The United States Secretary of State John Kerry will renew his threat of sanctions against Sudan's militants in a visit next week to South Sudan, where ethnic killings are ripping apart the 3-year-old nation and all but scuttling peace talks.
Attaboy, Jahwn, that should do it...
John Kerry's in South Sudan visit will come against the backdrop of last week's massacre of several hundred civilians in the northern city of Bentiu by rebel fighters. On Friday, the government in Juba released four politicians who had been charged with treason in a negotiation attempt with rebels to set conditions for peace.
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the release "should have happened long ago" but still welcomed it. She said the U.S. is still considering sanctions against militants who threaten South Sudan's security and stability, have targeted U.N. peacekeepers or are otherwise responsible for human rights abuses.
"We continue to be shocked and horrified by the violence on the ground," Psaki told reporters in Washington. "The level of violence and the horrific massacres that we're seeing have led us to this point."
Did Jen use a hashtag? Can't be a serious statement from Jen at Foggy Bottom these days without a hashtag...
The U.N. Security Council also is considering sanctions if attacks on civilians continue, and top U.N. officials will be in South Sudan this weekend to investigate the brutalities and reported use of radio to disseminate hate speech.
Kerry told reporters on Thursday that he plans to stop in South Sudan as part of a four-nation trip to sub-Saharan Africa.
U.S. sanctions could be imposed on people on both sides of South Sudan's conflict, and they have been threatened for nearly a month.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/28/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
[Aypee] MINYA, Egypt (AP) A judge in Egypt on Monday sentenced to death 683 alleged supporters of the country's ousted Islamist president in the latest mass trial that included the Muslim Brotherhood's spiritual leader, defense lawyers said.
But in a surprise reversal, the same judge also reduced most of the death sentences handed to 529 defendants in a similar case in March, commuting the majority of them on Monday to life imprisonment. A "surprise" to some possibly.
The judge, Said Youssef, said he was referring his ruling on the 683 death sentences for violence and the killing of policemen to the Grand Mufti, the top Islamic official a requirement under Egyptian law, but one that is considered a formality. Sort of the Erik Holder of Egypt is he ?
Both mass trials are linked to deadly riots that erupted in Minya and elsewhere in Egypt after security forces violently disbanded sit-ins held by Brotherhood supporters in Cairo last August. Soon to be reduced to 'time served.'
[Al Ahram] Algerian opposition parties are to boycott the inauguration Monday of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika ... 10th president of Algeria. He was elected in 1999 and is currently on his third or fourth term. Maybe it's the fifth. He'll likely die in office of old age... after his re-election in a campaign he was too sick to participate in, an opposition leader said.
Five of the parties staying away called on their supporters to boycott the election itself. A sixth -- the Socialist Forces Front (FFS) -- left it to its rank and file to make up their own minds whether to vote in the April 17 poll.
"It's the logical conclusion of the election boycott," said Abderezak Mokri, leader of the Movement of Society for Peace.
His party and two other moderate Islamist groups -- the Front for Justice and Development and Ennhada -- joined with the Jil El Djadid (Party of Youth) and the fiercely secular Rally for Culture and Democracy in the polling day boycott.
Turnout in the election was just 50.7 percent, according to official figures, sharply down on the 74.5 percent reported when Bouteflika won a third term in 2009, although that figure was criticised in a leaked US embassy cable as inflated.
But rai star Khaled told AFP that he was taking the plane on Sunday evening to be present in Algiers for the swearing in of the veteran incumbent.
Khaled, who fled to La Belle France in the 1980s in the face of threats from Islamists, contributed a clip to the Bouteflika re-election campaign from which the president himself was entirely absent.
Bouteflika, who turned up in a wheelchair to cast his own vote on polling say, has hardly been since in public since a mini-stroke which confined him to hospital in Gay Paree for three months last year.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/28/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
Egyptian health ministry said on Saturday that it discovered the first case of the Sars-like Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers) virus in an Egyptian man back from Saudi Arabia. The 27-year-old patient took a medical examination on Friday in a Cairo hospital, Xinhua quoted the ministry as saying in a statement. It added that the man was in a stable condition now.
Saudi Arabia has been severely hit by the Mers virus, as over 300 such cases have been reported and 92 people died since April, 2012. The World Health Organisation in Geneva said on Friday that it was âconcernedâ about the increasing number of the cases and it would provide more assistance for Saudi Arabia.
Mersis considered a deadlier but less transmissible cousin of the Sars virus, which erupted in Asia in 2003 and infected thousands of people.
The coronavirus was first discovered in mid-2012 in an old man with acute pneumonia and renal failure. It has spread from the Gulf countries to the northern Africa, southeast Asia and Europe, killing more than a hundred people and infecting hundreds of others.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/28/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
A bit of perspective - about 100 folks are killed every day on US roads. When MERS gets up to that, let me know!
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/28/2014 16:39 Comments ||
Top||
[AnNahar] Some 1,300 Moslems fearing attack by mainly Christian militias left the Central African capital Bangui on Sunday under heavy guard, deepening the religious divide in the strife-torn country.
Piled along with their possessions aboard 18 articulated lorries, the refugees left around midday accompanied by a large contingent of African peacekeepers, headed for the relative safety of the north.
They had been stranded in the PK-12 area on the outskirts of Bangui for five months as transport failed to materialize and amid debate over whether the mass exodus of Moslems from the capital would make peace even more elusive.
The rundown PK-12 ghetto is completely surrounded by a hostile mainly Christian community, and the Moslems had come under frequent attack.
Residents said 22 people had died since December, of whom 18 were victims of violence. Countless others have been maimed by bullets, grenade shrapnel and machetes.
Just after the convoy set off, hundreds of youths could be seen pillaging the ghetto for items abandoned by the Moslems.
Tens of thousands have already fled northwards, almost emptying the south of the country to join those of their own faith, already strongly represented in the north. Others have crossed borders into Chad and Cameroon.
They are escorted by soldiers from La Belle France's Operation Sangaris and troops of the multinational African mission MISCA, who together form a peacekeeping force of more than 7,000 men.
The sectarian violence erupted in the former French colony after mainly Moslem rebels of the Seleka alliance seized power for 10 months in March last year and rogue elements carried out terrible atrocities against civilians.
Mostly Christian communities then formed "anti-balaka" vigilante forces to wreak brutal Dire Revenge™ against Moslems, usually targeting innocent people.
Today, forces of Evil of the Seleka alliance, which was officially dissolved by its leader Michel Djotodia before he stepped down as president in January, actively encourage de facto partition.
Last week, Reconciliation Minister Antoinette Montaigne warned that the exodus would undermine peace efforts.
"I decided to join the debate because nobody has shown concern for the vital stakes of reconciliation," Montaigne said, warning that uprooting communities on religious and ethnic grounds could cause "cultural and sociological imbalances."
A government official who requested anonymity added: "In two or three years, we'll find ourselves with the north of the country controlled by the ex-Seleka. The civilian authorities will then have difficulties."
Some Christian communities are equally "at risk", yet have been largely abandoned, he said.
But Emmanuelle Schneider of the U.N. humanitarian agency OCHA said that the stark choice for the Moslems at PK-12 was either to move them or "let them die."
Relocating people is based on "the principle of the humanitarian imperative ... to save lives", she said.
Some aid workers went a step further, accusing La Belle France of deliberately slowing down convoys because mass population displacement would imply that their mission had failed.
"These people are not living in safety, even when they're in places where French troops are to be found," one relief worker said.
French ambassador Charles Malinas refuted this argument, saying that under the U.N. mandate governing intervention, communities "may stay where they are (unless) their safety can't be guaranteed" or their standard of living is "unacceptable."
Sandra Black, spokeswoman of the International Organisation for Migration, said the agency was satisfied that the operation succeeded in protecting the refugees.
"We did the best we could... in a very short time," she said, adding that all the refugees' bags were tagged, the children were fitted with ID bracelets and handicapped people were given necessary equipment.
The religious aspect of the conflict is an alarming development in the poor, landlocked nation, where minority Moslems for decades lived peacefully with Christians who form about 80 percent of a population of 4.6 million, even through coups, misrule, army mutinies and strikes.
A few thousand Moslems remain in Bangui, mainly in the PK-5 neighborhood known for its diversity.
Meanwhile, ...back at the pond, the radioactive tadpoles grown into frogs. Really big frogs, in fact... more than 10,000 Moslems are trapped in the southern town of Boda, completely surrounded by Christian residents who strongly back the anti-balaka forces.
The movie director says censors are delaying the Nigerian premiere of the movie "Half of a Yellow Sun." Nigerian-born British director Biyi Bandele posted a tweet Friday saying "It's all true" that they were having difficulty with the Nigerian Film and Video Censors Board.
The screen adaptation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's novel is the story of two sisters caught up in Nigeria's 1960s civil war, when the southeast tried to form an independent nation called Biafra. About 1 million people died, most of famine.
No one answered the telephone at the board Friday. Some say the film may be banned because it could whip up tribal sentiment. It made it to the top 10 in London cinemas over Easter.
[Bloomberg] Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... reported eight more deaths from Middle East Respiratory Syndrome as the number of cases in the outbreak climbed to 339.
Centers to treat and isolate patients infected with coronavirus have been set up at Prince Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Hospital in Riyadh, King Abdullah Medical Complex in Jeddah, and Dammam Medical Complex in the Eastern Province, the official Saudi Press Agency reported April 26, citing acting Health Minister Adel Faqih. More centers will be opened in other parts of the country.
"This step comes as part of an emergency plan aiming to contain the spread of the virus," said Faqih, according to Saudi Press Agency.
At least 102 people in the kingdom have died from MERS since it emerged in September 2012, according to the Saudi Ministry of Health. The viral respiratory illness can be spread between people in close contact and has been found in camels, the U.S.-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said.
Egypt reported its first case of MERS April 26 through state-run news agency ...and if you can't believe the state-run news agency who can you believe?... Ahram Gate. It said an Egyptian man was admitted to hospital after arriving from Riyadh, where he had been living for four years.
"Sechin, like Putin, is a former KGB officer. He has been called Russia's "Darth Vader" and the "scariest man on Earth," (per Forbes Magazine - UP) because of his background in espionage and what Institute of Modern Russia's Donald Jensen once called his "reputation for ruthlessness." As The Guardian has reported, during Putin's first presidential term, Sechin often worked behind the scenes in the Kremlin, leading U.S. officials to joke he was a "sort of urban myth (see "Political Wisdom" - UP), bogeyman invented by the Kremlin to instill fear."
Ukraine's defence ministry said in a statement that the column of armoured vehicles and soldiers blockaded a day earlier by pro-Russian activists in the town of Kramatorsk was returning to base after the tense stand-off.
"The 25th parachute brigade, members of which showed cowardice and gave up their weapons, will be demobilised and the guilty servicemen brought before court," acting President Oleksandr Turchynov told parliament.
The defeat represents a blow to the morale of Ukraine's armed forces and Kiev's hopes of regaining control over its eastern industrial areas.
Note: This is the one and only Airborne (Parachute) unit in their army, and supposedly one of the few to be constantly held to readiness and higher training standards. Yowza. FYI original article is very slanted with loaded terms, pejorative language, and overt bias, so read with a large grain of salt..
#2
Its pretty obvious the article's author had an axe to grind, so I just grabbed what I thought was the wheat from the chaff, and left you the original in case you wanted to see what my biases are (like the mainstream press I realize that I am human and therefore have inherent biases, unlike them, I'm open about mine).
#4
They went into a situation where they had to choose between shooting civilians and not doing their mission, because that's the way Vlad has been setting things up.
#6
At this point, the eastern provinces going to Russia are pretty much a fait accompli. Putin completely out maneuvered Obama and the Clinton/Kerry state department. And yes, this was probably planned and laid in a while back as a contingency operation, Putin just needed the right opportunity. He has been messing with the Ukraine ever since the Orange revolution.
The only thing to be retained is a partial Ukraine republic that's west of a N-S line along the central segment of the Dnepr river. And that will have to be as a NATO affiliated country, with a lot of help from the Poles and Germans.
#10
Thing's post and question, but yes. Nearly anyone north of the Midlands falls into that category. Churchill was said to have drank heavily to escape those he was forced to work with in parliament, and stave off the inevitable self-loathing.
[Al Ahram] Pro-Russian separatists on Sunday seized control of the offices of regional state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk and said they would take it off air and broadcast a Kremlin-backed Russian channel instead.
A Rootersnews hound said four separatists in masks, with truncheons and shields, were standing at the entrance to the building controlling access, while more separatists in camouflage fatigues could be seen inside.
About 15 coppers were standing a short distance away but were not trying to resist the separatists. One police lieutenant, who was sitting in a police vehicle nearby, said it would have been pointless to intervene.
It was the first time the station had been seized by the separatists, though previously a transmission tower in the Donetsk region had briefly been seized and technicians forced to broadcast Russian stations' output.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/28/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel cannot get his Russian counterpart to take his calls, the Pentagon said Friday -- amid a new report that the Kremlin has suspended high-level talks with U.S. officials.
Pentagon front man Col. Steve Warren told news hounds that Hagel is trying to speak with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, but the Russian Defense Ministry won't return his calls.
The Hagel snub comes one day after Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... took to the television podium in the State Department briefing room to rail against Russia for not complying with last week's Geneva agreement to pull back troops. Kerry threatened further economic sanctions, saying if Russia continues on this course it would amount to a "grave" and "expensive" mistake.
The Daily Beast also reported that, according to sources close to Russian leadership, the Kremlin has shut down high-level contact between top U.S. and Russian officials, for now. Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin ...Second and fourth President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead... have spoken several times over the course of the Ukraine crisis, the last being April 14. But tensions have again flared despite a diplomatic agreement struck last week.
This is not the first time Hagel's calls have been ignored. In February, it was the Ukrainian Defense minister who wouldn't pick up. At the time the Pentagon wanted to express concern about the violent crackdown on protesters by the then Moscow-aligned Ukrainian government.
#2
And schedule a DEFCON 3 Exercise. DEFCON3 exercise would be useful, to shake out a lot of systems, especially vital ones that might not be"strac" anymore (and would need immediate remediation).
That is, we would do such a thing, if we had a real president, not this weak poseur. Sad thing is, OIbama's Flag Rank political officers would be the first one to fail a functional surprise command post exercise of DEFCON3
#5
OK, so you have the Russian equivalent of 1 ace short of an Aces/Kings full house. Are you going to pay attention to the distractions coming from someone not in the game whom your fellow players are only politely tolerant?
#6
Even Putin must be getting embarrassed by how 'The [alleged] leader of the free world' keeps calling him up and crying like a spoiled little girl and threatening to hold her breath unleash a hashtag barrage.
Also known as the "sole slap" the DFS is employed throughout the world by 5 year old girls to cow another to there will. Seen more recently in some marvel inspired Superhero flicks, it is best employed by a grown man with a light, stiff soled loafer or golf shoe. Note: Often accompanied by scowl.
#8
I wonder if we could get the Poles or Lithuanians to post troops on the border with Kaliningrad to protect the ethnic Poles/Lithuanians in that port.
It would be interesting to see what Vlad would do and it would force him to be reactive for a change.
The Russian tug âNikolay Chikerâ is an ocean tag that has often deployed alongside Russian Navyâs high value assets. According to Information Dissemination, the ship accompanied Russiaâs spy ship Viktor Leonov to Cuba last month, before moving off Florida, where it was parked on Mar. 15, ahead of the launch of Dragon spacecraft (Space Shuttle Orbiter replacement) on SpaceXâs Falcon 9 rocket, scheduled of Mar. 16 from the SLC-40 Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
However, the SpaceX launch was delayed and, since then, the ship has moved back and forth along U.S. East coast: it headed southbound, has made a port visit to Curacao, then it has operated in the Caribbean Sea and eventually returned more or less where it was on Mar. 15 and it is right now: off Cape Canaveral.
The fact that the tug moved off Cape Kennedy in the days of the scheduled launch of SpaceX and returned there in anticipation of the new launch window suggests that the âNilolay Chikerâ is somehow interested in observing the Falcon 9 rocket and the Dragon spacecraft on the companyâs third commercial resupply mission and fourth visit to the space station.
However, thereâs someone who suggested that the ocean tug is actually supporting Russian nuclear attack submarines monitoring U.S. Navy East coast bases.
For sure the Russian tug is not there by accident. During the Cold War, Russian and Americans have monitored each others special special operations, military exercises, invasions, maiden flights etc. This is not changed with the collapse of the USSR. On the contrary, close encounters (as the one in the Black Sea) and reciprocal snooping are probably going to increase.
Putin will not talk to Obama under pressure, said Igor Yurgens, Chairman of the Institute for Contemporary Development, a prominent Moscow think tank, and a close associate of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. It does not mean forever.
#2
Yeah, good idea...taxes are lower and the people are much more down to earth...deep south. So I'd suggest you get your transferees to subscribe to two magazines so they can hit the ground with a chance of success.
#3
Stay away from Carolina BBQ and you'll be fine.
Develop a taste for Grits, it's not difficult, start with cheese and then progress to lightly salted purity. And choose early between the Wreck and the Dawgs and don't change your mind even on the rack.
#5
In related corporate relocating news, The Boeing Company, (formerly of Seattle and at one time maker of the best jets in the world), is 'transferring' over a 1000 engineering jobs out of WA and into SC, TX and CA (dunno why, there unless they get a stupidity tax break). According to the Seattle Times the BCAC says they will save a big bundle of cash over retaining the jobs in WA.
#6
Almost correct. New corpoate HQ is being built in Texas and the future relo's have been told. The reason is Illinois taxes, (and the upward spiral of never endibg tax increases), pension and debt crises, fees and corruption. Be sure to thank a Democrat.
[AnNahar] An armed Kurdish group has kidnapped two Turkish soldiers in the southeast of the country, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported Sunday.
The abduction took place late Saturday, after the enjugged Please don't kill me! leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) issued a statement warning of a possible return to violence.
However it was not clear whether the kidnappers were linked to the PKK, which declared a landmark truce with the Turkish state last March.
Anatolia said the assailants seized the soldiers after stopping a bus on a highway near the town of Lice which had been blocked by Kurdish protesters demonstrating against the construction of a military outpost.
According to the Firat news agency, a PKK mouthpiece, the group said it would not release the soldiers until the authorities announced that construction of the post was halted.
An operation was under way to find two soldiers, Anatolia said. The PKK has kidnapped Turkish troops in the past during its armed insurgency seeking self-rule in the southeast.
Pro-Kurdish media outlets reported that the demonstration, which has been going on for five days, turned violent on Saturday when soldiers clashed with protesters and briefly opened fire on their tents.
No one was killed or injured.
The Kurdish grinding of the peace processor stalled after the rebels announced in September they were suspending their retreat from Turkish soil, accusing the government of failing to deliver on promised reforms.
"There is both the opportunity for a profound resolution and possibility of festivities in the current process," Ocalan said in the statement relayed Saturday by pro-Kurdish politicians who visited him in his prison cell.
[DAWN] President Mamnoon Hussain on Saturday said Pakistain was going to become an important country in the region in the next five years, and this status would benefit all its neighbours too.
He was speaking at the concluding session of the South Asia Labour Conference organised by the Punjab government. Azad Kashmire Prime Minister Chaudhry Abdul Majid and Punjab Labour Minister Raja Ashfaq Sarwar were also present.
The president thanked the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... for according GSP (Generalised System of Preferences) Plus status to Pakistain. But, he said some elements were creating problems for Pakistain with regard to labour laws and some other issues.
"While attending foreign meetings, our countrymen must make it clear to the world that Pakistain is going to become an important country in the next five years. They must also explain that law and order and issues like 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... vaccination were not created by us," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/28/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
"Let me make it clear, the NAACP will not be honoring Mr. Sterling at the upcoming Los Angeles branch event and
(here's where a former girlfriend's vengeance goes from surreal to sublime - UP)
we have strongly urged our Los Angeles unit to take the necessary steps to rescind the previous award they bestowed on him," she said.
#2
That's the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. So, Mr. Sterling was incorrect in not referring to them as 'colored'? /sarc off
File under - we get to use any term we want for each other, but you damn well better not use the same words in reference to us. Right Spike?
#6
Exactly. If this guy is the monster they say he is, then wouldn't his behavior had been picked up long before the consideration of this second award? How'd he get the first?
#7
Indulgences - the Old Church would grant dispensation in return for paying for one's sin. It was one of the great tours through Europe of such that prompted this Martin Luther guy to peg a list of questions about 'principles' on a church door in Wittenberg. The rest as they say is (bloody) history.
#8
Yet another inconvenient truth. Sterling is the elephant who has been LIVING in the family room for years. They cashed the old bastids checks and looked the other until their fok'n HYPOCRACY was REVEALED! Now they want their sugar daddy under the bus.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Bouteflika
Egyptian health ministry said on Saturday that it discovered the first case of the Sars-like Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers) virus in an Egyptian man back from Saudi Arabia. The 27-year-old patient took a medical examination on Friday in a Cairo hospital, Xinhua quoted the ministry as saying in a statement. It added that the man was in a stable condition now.
Ukraine's defence ministry said in a statement that the column of armoured vehicles and soldiers blockaded a day earlier by pro-Russian activists in the town of Kramatorsk was returning to base after the tense stand-off.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel cannot get his Russian counterpart to take his calls, the Pentagon said Friday -- amid a new report that the Kremlin has suspended high-level talks with U.S. officials.
...Second and fourth President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
