic issue
Posted by: lord garth ||
05/13/2014 12:12 Comments ||
Top||
#10
I don't need to read that devil book. I can see for myself what these people do and if they're kidnapping Christian girls or any other girls for that matter it tells me all I need to know.
#11
Islam is to religion like Scientology is to religion, a politico-plutocratic doctrine dressed up in magico-phenominal concepts to induce the useful idiots to believe and adhere and obey, and fear. Its adherents have a sense of being on the right side of their deity when they commit a variety of immoral acts and the lack of a central authority (papacy equivalent) ensures decentralized planning and execution. As a revolutionary ideology, very well conceived, even brilliant, but as a theological construct to reveal the will of a loving deity, .....sophmoric.
#12
Yeah, it's a "religion of peace", assholes! So shut the fuck up about it or we'll kill you!
Posted by: Ahmed Bedier ||
05/13/2014 13:24 Comments ||
Top||
#13
The use of the term "comes from nowhere" is a clever bit of hypnotic indirection. If you don't understand that idea, try thinking of nothing for half an hour or so & report back.
[ExpressUK] THEY are Africa's new and terrified diaspora: thousands of women fleeing across harsh, arid scrubland to escape Islamic fanatics who want to enslave them at home in northern Nigeria.
Refugee crises have blighted Africa's history but the recent abduction of 276 schoolgirls is unparalleled.
An estimated 60,000 women and their children have fled across the border into Niger in the past year alone to escape brutal Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... The fundamentalists with links to Al Qaeda are funded by the illegal ivory trade, slaughtering wild elephants.
They show no mercy in their crusade to stop female education either, murdering and torturing those who stand in their way and burning villages.
Last night the International Rescue Committee reported that up to 1,000 refugees a week, 80 per cent female, are pouring into neighbouring Niger's Diffa region from Borno state, where the schoolgirls were kidnapped from Chibok school in April.
"The stories the refugees tell us are terrible," says Matias Meier, IRC country director in Niger. "At times they have had to run over corpses of people who have been shot or have drowned as they attempted to cross Lake Chad.
"There is a worry that if more humanitarian aid does not arrive soon, some mothers will be forced into prostitution to feed their children."
IRC says 18,000 people have escaped to Diffa this year, joining 40,000 refugees who fled there last year. By the end of the year, as many as 100,000 could be trying to survive on the harsh, impoverished landscape.
It has set up reception centres to provide emergency support while reuniting separated children with relatives and giving them safe places to maintain their education.
Unicef, the world's leading organization for helping children, is preparing for another operation to ensure the kidnapped schoolgirls are reconciled with their families and communities.As fears grow that they may be being sold into slavery or forced marriages to be sexually abused, rescued girls will need expert counselling and support to readjust to everyday life.
With the world united in condemning the abduction, Britannia has sent an expert search team from the Foreign Office and the Ministry of Defence.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
05/13/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Boko Haram
#1
will they be fleeing to the United Kingdom where subway can't sell pork and they are being funded from? How about Saudi Arabia ?
#2
And the Barack Hussein Obama Regime tells the world (and Boko Haram of course) that they are flying surveillance missions over the area.
It's not about finding the bad boys, its about "Hey world, look at me, I am doing something other than the hashtag thing!", all the while giving the terrorists plenty of warning what is being done to find them.
[Shabelle] Ugandan police have drastically increased their surveillance in the country after reports emerged last week of impending terrorist attacks.
Police front man, Fred Enanga, has announced that all public places without adequate security provisions will be shut down.
He has also called on the public to be vigilant and collaborate with the police to curb any insidious plot.
The police have also increased their surveillance at the country's borders. Reports indicate that individuals and vehicles entering the country are set to be subjected to a search and provided with security escort.
Last week, the United States revealed that its embassy in Uganda has received information of a plot to attack "places of worship in Kampala, particularly churches...in May or June."
Mr. Enanga also told the press that "For the last couple of months, our police counter-terrorism unit and other sister security agencies have been receiving reports of terrorist groups planning to carry out attacks in the capital, Kampala and other parts" of the country.
Although the gunnies behind these threats are yet to be identified, many accusing fingers are pointing at al-Shabaab ... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda... .
The Somali-based gunnies have declared war on all countries contributing forces to the African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) in a bid to force their withdrawal.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: al-Shabaab
[VOA News] Kidnappings, an influx of refugees and an increase fighting and criminal acts in Cameroon's border communities have raised concerns about Nigeria's Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... insurgency.
Cameroonians in northern communities that share a boundary with Nigeria's Borno state, the base of the Boko Haram hard boy group, are worried the violent group has extended its reach into Cameroon.
Nurse Mary Nana, 31, told VOA she was preparing to leave the border locality of Fotokol after four Cameroonians were killed and some 3,000 Nigerians crossed over to her area following last week's attack on a market by suspected Boko Haram members.
"I am very much aware of the fact that they [Boko Haram] are here so the insecurity is just too much," she said. "I am very very afraid. I think if there is a possibility of leaving even this day as I am talking [I would be happy]. The insecurity is just too much."
Secondary school teacher John Che says insecurity has increased in North Cameroon where he works because of the belief that Boko Haram Death Eaters are in the area.
"The security situation of this region is questionable," Che said. "We don't know who is who because the Boko Haram guys are at our door steps."
Fonka Awah Augustine, the governor of Far North Cameroon, says the cause of the public's anxiety is apparent.
"Our problems come from our neighbors," he noted. " Each time the Nigerian army attacks, Boko Haram becomes destabilized and they are looking for a safe ground to settle, and each time Boko Haram equally attacks either the army or a particular community they cause the flow of the population in their thousands into our region. [far north Cameroon]."
Augustine says he banned movements from dusk to dawn on cycle of violences, which are a widely used means of transportation in North Cameroon, because Boko Haram members have been using them to cause havoc.
"All the kidnappings and the attacks were done with the complicity of cycle of violences," he said. "So we feel that cycle of violences are really becoming a source of trouble and they are being used as an instrument to cause disorder and trouble in this region."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Boko Haram
[Al Ahram] Kuwait's Islamic Affairs Minister Nayef al-Ajmi, accused by a senior US official of promoting jihad in Syria, said on Monday the Gulf state ruler has accepted his resignation.
"I thank the emir for accepting my resignation and understanding its reasons," Ajmi, who also holds the justice portfolio, said on his Twitter account without explaining the reasons.
Local media says he has quit for health reasons.
This is the second time in about five weeks that Ajmi says he has resigned.
In early April he submitted his resignation following accusations by a US official that he had links with Jihadists in Syria but it was turned down by Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah.
The US Treasury under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, David Cohen, charged earlier this year that Ajmi "has a history of promoting jihad in Syria".
His appointment as minister in January was a "step in the wrong direction", Cohen said in a lecture in the United States, parts of which were carried by the Kuwaiti press in March.
A statement released after a March 31 cabinet meeting said ministers had followed Cohen's comments "with great attention and displeasure".
Ajmi acknowledged he had taken part in fund-raising campaigns for Syria, but insisted they had been for humanitarian purposes and not for Syria's Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front as alleged by Cohen.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: al-Nusra
[AlJazeera] Rise of vigilante movement brought fears that it could turn into a dangerous paramilitary force.
Mexican authorities have begun handing out blue uniforms and assault rifles to vigilantes in the country's western region, legalising a movement that formed last year to combat a vicious narco mob.
Scores of farmers lined up at a cattle ranch on Saturday to receive the uniforms of the newly created rural state police force in Tepalcatapec, one of the towns that founded the self-defence militias in the lush agricultural state of Michoacan.
The units were also making their debut in the neighbouring town of Buenavista, which revolted in February 2013 against the cult-like Knights Templars gang because local police failed to protect them.
"With this we become legal," said the white-bearded vigilante leader Estanislao Beltran, nicknamed "Papa Smurf," after slipping into his blue uniform. "We are part of the government."
The new rural coppers then sang the national anthem at a formal swearing-in ceremony in the town square.
The federal government, which had tolerated the vigilantes, has warned that anybody found carrying weapons illegally after Saturday's deadline to join the police will be enjugged Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! .But vigilante leaders said they still had to hash out details on pay and who would be in command, though they would work alongside the regular state police.
'Pseudo-vigilantes'
The rise of the vigilante movement, which spread to some 30 towns, brought fears that it could turn into a dangerous paramilitary force.
The violence in Michoacan turned into one of the biggest security challenges to President Enrique Pena Nieto, who deployed thousands of troops to restore order last year and named a special security envoy earlier this year.
The transition comes amid deep divisions within the vigilante movement, accusations that it is infiltrated by cartels and the recent arrest of one of its founders.
Authorities have also found several cases of criminals posing as vigilantes.
Late Friday, 135 "pseudo-vigilantes" were arrested in La Mira, near the port of Lazaro Cardenas, after clashing with troops, a state security official told AFP.
The movement's leadership has faced turmoil, too.
On Thursday, the council of self-defense forces in more than 30 towns announced the dismissal of its chief front man, Jose Manuel Mireles, who was absent from Saturday's events.
The council accused him of making public statements without clearance that undermined the movement.
It also said "recent actions" by Mireles had cost the lives of five civilians, but it did not elaborate.
Authorities said on Friday they are investigating whether Mireles had a role in the deaths.
Mireles could not be reached for comment.
Another founder of the movement, Hipolito Mora, was arrested in March on charges that he was behind the murders of two fellow vigilantes. He has rejected the charges.
Mireles, a tall, mustachioed doctor, told a radio station this week that the vigilante movement was divided and infiltrated by criminals.
Later he released an Internet video message asking Pena Nieto for a direct dialogue and saying he needed a new security detail because he feared for his life.
After the authorities took down three of the four main Knights Templar leaders, the vigilantes signed an agreement last month to register their guns and put them away at home, or join the rural force.
The militias and the government are still hunting for the cartel's last top leader, Servando Gomez, alias La Tuta.
Alfredo Castillo, Pena Nieto's special security envoy to Michoacan, said the vigilantes had registered 6,442 of an estimated 7,000 weapons as of Friday, including 4,497 military-grade guns.
More than 3,300 vigilantes have signed up to join the police force, officials said. The vigilantes have said that they have 20,000 people in their ranks.
[Ynet] A former London imam told a jury Monday that he tried to help hostages in Yemen in 1998 by urging their captors to let them telephone embassies and their families.
Mustafa Kamel Mustafa
...a.k.a. Abu Hamza al Masri, or "Hook Hand" for short, because in a moment of sheer stupidity he blew both his hands off trying to learn how to make bombs...
testified for a third day in Manhattan federal court. He has pleaded not guilty "Wudn't me." to charges that he conspired to support terrorism by helping the hostage takers, by later trying to create a training camp in Oregon and by arranging for men to attend al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan. If convicted, he would likely face life in prison.
[DAWN] While the World Health Organisation has recently put travel restrictions on the country for its high contribution to polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set... cases being detected across the world, the health authorities of Sindh on Monday recorded this year's fifth polio case in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... in an 18-month-old girl residing in one of the areas labelled as the most sensitive as far as the crippling viral disease is concerned.
Sources in the Prime Minister's Polio Cell in Islamabad identified the fifth victim as Hafsa, daughter of Marjan, whose stool samples had been sent to the National Institute of Health three weeks ago.
Officials in the Sindh government said the girl was among those children who missed out on the past polio campaigns because of refusals by their families.
"Family living in Manghopir's Sultanabad Sector 3 didn't allow her to be administered a single booster during our frequent campaigns. Our volunteers risk their lives to save those children, yet we see all this," said a senior provincial government official in a dejected tone.
Administratively, the officials said, the locality fell in the union council 8 of Gadap Town. Out of the five polio cases detected so far in the city, three were reported in Gadap alone, while one each belonged to Baldia and Orangi.
Polio workers have repeatedly come under attacks in Gadap town in recent years, compelling the authorities to suspend the immunisation campaigns quite often in Gadap and some other areas of the city.
Officials in Gadap Town said the girl's family came to Karachi from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas some six months back.
They were unable to say to which tribal agency the family belonged.
Last year a polio team was attacked during an anti-polio drive in Gadap. Similarly, a local paramedic associated with polio vaccination was rubbed out and a doctor working for the World Health Organisation, Fosten Dido, from Ghana and his driver were maimed in 2012 in two separate attacks in the Sohrab Goth area. Also in December 2012, a young volunteer associated with the anti-polio campaign was rubbed out in an attack in Gadap town.
While the Sindh government initially ordered the law-enforcement agencies to provide security to polio workers during such campaigns, a strategy was later worked out to provide better security to volunteers and ensure maximum coverage during anti-polio campaigns.
On Jan 21, 2014, three polio workers, two of them female, were killed in Qayyumabad.
Following the deadly attack, theSindh government decided that cycle of violence riding be banned for eight hours in 24 union councils of Karachi on Sundays for the safety of the vaccinators participating in anti-polio drive in these areas during these hours.
Since then the special polio campaigns are run in selected areas of the city on Sundays with proper security cover.
However, if you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning... this time the health authorities postponed its special polio campaign in 'sensitive' neighbourhoods because of police preoccupation with protest demonstrations organised by some political parties on Sunday, the officials said.
The vaccination has attained even more importance in the wake of the travel restrictions imposed by the World Health Organisation on the country for its staggeringly high contribution to the polio cases recorded globally this year.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[DAWN] Two new polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set... cases have been detected in the country.
An 18-month-old girl of a family which had shifted to Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas in recent months is the latest victim of polio virus, sources in the Sindh health department and Prime Minister's Polio Cell confirmed to Dawn on Monday.
They identified the girl as Hafsa, daughter of Marjan, a resident of Manghopir's Sultanabad area, administratively in Gadap Town, where two cases were reported early this year.
Five polio cases have been found in Sindh so far this year, all of them in Karachi.
The other polio case reported on Monday is from North Wazoo, which is home to 160,000 unvaccinated children since August 2012.
The agency has recorded 41cases in the countrywide tally of 61 in 2014 so far. Six cases have been found in other areas of Fata, which is directly governed by the federal government.
Nine cases have been found in Khyber Pakhtunkhawa -- five in Bannu and four in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. .
Meanwhile, ...back at the pound, the little lost dog had finished eating the rat terrier... the army has started giving oral polio vaccine to children in North Waziristan for the first time since the Taliban banned vaccination there, according to sources.
The army has been holding free medical camps where children are being administered polio vaccines. Residents said people also brought vaccines from Bannu to 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... and other parts of the agency.
In Boya, Dosal and Esha villages, children have been vaccinated in the camps where people said they had not seen vaccinators since the Taliban banned the campaign.
Local authorities said that they had also planned medical camps in Kajoorai, Razmak, Dattakhel and Tall to offer diagnostic and treatment services to people by trained doctors and staff of the army.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[DAWN] Terming recent statements by politicians and journalists alleging foreign funding for a specific Pak media outlet as "misleading or inaccurate," the United States on Monday clarified that the embassy provides funding and support to a broad range of organizations to facilitate professional development and capacity building activities.
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) chief Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who is the lightweight's lightweight... had announced complete boycott of Geo TV and the Jang Group for allegedly helping the Pakistain Mohammedan League-Nawaz (PML-N) emerge victorious in the 2013 General Elections.
Khan had also lashed out at the media group during his Sunday's speech at D-Chowk in the federal capital, where the party staged a protest rally against alleged rigging in the May 11 poll last year.
The boycott coincides with the tensions simmering between the embattled media house and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) over the channel's treatment of allegations levelled in the wake of the attack on senior journalist Hamid Mir.
The blurb, issued here said the US government strongly supports vibrant, professional, and independent media in Pakistain as they do elsewhere globally. The US government assistance supports Pakistain's media sector broadly, to include a range of print, broadcast, and radio formats, it added.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[DAWN] A member of the ruling Pakistain Mohammedan League-Nawaz (PML-N), Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani revealed in the National Assembly on Monday that around 5,000 Hindus are migrating from Pakistain to India every year.
Commenting on law and order situation in the country, the PML-N MNA said that six incidents of religious desecration happened within last two months in Sindh, majority of the incidents were regarding burning the religious books of Hindu minority in the province.
Vankwani said that it was the constitutional rights of the people, belonging to different minorities, to practice their religion freely in Pakistain. "Are we not part of Pakistain?" he questioned.
He said that influential people were forcefully converting religion of Hindu girls in interior Sindh, urging the government to take steps to counter such attempts from Mohammedan majority in the country.
The PML-N politician also said that it was the teaching of all the religions to respect other faiths but the minorities had failed to get equal rights in Pakistain.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
Now all they need is for the Indian Muslims to migrate to Pakiland.
[Ynet] Defense establishment says it needs budget injection to continue to function, train soldiers, but Finance Ministry claims army budget is biggest ever; IDF source: Reserve forces aren't training, growing rusty.
The IDF claims it needs an immediate NIS 2 billion cash injection to continue to function to protect the country and in order to conduct ongoing training operations.
Though IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz has yet to publically comment on the defense establishment's financial crisis, senior officers said Sunday that "if additional funds are not given there will be no choice but to stop ground forces' training, and maybe even those of the Air Force."
In the meantime, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon is spear-heading the campaign to recruit funds. During Sunday's Cabinet meeting, the defense minister reiterated that when the government decided to cut NIS 4.5 billion from the defense budget for 2014 (in comparison to 2013) he had warned the ministers that the army's budget would run dry by the end of April.
In response, the Finance Ministry said that the Defense Ministry's 2014 budget is the largest in history. They reminded defense officials that the ministry received a NIS 2.75 billion injection last October, in return for promising not to request additional funds until the end of 2014.
The current assessment is that once Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returns from his visit to Japan he will support the defense establishment's request and authorize the budgetary supplement, as he has done in previous years.
The ministry emphasized that the army's demand for additional funds appeared contrary to the reality on the ground, as the Finance Ministry claimed this was the "least dangerous time in Israel in recent years."
The IDF and the defense establishment are having a hard time making the case that a budgetary supplement is vital for the IDF's ongoing functionality, and that the IDF has already begun cut costs.
They claim that the IDF has already shaved off more than 1,000 career soldiers and will see another 4,500 positions reduced within a year. IDF officials say that they will close a combat air squad, six Armed Corps divisions, an Artillery Corps division and one logistic division if the crisis remains unresolved.
Despite these severe cuts, they warned that the "reserve forces aren't training and they're growing rusty."
According to a senior IDF source, "even though (NIS 4.5 billion) is a drastic cut to our budget, the public is having a hard time believing the army; they are being duped by the Finance Ministry."
"Our problem is that we come to the debate carrying on our back an unjustified misperception of excess fat. We have been downsizing, but the public doesn't see the change."
The source argued against the claim the military has not implemented the reductions, saying that reservists have been called up on fewer occasions for training: "Very few reservists are being invited for training, and they feel the budget cut, as do high-quality career officers who are jumping ship," they said, hinting that as the IDF downsizes it will lose the ability to compete with the labor market.
The current assessment is that once Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returns from his visit to Japan he will support the defense establishment's request and authorize the budgetary supplement, as he has done in previous years.
[Ynet] Israeli man tossed in the clink Book 'im, Mahmoud! at airport at behest of US for allegedly exporting military related equipment to Islamic republic; report claims he has been convicted of similar charges in the past.
A 64-year-old man from central Israel was arrested Monday at Ben Gurion International Airport at the request of the US. The man was charged in the US for selling embargoed equipment to Iran.
According to a statement released by the Justice Ministry, the suspect -- who was arrested while attempting to leave the country -- was charged with exporting US military equipment without a license and laundering money.
State prosecutors have filed a request to extend his remand in a bid to give their US counterparts to file an extradition request.
For his part, the accused denies the allegations and said the beginning of his court hearing that "I had no idea an indictment was filed against me in the US."
According the US indictment, between the years 2000-2004, the accused disobeyed a presidential executive order which stipulated restrictions on the export of military equipment used by the US, and failed to secure the required license to do so from the State Department.
In addition, between 2012-2013, the Israeli is accused of playing a role in illegally exporting spare parts for the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II and F-14 jets to the Islamic republic, which also demands a specific license, in this case from the US Treasury Department.
The story was first revealed by the Greek paper Ekathimerini, which first reported about an international investigation against an Israeli arms dealer some two months ago.
According to the report, spare parts for airplanes were sent in a container from the Binyamini area to Iran, via Greece. The arms dealers, the paper reported, have in the past been convicted of similar crimes.
The Justice Ministry echoed the claim in their statement, saying that the suspected had in the past been "convicted in the US of offences relating to exporting military equipment without proper licenses, and thus indicates the danger he poses and that he cannot be trusted. His past convictions and current allegations indicate that his criminal behavior is ongoing."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
05/13/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
[Iran Press TV] The Paleostinian Authority has urged the international community to designate Israeli settler groups that attack Paleostinians as terrorist organizations.
Paleostinian Authority Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki said on Monday that he had made a written request to Russia, the United States, Canada, the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... , the United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... , the Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... , and some other international organizations to classify Israeli settler groups as terrorist organizations.
In the letter, Malki said that he had provided details about the Israeli vandalism of Paleostinian properties and holy sites.
He said in the letters that settlers known as the "Hilltop Youth" and "price tag" perpetrators "practice terror ... constantly against the Paleostinian people, their land, holy places and property."
"These groups play a role in killing, incitement to violence and spreading the culture of hatred and racism," he said in the letter.
Price tag attacks are acts of vandalism and violence against Paleostinians and their property as well as Islamic holy sites.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Palestinian Authority
#1
Israel has imposed a cost to delaying the peace process. The longer the Paleostinians wait the more of their land will be lost to settlements.
[Ynet] Together with prison services, Shin Bet stops plan to kidnap soldier near Nablus; plan put together by group of security prisoners still in jail, who receive funding from Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,, planed to execute kidnapping on release.
Security forces have thwarted a Hamas-funded attempt to kidnap soldiers in the West Bank and use them as bargaining chips to secure the release of Paleostinian prisoners held by Israel, it was cleared for publication Sunday.
The Shin Ben, aided by the Israel Prison Service, managed to stop the attempted kidnapping which was being planned by two forces of Evil serving time in an Israeli prison. The kidnapping was supposed to take place in the area between Nablus and the West Bank outpost of Yithzar in the Shomron region.
According to the Shin Bet, Abed Alrahaman and Otoman Waasem Zin a-Din, serving time in an Israel for their role in a 2006 shooting that killed a soldier, attempted to form a kidnapping cell which would kidnap a soldier with the help of additional security prisoner, once they were released.
The Shin Bet further claims that Hamas agreed to fund them operation, and the money was supposed to be transferred through a Saudi national. The funds were to be used to buy arms and train operatives for the operation while still in jail. The mission was supposed to take place upon their impending release from the Israeli prison.
A relative of one of the two was enlisted for the kidnapping mission, and his role was to find a hiding place, steal a car, purchase the arms and knock-out drugs.
The Shin Bet further said that the communications between the group were undertaken via mobile phones smuggled into the prison; as well as letters sent to through family members visiting in the jail.
All in all six men, at least three of which are still in jail, are being indicted at the Salem Military Court.
[An Nahar] The U.N. Security Council should impose a ceasefire to end the bloodshed in Syria, Qatar's foreign minister said Monday, accusing the Damascus regime of using poison gas against rebel-held areas.
"It is imperative that the U.N. Security Council assume its responsibilities and force the implementation of its resolutions for a ceasefire, to protect the Syrian people from killing and displacement," Khalid al-Attiyah told participants in the Doha Forum.
He accused Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Scourge of Qusayr... 's government of using "poison gas, in a flagrant challenge to the international community and in violation of international laws".
Qatar is a major backer of the rebellion against Assad.
More than 150,000 people have been killed in Syria's conflict, which began in mid-March 2011 with anti-government protests.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
[Iran Press TV] Syria's Ambassador to Iran Adnan Mahmoud says the situation in his country is ripe for holding a free presidential vote with the participation of all Syrian compatriots and expatriates.
"After enduring numerous hardships and sufferings due to war and bloodshed waged by terrorist and mercenary groups, Syrian people have now pinned their hopes on (presidential) election and restoration of genuine calm in their country," Mahmoud said in a meeting with Iranian Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani in Tehran on Monday.
He expressed gratitude over the support being rendered by the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran to the Syrian nation, stressing that Syrians will never forget about Iran's spiritual support and humanitarian aid convoys.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
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.
[An Nahar] Canada's Kim Bolduc was on Monday named as the head of the 
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
[ExpressUK] THEY are Africa's new and terrified diaspora: thousands of women fleeing across harsh, arid scrubland to escape Islamic fanatics who want to enslave them at home in northern Nigeria.
[VOA News] Kidnappings, an influx of refugees and an increase fighting and criminal acts in Cameroon's border communities have raised concerns about Nigeria's 
[AlJazeera] Rise of vigilante movement brought fears that it could turn into a dangerous paramilitary force.
Wazoo
[Ynet] Israeli man 
[Ynet] Together with prison services, Shin Bet stops plan to kidnap soldier near Nablus; plan put together by group of security prisoners still in jail, who receive funding from 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
