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Syrian Arrested in Lebanese Editor's Death
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Page 4: Opinion
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Africa Subsaharan
Ugandan rebels kill UN peacekeeper
Ugandan rebels have killed an Indian United Nations peacekeeping soldier and wounded four others in an attack in Nord-Kivu province in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). "An Indian blue helmet was killed and four others wounded, one seriously when their camp at a village in Nord-Kivu was hit by an RPG 7 rocket and came under heavy fire, to which they responded forcefully," a statement from the UN mission in the DRC said.

The attack in the early hours of the morning has been blamed on Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels, who are opposed to President Yoweri Museveni's regime in Uganda. The incident took place at Mukungwe, a village south of Beni in the north of the province. Since Saturday, 3,500 DRC Government troops and 600 UN soldiers have been engaged in a joint operation to get the Ugandan rebels out of the DRC, which they use for a rear base.
Posted by: Fred || 12/27/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  India is replacing the Guards regiment they have in Congo with the 9th Paratroops regiment.
Looks like they expect more fighting. During the last deployment they sent additional IAF helicopter gunships.


Posted by: john || 12/27/2005 7:15 Comments || Top||

#2  One of the Ugandan rebel groups in the ADF is called the "Salaf Tabliq".
They appear to be Wahabi jihadist extremists.

Posted by: john || 12/27/2005 7:20 Comments || Top||

#3  DR Congo army says Ugandan rebel bases crushed
AFP
27 dec. 05 - 16.36h
GOMA, DR Congo, Dec 27 (AFP) - The Democratic Republic of Congo army said Tuesday it had overrun Mwalika, the last stronghold of Ugandan rebels based in the east of the DRC.

"Mwalika fell at about 6:00 am (0400 GMT)," FARDC (Congolese army) General Eugene Mbuy told AFP.

"The fighting began yesterday. There was resistance but we can say we now control the situation in the whole zone of operations," he said.

Since Saturday, some 3,500 FARDC troops supported by an Indian contingent of 600 men from the UN mission in the DRC (MONUC) have attacked the rebel Allied Democratic Front/ National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (ADF/NALU).


Mbuy said he knew of 54 rebels killed, six DRC soldiers killed and 16 wounded, and one Indian UN soldier killed and four injured since Saturday.

He had no specific casualties from the overnight battle for Mwalika, which was the headquarters of the rebels.


Mbuy is based in Goma, the chief town of the DRC's Nord-Kivu province on the border with Rwanda and Uganda.

Uganda has been urging the DRC government in Kinshasa to wipe out the rebels, threatening to send its own troops back into the vast central African country otherwise.


MONUC, which is the world's largest peacekeeping operation with more than 18,600 personnel, is helping the DRC through a transition to national unity and democracy after a 1998-2003 war that drew in the armies of half a dozen other African countries, including Uganda, on rival sides.


UN troops serving as part of MONUC have in the past year taken offensive action alongside DRC soldiers to crush militia forces and private armies still active in the volatile east of Africa's second largest nation, under a tough UN Security Council mandate allowing them to do so under specified conditions.

When the Christmas offensive hit the headlines with the killing of an Indian soldier in an ambush by the Ugandan rebels, a MONUC military spokeman said the UN troops had gone in to support the FARDC because the Ugandan rebels had rejected amnesty, disarmament and repatriation offers.


The UN also said the ADF/NALU was terrorising local residents in the region as well as being engaged in various kinds of illicit traffic. It estimated the total number of Ugandan rebels at about 1,500, while the DRC army said there were between 2,500 and 3,000 of them.
Posted by: john || 12/27/2005 20:40 Comments || Top||

#4  UN pursuing rebels in DR Congo
BBC News
27 dec. 05 - 13.58h
Fighting is continuing in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo between Ugandan rebels and Congolese forces backed by United Nations troops.
The UN, which has 600 soldiers in the region, says the rebels are on the run.

About 40 people have died in the most recent fighting, including an Indian UN peacekeeper and three Congolese troops.

The fighting began when the Allied Democratic Forces rebel group launched a counter-attack against the Congolese and UN soldiers in North Kivu province.

"It's an ongoing operation, the Ugandan rebels are in full flight," UN military spokesman Major Hans-Jakob Reichen told Reuters news agency.

The UN says its operation in the area seeks to bring security to people harassed by hundreds of militiamen.

The operation in the region, known as North Night Final, involves 3,500 Congolese troops, supported by 600 UN peacekeepers using helicopter gunships.
Posted by: john || 12/27/2005 20:44 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Official labels calls to desist from greeting non-Muslims nonsensical
Bahrain's Islamic Affairs Undersecretary Shaikh Fareed Al Miftah has shrugged off as "nonsensical" calls not to offer festive and New Year greetings. "Every year as people celebrate Christmas and the New Year, Muslims in Bahrain and elsewhere are bombarded with messages by zealous brothers not to offer greetings to non-Muslims on the occasions. That is intolerance. There is no objection to Muslims congratulating non-Muslims, be it orally or through cards," Al Miftah said in a press statement coinciding with Christmas and New Year festivities.
But doesn't it say in the Koran someplace that good Muslims don't have any manners? Isn't it a religious requirement to be stupidly arrogant?
"There is no problem with giving or receiving gifts, either." According to the official, the only condition is that cards should not carry icons or symbols that contradict Islamic principles, such as the cross. Hundreds of leaflets distributed in front of mosques and chat forums have called upon Muslims not to wish non-Muslims on Christmas or New Year.
Posted by: Fred || 12/27/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Or is it arrogantly stoopid?
Posted by: Seafarious || 12/27/2005 0:45 Comments || Top||

#2  You are so allowed to greet non-Muslims---getche'r suicide belt here!
Posted by: gromgoru || 12/27/2005 7:53 Comments || Top||

#3  Bahrain's Islamic Affairs Undersecretary Shaikh Fareed Al Miftah has shrugged off as "nonsensical" calls not to offer festive and New Year greetings.

With a smile on your face you approach an Infidel proclaim to him, "Burn in hell, Allah Akhbar" and depress the detonator. Next thing you know you are surrounded by 72 vestile virgins...

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

According to the official, the only condition is that cards should not carry icons or symbols that contradict Islamic principles, such as the cross.


Is Rudolph is a no-no ?
Posted by: BigEd || 12/27/2005 12:05 Comments || Top||

#4  "There is no problem with giving or receiving gifts, either." According to the official, the only condition is that cards should not carry icons or symbols that contradict Islamic principles, such as the cross.

This can be solved very easily. Got Muslim acquaintances in Bahrain? Don't send them cards, don't give them any Christmas wishes, and don't give them presents. Either these Muzzy types are reasonable folk and will pressure the fanatics to back off and stop acting like assholes, or they will accede to the fanatics' wishes, in which case their friendship value probably wasn't worth much anyway.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 12/27/2005 13:19 Comments || Top||


Britain
Blair on family holiday in Sharm El Sheikh
LONDON — British Prime Minister Tony Blair began a family holiday yesterday in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh, a spokesman for his Downing Street office said. No further details of the visit were given other than that the family was paying its own transport and accommodation costs. “The Prime Minister is now on holiday for a short winter break,” a spokesman added. Blair’s holiday travel plans are not normally released for security reasons.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/27/2005 00:52 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Who's paying for his security?
Posted by: gromgoru || 12/27/2005 7:47 Comments || Top||

#2  Tony relaxes in the sun, Cherie does a little networking.
Posted by: Grunter || 12/27/2005 10:35 Comments || Top||

#3  Why on earth would anybody vacation there?
Posted by: 3dc || 12/27/2005 12:27 Comments || Top||

#4  Apparently, if you like sand, sun and water it's very nice, particularly in the winter -- 70 to 80 degrees, etc. There's a thin veneer of first-world comfort with the hotels, etc., so that you never really see Egypt itself. I've never been there, but from what I read, it's popular with the Euros.

Sorta like Cancun with terrorists. :-)
Posted by: Steve White || 12/27/2005 14:22 Comments || Top||

#5  ROFL, Grunter! That deserved a coffee alert, lol!

Cancun with terrorists, LOL, Steve!

Sheesh, gotta wipe away the tears, lol.
Posted by: .com || 12/27/2005 14:38 Comments || Top||

#6  Boy, those Brits don't learn real good, do they? Last time Tony had his holiday in Sharm El Sheikh, we wound up with tiny pieces of a French airliner in the Red Sea... Definitely not terrorism, though.
Posted by: Rory B. Bellows || 12/27/2005 19:36 Comments || Top||


Defiant British foxhunters take to the field
British hunters galloped through fields and forests on the year's biggest hunting day in a show of defiance at a newly-introduced ban on the age-old custom of killing foxes with packs of dogs. Organisers laid trails with the smell of fox, rather than allow dogs to chase real foxes, to avoid falling foul of the ban imposed this year by Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour Party.

The day after Christmas is traditionally the biggest hunting day of the year. At The Quorn Hunt at a stately mansion in Leicestershire, riders - half in shiny black, half in the rich red coats known as "pink" - rode across fields and down country lanes surrounded by enthusiastic hounds. Warm weather and a desire to show support for a repeal of the ban swelled crowds at the Cheshire Hunt, England's oldest, the hunt's former chairman Caroline Paton-Smith said. "I thought it went very, very well. I was just amazed at the crowds," she said. "I don't know where the people had come from. A mass of foot-followers, people who just wanted to get out and see the hounds."

Many hunters say galloping down a pre-laid scented trail is no match for the thrill of chasing a real fox, but they have made the best of the situation. "It is different. But it's good to get out and it's good to be in the countryside," Ms Paton-Smith said. "I saw lots and lots of non-hunting people who seemed to be happy to be there."

Parliament voted to ban hunting after years of debate on the topic, which raised passions on both sides. Hundreds of thousands of pro-hunt supporters marched through London to protest the ruling, while animal rights activists have vowed to ensure that the ban is enforced by authorities. Opponents of the ban say it will doom a traditional way of life and an important source of revenue for rural communities who look after the British countryside. They also say foxes are a menace to poultry and livestock and must be controlled.

But the ban's supporters say killing foxes with dogs is cruel, and chasing a scented trail is a good substitute. "The Hunting Act was never about stopping people from dressing up in funny costumes, having too much to drink and going galloping across the countryside. It was about stopping cruelty to foxes," Mike Hobday said, spokesman for the League Against Cruel Sports. "If they're able to take the cruelty out of their activity, no one's more happy than we are if they go out and have a good day."
Posted by: Fred || 12/27/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I think they should take up hunting "animal rights activists" with dogs and horses.
Posted by: Mahou Sensei Negi-bozu || 12/27/2005 1:13 Comments || Top||

#2  Britain not dead yet!
Posted by: gromgoru || 12/27/2005 7:49 Comments || Top||

#3  I'm not sure of that. What's a fox hunt without a fox?
Posted by: Fred || 12/27/2005 11:41 Comments || Top||

#4  Image hosted by Photobucket.com
Posted by: BigEd || 12/27/2005 11:56 Comments || Top||

#5  I root for the fences.


/no, I don't care if you repair them.
Posted by: Leon Clavin || 12/27/2005 14:45 Comments || Top||

#6 
Grab some animal rights idiots, drench them in Fox scent and give them a running start. Bloody good show old stick!

DIN
Posted by: Doitnow || 12/27/2005 14:52 Comments || Top||

#7  Grab some animal rights idiots, drench them in Fox scent and give them a running start. Bloody good show old stick!


can we watch?
Posted by: Vulpes vulpes || 12/27/2005 16:14 Comments || Top||

#8  I'm not even going to begin making fun of all you Brits for this farce of hunting, as I assume normal people can no longer afford to hunt in Britain anyway.

Hunting??? Don't insult people who really hunt.

I will say that I enjoy bloodsports and encourage others to go out and kill something, pull its guts out and then eat what they kill.

Thems the rules, if'n you hunt and kill it, you gotta gut it, skin it yourself and eat it too!

Otherwise save your costumes for trick or treating.

The brits lost much respect when I learned about what they call deer hunting. Step 1, get license for gun you can't even carry, ever,
step 2 hire guide,
step 3 let guide lead you to deer,
step 4 get gun from guide,
step 5 shoot,
step 6 give gun back to guide,
step 7 take pictures with deer, if you hit it, Step 8 hunt over.
This is worse than game farms!

Forgive me if I left out the ten other ridiculous and costly licensing procedures it takes to hunt in Britain.

EP
Posted by: ElvisHasLeftTheBuilding || 12/27/2005 17:03 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Meera shifts to Dubai
Film actress Meera has shifted to Dubai to facilitate her work in India and Pakistan. “I have shifted to Dubai because I love that place and it will be easier for me to act in Indian and Pakistani films”, Meera told Daily Times on Monday.
Depite its Arab location and population, Dubai has a much lower holy man density...
She denied the statement that she was not acting in Pakistani films and said that she was going to Australia next month for Javed Sheikh’s movie ‘Khulay Asman Kay Nicahy’. She said that she would not disclose the names of Indian films that she was acting in because, “whenever I disclose the name of an Indian film, the script gets stolen”. “I will tell the names of Indian films two months before their release,” the actress said. She said that she dropped her charges against a journalist, saying, “No hard feelings”.
Posted by: Fred || 12/27/2005 10:58 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:



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Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2005-12-27
  Syrian Arrested in Lebanese Editor's Death
Mon 2005-12-26
  78 ill in Russian gas attack?
Sun 2005-12-25
  Jordanian's abductors want failed hotel bomber freed
Sat 2005-12-24
  Bangla Bigots clash with cops, 57 injured
Fri 2005-12-23
  Hamas joins Iran in 'united Islamic front'
Thu 2005-12-22
  French Parliament OKs Anti-Terror Measures
Wed 2005-12-21
  Rabbani backs Qanooni for speaker of Afghan House
Tue 2005-12-20
  Eight convicted Iraqi terrs executed
Mon 2005-12-19
  Sharon in hospital after minor stroke
Sun 2005-12-18
  Mehlis: Syria killed al-Hariri
Sat 2005-12-17
  Iraq Votes
Fri 2005-12-16
  FSB director confirms death of Abu Omar al-Saif
Thu 2005-12-15
  Jordanian PM vows preemptive war on "Takfiri culture"
Wed 2005-12-14
  Iraq Guards Intercept Forged Ballots From Iran
Tue 2005-12-13
  US, UK, troop pull-out to begin in months

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