"For every dollar Texas taxpayers send to Washington, they currently get only about 80 cents back. Theoretically, they could transfer those funds to the states coffers and still give every Texan a 20 percent tax cut."
That, right there, counters every Lefty talking point on the issue.
Jordanians staged scattered protests and work stoppages on Wednesday, a day after hikes in fuel prices triggered rioting in several cities and rekindled fears of deepening unrest in this strategically vital U.S. ally.
At least 14 people were reported injured in clashes overnight as protesters set fire to cars and gas stations and damaged at least one government building in a provincial town. The disturbances were the worst in Jordan since the start of the Arab Spring movement nearly two years ago.
The demonstrations began within hours after the government announced that it was rolling back subsidies for several fuel products, from gasoline to the propane used by Jordanians for heating their homes and cooking, a move that sent prices soaring by 15 to 33 percent. Some protesters chanted slogans calling for the ouster of King Abdullah II, an unusual occurrence in a country whose monarch traditionally has enjoyed widespread support.
Security officials blamed the unrest in part on the country's Muslim Brotherhood, accusing leaders of the religious movement of cynically exploiting discontent over higher prices.
"This was not spontaneous," said a government security official, insisting on anonymity in discussing internal assessments about the protests. "The Muslim Brother had a plan and they were well-organized. For them, it is a gift from heaven."
The subsidy roll-back was the latest in a long series of economic shocks to Jordan, a resource-poor country that has suffered from both higher global petroleum prices and multiple supply disruptions since the start of Arab Spring. Jordan has long subsidized fuel costs for ordinary citizens, but government officials and private analysts say the practice was no longer sustainable, given Amman's multibillion-dollar budget deficit.
President Barack Obama said on Wednesday that Republicans would have to agree to raise taxes on the wealthy as the first step in a budget deal that would prevent a dysfunctional Washington from pushing the economy into recession.
In his first news conference since winning re-election last week, Obama said he would be open to considering Republican priorities like entitlement reform and a tax-code overhaul as part of a broad-based deal to get the nation's finances on a sustainable course.
But Obama said Republicans in Congress would first have to agree to his top priority in the complex negotiations aimed at preventing a $600 billion combination of tax increases and spending cuts known as the "fiscal cliff" that could halt the weak economic recovery at the beginning of next year.
"What I'm not going to do is to extend further a tax cut for folks who don't need it," Obama said, shortly before meeting with a dozen business leaders who are pushing policymakers to reach a deal.
Obama's remarks, and unyielding comments from Republican leaders earlier this week, begin a long and possibly tense period of bargaining and brinkmanship that could leave a cloud of uncertainty over the economy leading up to the Christmas holidays and beyond.
Both Republicans and Democrats want to keep low income tax rates in place for middle-income and low-income households, but Democrats say the wealthiest 2 percent should have to pay the higher rates that were in place in the 1990s.
Obama made increased taxes on the wealthy a centerpiece of his re-election campaign, and polls show public opinion is on his side. Obama is reaching beyond Washington to ramp up pressure on Republicans and has already met with labor and liberal groups to build support for his approach.
Several of the chief executives due to meet Obama on Wednesday, including General Electric Co.'s Jeff Immelt, Aetna Inc.'s Mark Bertolini, Honeywell International Inc.'s David Cote and Dow Chemical Co.'s Andrew Liveris, back an approach roughly in line with Obama's position.
Many other business leaders do not share that view. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce released a letter, signed by more than 200 business groups, calling on Obama to find budget savings by scaling back benefits rather than raising taxes.
#1
Several of the chief executives due to meet Obama on Wednesday, including General Electric Co.'s Jeff Immelt, Aetna Inc.'s Mark Bertolini, Honeywell International Inc.'s David Cote and Dow Chemical Co.'s Andrew Liveris, back an approach roughly in line with Obama's position.
Jeff Immelt backs the Champ? What a surprise!
Posted by: Besoeker on the road again ||
11/14/2012 20:24
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#4
Tax hikes widout spending cutbacks is all but meaningless - all thats going to happen is that the Govtcritters are going to go on "Spend Spend Spending" pork binges.
[SF Gate] The violent robbery of a television news crew outside an Oakland school last week was the latest in a series of similar incidents in a city where the rate of strong-arm robberies and holdups is surging.
But the brazenness of the attack - which occurred during a live broadcast in the middle of the day - has brought fresh urgency to the problem.
Union officials who represent news hounds at most of the Bay Area's major television and radio stations said Tuesday they had asked the broadcasters to immediately hire security guards to accompany news crews when they are in Oakland. At least one station has already enlisted guards, and others are considering it.
Meanwhile, ...back at the wrecked scow, a single surviver held tightly to the smashed prow... station managers met Tuesday with Oakland police officials, including Chief Howard Jordan, to discuss the string of robberies, some of which have been committed at gunpoint. One veteran Oakland Tribune photographer, Laura Oda, has been robbed of cameras twice since July.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2012
14:19 ||
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#1
Apparently someone has forgetten the value of the Fourth Estate.
#7
I remember many years back in Richmond (CA), I got a call from a friend in Oakland. She was hysterical, because her boyfriend had just had his teeth knocked out and he was face down in a gutter. So I drove down with her, got out of the car, and pointed my loaded .45 revolver (S&W highway patroleman's model) in the general direction of *everybody* while she dragged him into the car.
Nobody batted an eye... and that was 15 years ago. Ah, O Town! Did you ever not suck?
#4
"A backlash Monday night saw requests filed with the White House to strip citizenship rights from Americans who signed petitions to help states secede."
--even better! Free healthcare and I can still vote in U.S. Elections! (sarc/off)
#5
Seems like we have become tribalized already thanks to the ONE and the donk party pushing division, strife, and class warfare. Secession on the part of the States would just formalize all this.
#7
"A backlash Monday night saw requests filed with the White House to strip citizenship rights from Americans who signed petitions to help states secede."
By people who can't read the Constitution [or care - so throw in SCOTUS on that too].
1st Amendment Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
#10
"57 States" > FYI #9, I'd asked a few associates during dinner time at McDonald's iff anyone on Guam had called or started a similar petition of secession to send to the Bammer WH - so far nobody knew iff one was begun, or by whom.
#11
IMO it would take a "perfect storm" of so-called "fiscal cliffs", protractive bad economy + unemployment, ethnic, + major foreign policy failures or military defeats [e.g. Rising Iran + Rising China] for any secession movement to become empowered.
WASHINGTON POLS PROMISE LOCALISM + NATIONALISM, WHILE COVERTLY UNDERMINING SAME FOR GLOBALISM, I.E. "THANK YOU, AMERICA = AMERIKKA, FOR SUPPORTING OWG + GLOBAL FEDERAL UNION [NAU] WIDOUT HAVING TO VOTE ON IT, OR HAVING TO ASK OR EXPLAIN IT TO YOU".
You know, "REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY" AKA "SHEEPLE-ISM".
[SFGate] At first, I was sad. After hundreds of years, after the travesty of slavery and the heartbreak of war, after the outrage of an aborted Reconstruction and the treasonous decades of Jim Crow - have these states learned nothing at all? Yeah. All those people in those 37 or maybe 47 states are stoopid. Why folk in San Francisco can think rings around them...
Then I started thinking a little more strategically. Centuries of heavily enforced inequality in certain states have left them incapacitated for the modern economy. What do they contribute to the current union, anyway? Ummm... That's where the economic growth has been?
What would happen if we just decided to let them go? I remember reading precisely the same suggestion in a Soviet magazine sometime around 1991 or 1992. Those dumbass Baltic states were agitating to leave the Soviet Union, and there were similar movements, not quite so strong yet, in Ukraine and Moldavia and the Caucasus and Central Asia. The suggestion was to go ahead and let them sink or swim on their own. Russia (as opposed to the Soviet Union) would be better off without them. Russia was where the center was, Russia would thrive without them...
Imagine the possibilities. And ignore the hazards...
After a short phase-out period (so that the panicked citizens of New Orleans; Austin; and Washington, D.C., can join us), we let these ungrateful states go. And pull up the borders after us - the electric fence they're always so interested in having. Ahah. No more Caliphornia immigration into Colorado or Nevada. That'll show 'em.
My prediction? Absolute chaos in the Southern states as they realize we're possessed of 85 percent of the country's venture capital and entrepreneurs and two-thirds of the country's tax revenue. And that's an accurate and never-changing state of affairs... Meanwhile, ...back at the shattered spaceship, Fffflirgoll the Arcturan slithered stealthily toward the control room, where the humans had barricaded themselves... nothing but happiness as the arugula-eating states lavish on projects like infrastructure and education those tax dollars we'd previously been sending to the red states. Tax dollars obtained through ever-rising rates. Well, by golly, the whole place will look like Bell City. Won't the arugula eaters be in swine heaven!
But in case some of us feel so inclined, we could set up a visa system for the more industrious citizens of those states, because they'll certainly be interested in working in a more advanced economy. An 'advanced economy' being defined as a thin layer of the very rich (you might even call them the One Percent®) supporting large numbers of urban dwellers and governed by Marxist professors and lawyers.
Call it a "guest worker" program for our neighbors. Congress might even be willing to consider a generous immigration reform for them. Kind of like Ukrainians and Estonians and such are allowed to work in Russia, where all the economic activity is...
After several years of this experiment, my guess is that the Southern states will be begging to be let back into the Union. And my guess is that the 99 percent will be eating golden omelettes.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2012
14:12 ||
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#1
Texas and other conservative states has balanced budgets. Blue states are downing in debt and are digging deeper.
#3
Texas produces 30% of the US wind power.
Imagine the cleanie/greenie export surcharge.
Oh, beef, and the TI chips or Dell computers, or...Whataburgers!
#4
One of the people in Tennessee who is calling for secession is a veteran who believes Obama is a destroying this country. He said he would rather die on his feet than be on his knees and enslaved.
#6
Well the Northeast and California are still the biggest economic powerhouses in the land, just like the North was during the first Civil War.
However, unlike the first Civil War all the food belts are in the red states. Cut that off and most of the Blue states will starve. Plus most of the military has Red state affiliations and sympathies.
Give the Red states 20 more years and they will have just as much economic muscle as the Blue ones at the current rate of moves.
#7
Remember what one of the Founding Fathers about hanging together or being hung together?
What is what Islam will do to you if the United Staes begin splitting. Instead of cutting and running from Obama and the Democrats you should be thionking into doing waht is needed to restore some sanity into the now Nlue Sates until the Democratic Party begins losing elections 49 to 1. But no, you cut and ran from the MSM and let themù fall into liberal hands, you cut and ran from the Academoia and let them fall into liberal hands so now they are poisonning the minds of your children, you cyt and ran from the Blacks and now they vote for the Jim Crow Party.
Qo go ahead, cut and run from the United States, secede and if Kihadists don't kill you earler in twenty years you will be cutting and running from Dallas.
#9
And something will have to be done about Frank G. and the Turbans, perhaps a Mexican extraction or maybe they could make it to the border given a decent off road vehicle safely secured from ex-wives enemy observation.
#10
All New Orleans could bring to the table is control of the Mississippi River. Which, come to think of it, isn't bad.
Posted by: Matt ||
11/14/2012 16:42
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#11
Shipman - just get the Olympic Peninsula (Which includes Bremerton and the Trident base) - except for the Port Townsend area. Maybe even throw in Whidbey Island (for Whidbey Island Naval Air Station).
Believe me you want the liberal in the Seattle-Tacoma metro area like you want a hole in your head.
#13
My fear is that we no longer live under the rule of law in the US. Champ imprisoned someone for posting a video on Youtube. Regulators go after people who donate to the wrong party. We lost the Constitution 80 years ago, give or take. Now we aren't even living by the new laws that have replaced it.
I am interested in secession for the same reason a Cuban might want to catch a boat headed north.
#14
Secession is not usually determined by the rule of law. However, the rule of law does not seem to be observed or respected lately. Secession is generally determined by a very costly armed conflict.
#17
IIRC (and it's been a looooong time since I was in school), Texas was granted the right to secede as part of its agreement to join the Union. I believe they would have to split into 5 states (small countries?), but that shouldn't be a deterrent; no reason those states couldn't join in a confederation (kinda like Confederation Helvetica [Switzerland]).
I'm not really clear on the particulars at this distance from high school - and don't have time to research it right now. Anybody know more about it?
I'd be glad to emigrate to Texas if necessary; my Dad was raised in San Antonio and my grandparents lived there until they died, so it's not like I don't know and love the state. Don't Mess with Texas!
If not for my job (which at my age would be hard to replace in a new town), I'd move there anyway.
Posted by: Barbara ||
11/14/2012 18:45
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#18
If the Libs actually agree with us and think this is a good thing lets get it done.
#21
I don't think there will be many who want to move into the blue area. We're in Carroll county NH, one of two red counties in a sea of blue. Massholes to the south, Maniacs to the east, and Vermin seeping across the western border. (Not sure wtf is going on in the North Country.)
A local merchant here in Wolfeboro said that he's happy to get his favorite neighbor (Romney) back, instead of ruining the town with a presidential summer home.
#22
See also WORLD NEWS > SECESSION FUROR COULD HAVE UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES FOR GUN OWNERS.
* SAME > WHITE HOUSE BEING FLOODED WID IMPEACHMENT, SECESSION PETITIONS.
* SAME > DANIEL MILLER: TEXAS HAS RIGHT TO SECEDE BECAUSE MAJORITY OF US ESTEEMS
"PRINCIPLES OF KARL MARX".
RELATED DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [Cary Wise = Texas Nationalist Movement] SECESSIONIST LEADER: TEXAS SHOULD SEPARATE FROM MARXIST [US]STATES | [CBS.com] SECESSIONIST LEADER SAYS TEXAS INDEPENDENCE IN "INEVITABLE".
SAME > TEXAS PASSES THE 100,000 MARK, while NC, TN, AL, GA, LA, + FL have surpassed 25,000 at this time.
* CINESE MILITARY FORUM > [Archive.org = Michael Meara] TOWARD THE WHITE REPUBLIC, Rise of "White Nationalists+ + the desire by some for sovereign White/Euros-only homeland somewhere in North America.
ARTIC = While the majority of "White Nationalists" are racially-conscious/proud individuals whom are NOT in favor of secession, the move does include strict or extremist elements whom favor the establishment of an anti-pluralist "sovereign white homeland" in North America.
#23
I will say again that one way to justify or validate the creation of OWG-NWO + so-called "Global Federal Unions", e.g. NAU + EU/EUZ, is via WILFUL + PROTRACTIVE CHAOS/ANARCHIES. across Regions + Trans-Regiona, etc. to "force" INTER-STATE OR MULTI-STATE DEPENDENCIES.
The main drawbacks are not only incurring some kind of domestic backlash from local stratas, BUT ALSO THEORETICALLY RISKING NATIONAL SECURITY TO THE ADVANTAGE OF DEDICATED FOREIGN ENEMIES, E.G. RADICAL ISLAMIST MILTERR GROUPS + ANTI-US NATION-STATES.
IOW, the "forced", "anti-electoral" setting up of OWG + NAU, etc. garners more priority that militarily defeating or deterring one's enemies, to include the possibility of actually helping one's dedicated enemies to achieve MilPol Parity, iff not outright Superiority or Dominance, agz yourself.
NATIONAL + GEOPOL "SELF-SUICIDE" IN FAVOR OF MARXIST-SOCIALIST AMERIKA + WORLD ORDER, OR ISLAMIC/ISLAMIST AMERIKA + WORLD ORDER, where the only real question is how long before Global Marxist-Socialist + Global Islamo-Socialist formally declare "final/total victory" agz America, divorce, + then start waging War of Annihilation/Mutual Destruction agz one another???
"PRO-US" OWG = LIMITED ANTI-US OWG, IN THE NEGATIVE OR CATASTROPHIC, NOT PROACTIVE, SENSE.
#3
That's how you don't predict elections. Thanks for your demonstration.
Shout down anything you disagree with, listen to only those that reassure you, and then act surprised that you didn't have your finger on the pulse of the nation.
Chuff: we don't permit trolling at the Burg. You're welcome to make a point, even an unpopular one, and then to defend yourself when people disagree with you.
But we're not interested in trolls except to use them as chew toys.
This is your one and only notice: straighten up and fly right or be gone.
#7
The alternative explanation is that Silver correctly saw that 2012 was going to be a re-run of 2008, just with a smaller number of voters on both sides. That's something few other pollsters thought would happen.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/14/2012 13:03
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#8
Steve W., I suppose I acted viscerally to Silver. He seemed arrogant in his certainty of the outcome of the election. Turns out he was right. Interestingly, Intrade was accurate although not what one would consider a poll (betting odds). I wonder why the Pubs got it so wrong? Rasmussen was one of the most accurate in the last election but missed this one badly. Carl Rove and Dick Morris missed badly (both have been fairly good vote counters in the past). The NYTs had a summary of the best and worst polls of 2012. I don't have a URL.
#9
John, the answer is simple: Rove, Morris, etc (and me) made an erroneous assumption. We assumed that past performance predicted a future result. Silver simply looked at the data for what it was and ignored the various claims about over-sampling, adjusting for too many D's, etc.
Silver divined that 2012 was looking a lot like 2008, which many of the rest of us couldn't believe. It was hard to believe when we looked at the 2010 mid-term results, and the 2004 election, and so on. We looked at 'enthusiasm', the crowds at the Mitt and Champ rallies, and so on, and said heck 2012 CAN'T be a re-run of 2008, no way!
But it was, just with fewer voters.
I think that's one way Mitt missed the election (plus, he had a bunch of slugs on his staff, and his vaunted GOTV turned out to be hype). I certainly missed it.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/14/2012 14:06
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#10
Simple explanation here:
The underclass was smart enough to discern that they were being shafted by GOP rhetoric and disenfranchisement campaigns, and voted as an act of defiance.
As a math guy, I confess that there is nothing special about what Silver is doing. Any math guy could have done the same thing.
As a liberal (who voted in deference for Bush in '04 to give him some more time to clean up the mess), I am grateful to Rantburg as a font of insight into the machinations of the military-industrial complex, but I believe that the demonization of President Obama is unbecoming your forum. Was he a naive at the start? Yes. Has he learned from his mistakes? I would say 'yes', citing the bargaining advantage he enjoyes with Congress on the deficit and his recent demonstration of 'hardball' tactics.
Obama is, despite rhetoric to the contrary, in fact a moderate.
Folks, let's not forget that we are all on the same team ....
Posted by: Hupitle Lover of the Hemps3045 ||
11/14/2012 16:24
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#11
Hupitle Lover of the Hemps3045, I appreciate your comment --- but I'm not sure Obama has even a hint of a moderate in him.
And they are playing for a vastly different America than the one with which we have been accustomed for 224 years of this constitutional republic. Fight a war in Libya without even asking for a congressional resolution? No problem. Appoint executive officers without Senate approval, when the Senate is still in session? Sure. Issue executive orders directly contrary to law, on multiple occasions? Of course. Refuse to enforce duly constituted laws? Check. Repeatedly question the very legitimacy of the Supreme Court? Check. Refuse to honor congressional subpoenas and legitimate Freedom of Information requests? Ignore court orders (about offshore drilling) so flagrantly that you are found officially in contempt of court? Insult or even abandon allies? Whisper to foreign leaders of traditionally adversarial lands that you will have "more flexibility" after re-election? Deliberately cover up deadly mistakes on the Mexican border and in North Africa? Check, check, check, check, and check.
#12
I don't buy it, Huptile. Wait until we see what he does about this fiscal cliff thingy. Will he compromise or will he double down and blame the House Republicans?
Have you heard about all the layoffs?
And, forgive me for rushing to judgement, but IMHO this Benghazi thing is stinking up the place real bad and getting worse every hour. Will he invoke executive privilege like he did with Fast&Furious? You can hide the rotten eggs but you can't hide the stench, er, unless you have the MSM in your pocket.
I think he's the same arrogant Marxist he's always been.
#16
Shout down anything you disagree with, listen to only those that reassure you, and then act surprised that you didn't have your finger on the pulse of the nation.
[An Nahar] A four-star general who headed U.S. Africa Command has been demoted amid charges he spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on pricey travel, Pentagon officials said Tuesday. Are we seeing a pattern of crap-splattered generals? Or should we wait for Number Three?
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta ...current SecDef, previously Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Panetta served as President Bill Clinton's White House Chief of Staff from 1994 to 1997 and was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1993.... demoted General William "Kip" Ward, who was asked to reimburse $82,000 for having inappropriately used Pentagon travel funds, a senior defense official said.
The four-star general "will retire at the rank of lieutenant general," a three-star post, a second senior defense official said.
The travel mishaps included bringing Ward's wife on extended business trips, according to a Defense Department Inspector General's report released in June.
One in Bermuda involved a suite for $747 a night at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess. And his wife also allegedly made unauthorized use of armored vehicles.
Ward, the first AFRICOM commander from 2007-2011 based in Stuttgart, has denied the allegations. No, no! Certainly not! He currently serves as a special assistant to the U.S. Army's vice chief of staff.
The inspector general's report found that Ward took an 11-day trip to Washington and Atlanta with his military entourage that cost $129,000 and of which only three days were for official business. The primary purpose of the trip was personal.
Ward's wife traveled with the general on military aircraft during 52 of 79 trips reviewed by Sherlocks, according to the report, which also said that Ward extended his trips seven times for personal reasons in which he was reimbursed for travel expenses.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2012
11:43 ||
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#2
The military seems to be under purge in the leadership positions. Prior to the election there were about a half dozen high ranking retired military officials who supported Obama. There were something like more than 500 who supported Romney. Is this purging a response to potential threats to the Obama administration?
#3
It's not the GOs he should be worried about but the middle grades officer and NCO. Then again he's locked into that pseudo history thingy that thinks America is not special and just do what the Euros and other have done in the past and present.
#5
Obama does not want a civil war. The trouble with civil wars is that no one knows where they will end up. Look at the trouble Syria is having with a civil war, it looks rather tame compared to what would be likely to happen here. There is no guarantee the military, police, or some of the people in the Federal agencies would side team Obama. Many people still believe in their oath to the Constitution.
#7
There is no guarantee the military, police, or some of the people in the Federal agencies would side team Obama.
But they're union members, he'll think -- except for the military, and the enlisted men ought to be, so he'll assume they'll think the same way -- so of course they'll be on his side... that's why unions have enforcers, right?
#8
Remember the surge without the Anbar Awakening wasn't necessarily going to succeed. Look at Afghanistan when the population doesn't have a similar commitment. If you can't win in those scenarios, what makes them think they'd succeed here against a population with a lot of professionally trained soldiers now civilians [ever wonder why DHS tried to classify veterans as threats]. The police in Iraq and Afghanistan are marginal because they have to go home at night and to families where they can be picked off individually.
[An Nahar] Taliban gunnies on Wednesday dragged two young Afghan men from their car and shot them dead because they worked for NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... troops as interpreters, police said.
The bloodied bodies of the men were found next to their car on the side of a road in Pashtun-infested Logar province, less than 80 kilometers south of the capital Kabul.
"They were interpreters working for NATO troops in Camp Shank," Din Mohammad Darwish, the provincial administration front man, told Agence La Belle France Presse, referring to a NATO outpost in the province. He blamed Taliban gunnies for the attack.
Deputy provincial police chief Rais Khan Sadeq confirmed the incident and said the pair were driving to work from Kabul when killed.
"They were going to work. Along the road they were stopped by Taliban, dragged from their car and shot in the head. Their bodies and their car were found on the side of the road," Sadeq told AFP.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2012
11:43 ||
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#1
That would be a Red-on-Orange, then?
Posted by: Solomon Protector of the Texans5923 ||
11/14/2012 17:27
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[An Nahar] The United Nations ...Parkinson's Law on an international scale... says access to contraception is a universal human right that could dramatically improve the lives of women and kiddies in poor countries.
It is the first time the U.N. Population Fund's annual report explicitly describes family planning as a human right.
It effectively declares that legal, cultural and financial barriers to accessing contraception and other family planning measures are an infringement of women's rights.
The report released Wednesday isn't binding and has no legal effect on national laws.
The global body also says increasing funding for family planning by a further $4.1 billion could save $11.3 billion annually in health bills for mothers and newborns in poor countries.
The U.N. doesn't count abortion among the measures.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2012
11:40 ||
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#1
BIG difference between finding it a "right," vs. paying the bill for it. Of course, some would argue that that very principle is what we in the US just held an election on, and you see where we landed there.
Does anyone else find it creepy/Orwellian that the name of the $$ bank is the "Population Fund"?
Posted by: BA ||
11/14/2012 11:51
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#2
Folks, we are getting seriously trolled by 3C's. Please let him whither and die for lack of attention.
#5
The fact the UN says this is such a friggin joke. Parkinson's Law on an international scale? Fred is kinder and more subtle than me. The Peter Principle might also be corollary here. In other words, $hit floats to the top of an organization.
#6
All women were born with that right, and have the control for it - between their ears.
Where they choose not to exercise that control, is their fault. Where their choice is forcefully overridden, it is a crime.
Why does it need to be any more complicated than that?
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/14/2012 13:01
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#7
Access to child labor and sex slaves is a UN right.
Hey, don't forget the shrimp cocktails!
I would suggest the the proper meme here is not Parkinson's law, but Blair's Law: the ongoing process by which the world's multiple idiocies are becoming one giant, useless force.
#8
Maybe also the Principle of Entropy applies here.
In addition to describing the 2nd law of thermo, it also has been stated in other arenas of thought a "doctrine of inevitable social decline and degeneration."
#10
So...shouldn't these people who will now be denied the right to be human also have human rights? And what about their children? And their children's children?
Better appoint a "rapporteur" and get right on that, U.N. Population Fund...
#11
Don't get out much Bobby(#6)? That's a pretty narrow view. Few women get the choice.
Many more (tens of millions) must choose disease and/or pregnancy over hunger/starvation of themselves and/or results of earlier decisions, or are 'pressed into service' by other sociological pressures like family, addiction, or environment. It's an ugly world.
[An Nahar] Syrian army tanks shelled a refugee camp and two nearby districts in southern Damascus ...The capital of Iran's Syrian satrapy... on Wednesday as battles raged and warplanes bombarded a rebel-held northwestern town, a watchdog said.
The tanks were deployed at the Paleostinian camp of Yarmuk overnight, as well as the nearby districts of Tadamun and Assali, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Both Yarmuk and Tadamun were scene of battles between the army and rebels late on Tuesday, said the Britannia-based Observatory.
On Wednesday morning, shells were fired into a second refugee camp east of Yarmuk, said the monitoring group, though it did not specify if they had been fired by the army or by rebels.
Fighting in Damascus has intensified in recent weeks, after the army put down a mid-summer rebel assault on districts particularly in the southern belt where anti-regime sentiment is strong.
The violence is linked to major, ongoing battles in several parts of Damascus province, chiefly in the area known as Eastern Ghuta east of the capital.
Elsewhere, fighter jets bombarded a rebel-held town in the northwestern province of Idlib, the watchdog said.
"The air force has carried out two air strikes on the town of Maaret al-Numan," said the Observatory.
Rebels seized Maaret al-Numan on October 9, and the army has since waged an unrelenting but unsuccessful offensive to take back the town strategically located on the highway linking Damascus and second city Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... .
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2012
11:39 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
Seething, raging and now Raging Violence? Oh, my.
And please do note that a Refugee Camp is not necessarly that touchy/feely experience sort of place for kids.
Posted by: Solomon Protector of the Texans5923 ||
11/14/2012 17:46
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As expected, the escalation out of Gaza has been fast and furious with Al Arabiya reporting that the Hamas response to the operation that Israel has code named "Operation Pillar Of Cloud", which an IDF spokesperson has clarified Israel is ready to escalate into a ground operation into Gaza if needed, is that "Hamas is now in open war" with Israel. Moments later the organization Islamic Jihad has unsurprisingly, chimed in: "Israel has declared war on Gaza and they will bear the responsibility for the consequences."
#9
Becuz, ya know, just becuz we threaten Israel daily wid destruction and fired 130 rockets at it, ....@etc. doesn't mean Israel had to get all angry + air strikey about it!
#10
doesn't mean Israel had to get all angry + air strikey about it!
A tetchy lot, those Juice. Reminds me of "The Gods Must be Crazy", where the running gag about some wild animals is "If you don't bother them, they won't bother you".
Sooner or later, it will be Game On and Hamas will have another glorious Arab failure to celebrate. Won't be pretty.
[An Nahar] Former prime minister Saad Hariri Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's liquidation. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too. on Tuesday hit back at Hizbullah chief His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah The satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb... , defending Lebanese Forces A Christian political party founded by Bashir Gemayel, who was then bumped off when he was elected president of Leb... leader Samir Geagea ... Geagea was imprisoned by the Syrians and their puppets for 11 years in a dungeon in the third basement level of the Lebanese Ministry of Defense. He was released after the Cedar Revolution in 2005 ... and stressing that al-Mustaqbal ... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri... Movement has never been an advocate of sectarian strife.
There are certain constitutional principles for ousting governments, unless Sayyed Hassan wants to write us a new constitution and wants to teach us that the new method for that (changing governments) is (national) dialogue, said Hariri after meeting Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi in Rome.
I don't think that it is appropriate for him to talk in this manner. There are written constitutional principles: either through the resignation of the premier or through losing the parliament's confidence or through the resignation of more than one third of ministers like what happened with the previous government, said Hariri.
The ex-PM accused Nasrallah of clinging to power, warning that it is clear that the party is willing to do everything in its capacity in order to remain in power.
Hariri also accused Hizbullah of interfering in Syria, voicing regret that jihadist fighters are being killed everyday while fighting alongside the Syrian regime.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2012
11:34 ||
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[An Nahar] Military Tribunal Judge Saqr Saqr issued on Wednesday a search and investigation warrant against the son of Salafist holy man Ahmed al-Asir, Omar.
The warrant was issued on charges linked to an attempt to seize the weapons of security forces.
Saqr also issued an order to determine who was involved with Asir during Sunday's incident that witnessed a clash between him and an Internal Security Forces checkpoint in the southern city of Sidon.
The dispute broke out when the security members stopped a car with tinted windows that turned out to be driven by Omar al-Asir.
It was determined that he was not carrying a car license or another to drive a vehicle with tinted windows.
Asir promptly called for the assistance of his brute squad who arrived at the scene and attempted to release him from the security forces' custody by force.
They then left the scene with Omar al-Asir and headed towards his father's Bilal bin Rabbah Mosque. Meaning they succeeded in busting him out by force...
A clash had broken out later on Sunday between Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir and Hizbullah supporters. Two of Asir's companions and an Egyptian national died in the clash that was a product of sectarian tensions in Sidon.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2012
11:32 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir ... the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh... once again swooped on law enforcers yesterday, the last day of Jamaat's nine-day programme, leaving about 20 coppers injured in Dhaka, Khulna and Cox's Bazar.
They launched sudden attacks on police and vandalised around 30 vehicles in the capital's Farmgate and Karwanbazar. Jamaat-Shibir men also torched the cycle of violence of a traffic police sergeant and attacked roadside business establishments in the areas.
At least 30 people, including 15 coppers, were maimed in the attacks.
Police nabbed I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! 16 Jamaat-Shibir men in Dhaka and 87 others in Khulna, Joypurhat, Bagerhat, Chapainawabganj and Cox's Bazar.
Khulna City Jamaat called a dawn-to-dusk hartal ... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ... for today protesting the arrest of Golam Parwar, former politician and Jamaat assistant secretary general, on Sunday night in connection with violence and attacks on police.
Panic gripped Farmgate and Karwanbazar areas when several hundred Jamaat-Shibir men suddenly launched attacks on law enforcers at around 4:30pm.
Witnesses said the attackers beat up law enforcers with sticks and hurled brickbats and stones at coppers, vehicles and roadside establishments.
Police picked up 16 Jamaat-Shibir men from the spot.
In the meantime, Khulna City Jamaat demanded immediate release of Parwar and all placed in durance vile You have the right to remain silent... activists of Jamaat and Shibir.
Earlier, Jamaat-Shibir men clashed with police on Shamsur Rahman road in the city. Four people, including two coppers, were maimed in the incident.
Police placed in durance vile You have the right to remain silent... three Shibir activists from the spot.
The clash ensued when police intercepted a procession brought out by Jamaat-Shibir men at about 1:00pm in protest of Parwar's arrest, said witnesses and police.
When Jamaat-Shibir men pelted police with brickbats, the police fired teargas canisters to bring the situation under control, said OC Shahbuddin Azad of Khulna Sadar Police Station.
Law enforcers arrested at least 65 Jamaat-Shibir activists in Dinajpur following attacks on coppers on Monday afternoon.
Jamaat-Shibir men enforced a daylong hartal in Joypurhat protesting the death of a Shibir activist. Several vehicles were set ablaze during the hartal.
In Cox's Bazar, Shibir men launched attacks on police when law enforcers intercepted their procession at around 3:00pm.
Two copperswere maimed. Law enforcers arrested four Shibir men in this connection.
Rab arrested two Jamaat-Shibir cadres from Islami Bank Institute of Technology in Bogra at about 11:50am for attacking police and vandalising a police van on November 5 in the town.
In Chapainawabganj, police arrested three Jamaat-Shibir men on Monday night on charge of creating chaos.
Six Jamaat-Shibir men were arrested in Bagerhat for bringing out a procession in the town defying police orders.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2012
11:22 ||
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Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami
[Bangla Daily Star] It was a planned attack by the Jamaat-Shibir men. Or so it seemed. They snatched the rifle from a policeman and beat him with its butt, injured over a dozen other law enforcers, attempted to hack a Jubo League ... the youth wing of the Bangla Awami League... leader and attacked law minister's private secretary's car -- all on the capital's main thoroughfares yesterday afternoon.
But that is not all. The Islamist party men torched police cycle of violences, vandalised three news vans and dozens of public and private vehicles and beat up the common people indiscriminately.
These were only a few snap shots of the guerilla-style attack from a procession of the Islami Chhatra Shibir ... the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh... , a pro-Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... student wing, at Farmgate and Karwan Bazar.
It was not the first time that the Jamaat-Shibir men went on the rampage and maimed police personnel. They have done so almost every day since November 5 in Dhaka and elsewhere in the country.
On November 4, the Jamaat announced a nine-day agitation programme beginning from November 5 to press home its demand for the immediate release of the party's top leaders, including those facing war crimes trial. Till Monday, more than 200 coppers, at least 300 people and three journalists were maimed during festivities between the police and Jamaat-Shibir men across the country.
They ended their protest programme yesterday through a targeted attack on the law enforcers in an unprecedented manner, leaving about 20 coppers injured in Dhaka, Khulna and Cox's Bazar.
Noticeably, the police role during these attacks throughout the week seemed very unusual. They either tried to escape those attacks or were just silent observers, witnesses said.
Only a few coppers went on a counter attack, mainly in self-defence, they added.
Never in the past had police played such a passive role during a political violence.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2012
11:21 ||
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Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami
PARIS: A West African military force assembled to intervene against Mali rebels is ready to be deployed as soon as the United Nations issues a green light, a senior official at the center of the preparations claimed yesterday.
The military force is fully ready. Once the UN gives the go-ahead, deployment can start immediately, Kadre Desire Ouedraogo told journalists here.
"And we're doing it without the help of the mighty Uruguayans!" he added...
Ouedraogo, a former prime minister of Burkina Faso, is the president of the commission, or permanent secretariat, of the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
His comments contradicted the skepticism expressed by some military experts on the readiness of ECOWAS to send in a force capable of sweeping rebels out of northern Mali, a vast desert area that has fallen under the control of Al-Qaeda-linked militants.
ECOWAS leaders meeting in Nigeria agreed on Sunday to deploy a force of up to 3,300 men. A detailed plan of action, backed by the African Union, is due to be presented to the UN by the end of the month.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/14/2012
11:18 ||
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PERTH, Australia: United States Defense Secretary Leon Panetta Wednesday backed the top US commander in Afghanistan, saying he had his continued confidence.
General John Allen was placed under investigation after FBI agents probing e-mail threats sent by former CIA director David Petraeus mistress stumbled upon messages he had sent to another woman at the center of the scandal.
No one should leap to any conclusions, Panetta told reporters in Perth, where he and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had held talks with their Australian counterparts. General Allen is doing an excellent job at ISAF. He certainly has my continued confidence to lead our forces and continue the fight.
But his nomination has been put on hold as a prudent measure, until we determine what the facts are. And we will.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/14/2012
11:17 ||
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#1
Besides, we need something to hold over his head in case he's ever called to testify to Congress.
[Al Ahram] Following the formation of a new and enlarged Syrian opposition group in Qatar Monday, Arab League welcomes the group but stands short of stating it is the sole Syrian voice
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2012
11:16 ||
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[Al Ahram] The Salafist Nour Party Chairman and presidential advisor Emad Abdel-Ghafour starts negotiations with Sinai-based Islamist groups under the orders of President Mohamed Morsi as part of initiatives to tackle growing violence in the Egyptian peninsula that borders Israel.
"I will work to get the different movements, ideologies and tribes in Sinai to engage in political and social discourse in an attempt to end the use of violence as a means of expression," stated Abdel-Ghafour to Al Ahram Arabic-language news site.
The Salafist leader, who claims he will know how to approach the different Islamist factions on the ground, detailed that he will be holding a series of meetings with Islamist leaders and figures in both Sinai and Cairo.
Through specially-established conflict resolution committees they expect to end the disagreements amongst the residents of Sinai, he asserted, adding that the interior ministry is also playing a role in the social dialogue.
The Salafist Nour Party visited Sinai earlier in an attempt to "combat extremism" and end growing violence between security forces and cut-thoat groups. Those negotiations, however, seem to have failed as violence continued in Egypt's Sinai peninsula. Most recently, three coppers were killed and three injured.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2012
11:15 ||
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[Al Ahram] Egypt's presidency says the European Union approves $6.3 billion in support, to be mainly provided by the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2012
11:15 ||
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Pakistan has agreed to free several jailed Afghan Taliban officials during talks in Islamabad with Afghan peace negotiators, officials say.
But the Afghan delegation has extended its stay for an extra day, amid disagreements about who will be freed.
Afghan sources told the BBC the former Taliban justice minister Mullah Turabi and two intelligence officials are among the group who will be released.
One Afghan official described the move as a positive gesture towards peace.
Pakistan says it backs peace efforts. The BBC's Orla Guerin says the releases are a tangible step to prove this.
Our correspondent, reporting from Islamabad, says that the key issues are who is being freed, and how much power they have.
Crucially, it appears that the Taliban number two, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar is not among those being released - at least for now.
However, Afghan officials hope that Mullah Turabi can bring field commanders into talks. But one Taliban leader told the BBC he no longer has any influence over the movement.
[Al Ahram] A spate of apparently coordinated attacks across Iraq on the eve of a Mohammedan festival marking the Islamic new year killed 15 people and maimed more than 100 others on Wednesday, officials said.
The 11 bombings and shootings struck in Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... and six other cities, the security and medical officials said, and will likely raise tensions in a country mired in political deadlock and only relatively recently emerged from a brutal sectarian war.
No group immediately grabbed credit for the violence, but Al-Qaeda's front group in Iraq frequently carries out coordinated bombings and attempts mass-casualty attacks in a bid to destabilise the government through fomenting bloodshed.
Wednesday's deadliest blasts struck in Kirkuk, ... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time... a disputed ethnically mixed oil-rich province in north Iraq frequently targeted by Death Eaters seeking to sow communal violence, where at least nine people were killed and 39 maimed.
Two car booms and a roadside kaboom in Kirkuk's eponymous capital killed five people and maimed 34 others, while another explosives-packed vehicle targeting an army patrol in the town of Hawijah, also in Kirkuk province, left four dead and five others maimed, officials said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2012
11:14 ||
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UN Chief 'Extremely Concerned'
[Al Ahram] A local staff member with the UN's peacekeeping force in the Abyei region contested by Sudan and South Sudan has been killed in an incident that followed a tribal dispute, a UN official told AFP on Wednesday.
The employee, a member of the Dinka tribe, "was shot and killed" on Tuesday, Damian Rance, a public information officer with the UN's humanitarian agency in Khartoum, told AFP.
The staffer died as a result of festivities between Dinka protesters and the UN's Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA), the front man for UN chief the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... said in New York.
"Today one national staff member departed this vale of tears and another sustained an injury as a result of festivities in Abyei between UNISFA and Ngok Dinka demonstrators," Martin Nesirky said late on Tuesday.
"UNISFA has established checkpoints and is monitoring movements into Abyei. UNISFA's leadership is also meeting with Dinka and Misseriya representatives in an effort to defuse tensions."
Rance said he understood that tensions rose on Monday when Misseriya tribal chiefs went to a meeting in Abyei town with the head of UNISFA. This caused tensions with members of the Dinka tribe.
"UNISFA put up security and the crowd dispersed," Rance said.
The deadly clash occurred the following day.
Early Wednesday UN chief Ban condemned "the series of incidents that occurred in Abyei in the past 48 hours" and urged the communities to resolve their disputes through dialogue.
In a statement, Ban said he remained extremely concerned that joint institutions, including police for the Abyei area, have not yet been established and urged the parties quickly to address the issue.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2012
11:13 ||
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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has agreed to free some Afghan Taleban prisoners that could be useful in reconciliation efforts, officials from both countries said on Wednesday, the clearest sign that Islamabad will put its weight behind the troubled Afghan peace process.
Of course they'll free them. They're all on the same side, more or less...
You'll have noticed they aren't freeing any Pakistani Taleban, who are not on the same side as the government, though they are on the same side as their Afghan brothers.
There's a difference between pets, and feral animals.
Afghan officials, hopeful that direct contacts with top Taleban commanders could give them strong leverage in any peace talks, have long urged Pakistan for access to prisoners.
"We aren't too certain whether they can play an important role in peace negotiations but it is a positive gesture from Pakistan in helping peace efforts," an Afghan official told Reuters. He said it was not clear when the release would occur.
Islamabad, which has a long history of ties to Afghan insurgent groups, has come under growing pressure to support US efforts to stabilize Afghanistan before NATO combat troops leave by the end of 2014.
Snicker. That's just clueless. Pakistan is merely biding its time and loading up for the day after we're gone...
A senior Pakistani army official said it had not yet been decided if the former Afghan Taleban second in command, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, would be released.
You could just hand him over to us...
Afghan officials have identified him as a figure who may still command enough respect to persuade the Taleban to pursue peace after more than a decade of fighting US-led NATO and Afghan forces.
Or he may be an especially pliant tool of the Paks now that he's been thumped good and hard...
A political settlement between the Afghan government and the insurgents is widely seen as the best way of delivering stability to the country before most NATO combat troops pull out at the end of 2014.
Which will then remain stable for a week or two, until the Pak-backed Taliban roll into Kabul and hang Karzai...
The decision to release the prisoners was a major achievement for Afghanistan's High Peace Council, which is in Islamabad to push for Taleban releases and has been struggling to ease mistrust between the Taleban and the Kabul government.
Afghan officials have suspected that Pakistan has been holding Afghan Taleban members in jail to retain some control over peace efforts and have a say in any settlement. Some of them include former Justice Minister Mullah Nooruddin Toorabi and Mullah Jahangirwal, former secretary of Taleban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, Afghan High Peace Council officials say.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/14/2012
11:13 ||
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DHAKA: Bangladesh Prime Minister Hasina Wajed has turned down an invitation to a summit in Islamabad next week, officials said yesterday, despite a recent olive branch from the Pakistan government.
Since the Paks have yet to say anything appropriate about the last time they were in Bangladesh...
The prime minister is not going to attend the summit, Syed Masud Khundoker, a director-general in Bangladeshs foreign ministry, told AFP.
Pakistans Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani had issued the invitation to Hasina in person last Friday on a rare visit to Bangladesh by a senior Pakistani to what was East Pakistan before it won a war for independence in December 1971.
Relations between the two sides remain extremely delicate with Moni asking Rabbani last week for Pakistan to apologies for war crimes committed by the army. Hasinas government says up to three million people were killed in the conflict.
The Daily Star, a Dhaka-based newspaper, said that policy advisors had told Hasina that it would be unwise to visit Pakistan unless Islamabad offered a formal apology to Dhaka for what it regards as genocide.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/14/2012
11:12 ||
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[Al Ahram] Al Qaeda's leader has rejected the notion of nation states and any United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... role in arbitrating solutions to conflict - along the pillars of international order - in a document outlining how Moslems should run their affairs.
The statement by Ayman al-Zawahri, entitled "Supporting Islam" and posted by the jihadi bad boys' publishing arm on an Islamist website, also calls for the re-establishment of the medieval Islamic Caliphate to unite Moslems.
While the document's proposals resembled the teachings of the late Osama bin Laden ... who no longer has to waste time and energy breathing... , the late founder of the Islamist bad boy group, Zawahri appeared intent on providing his own views on how Moslems should shape their public life.
He urged Moslems to use sharia (Islamic law) to resolve disputes and "refuse judgment by any other principles, beliefs and laws", including the United Nations.
The world body, he said, was controlled by the five permanent members of its Security Council - big powers the United States, China, Russia, Britannia and La Belle France.
Zawahri called on Moslems to work to set up a caliphate that "does not recognise nation state, national links or the borders imposed by the occupiers, but establishes a rightly guided caliphate following in the footsteps of the Prophet Mohammad.
"These are the objectives of the Document of Supporting Islam, and we call on all those who believe in them to call for them, support them and try to spread them in every way possible among the people of the nation," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2012
11:11 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#1
This guy..
Posted by: Large Darling of the Antelope3345 ||
11/14/2012 11:57
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#2
Ayman has also called on Wolrd Muslims to travel to Somalia + fight African Union forces battling Al-Shabaab.
The European Union has approved a 5bn-euro ($6.4bn) financial support package for Egypt, Egyptian officials say.
A statement by President Mohammed Mursi's office said the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) would each provide 2bn euros.
The remaining 1bn euros would come from EU member states, the statement added.
The announcement came after Mr Mursi held talks with the EU's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, in Cairo.
In a statement, the presidency said the packages was "a strong sign of the EU's support for Egypt's path to development".
Representatives of some 100 of Europe's largest firms as well as European Commission members and European MPs are participating in the meetings, due to conclude later on Wednesday.
Their focus is on strengthening bilateral relationships between Egypt and the European Union and deepening economic co-operation.
[Al Ahram] Already housing tens of thousands of Syrians who escaped the conflict between Bashar al-Assad's forces and the rebels, Jordan plans to set a third refugee camp for unmarried male refugees
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2012
11:10 ||
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Egypts powerful Muslim Brotherhood sharply criticized Israeli leaders on Tuesday over airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, accusing them of heating up the conflict to score political points ahead of elections.
The latest round of violence began Saturday, with rocket attacks from Gaza militants and Israeli airstrikes that killed seven Palestinians. More than 100 rockets have exploded in Israel since the weekend. The exchanges appeared to die down on Tuesday.
#2
He'll vote present, I think, Ydaerb. He has Jewish friends, who would be distinctly unhappy if he actively helped exterminate the six million Jews of Israel. If it happened despite the weaponry America sold Israel, he'll say how sorry he is, and his anti-Zionist friends will know what he means.
[Shabelle] Jubaland state has accused Kenyan government of generating a fresh civil war in southern Somalia, where its troops are operating under 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) force.
Mohamud Ali Shire, the president of Jubaland state announced while giving an interview to shabelle Media Network in Mogadishu that it is unfortunate the Somali, UN and AMISOM panel to be denied access entering inside Kismayo last week.
Kenyan government forces in Kismayo didnt give further details why they were not able to allow Somali, UN delation to enter in the city the guarantee their protection last week, said president of Jubaland Mohamud Ali Shire.
President Shire highlighted that Kenya has a hidden agenda invading in Somalia, particularly lower and Middle region under Jubaland state as it supporting warlords and their militias who are harassing locals.
We expect the new President of Somalias Federal Republic government H.E Hassan Sheikh Mohamud would support the will and interest of the people in Jubland state and help Jubaland state to the reconciliation process and promoting peace in Jubba regions, he added.
Somali and Kenyan forces captured the commercial port city of Kismayo late September from the Al-Shabaab ... the personification of Somali state failure... without a fight and the new Somali Federal Government has vowed to stabilize Somalia.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2012
11:05 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Shabaab
[Shabelle] Somalias parliament on Tuesda passed a vote of confidence in the newly formed cabinet of Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon, Mohamed Osman Jawari, speaker of the parliament told at the assembly hall in Mogadishu.
The new 10-member cabinet was named by the prime minister after long-term consultations with the president and Somali parliament speaker.
Speaker of the house Mohamed Osman Jawari said 119 out of 225 votes have endorsed the cabinet that has now got parliaments confidence vote.
Three MPs rejected the cabinet, and three others abstained during the voting process at the parliament hall in Mogadishu in Tuesday.
The PM said the new cabinet is expected to be sworn in news week, the smallest cabinet in the history of the horn of Africa nation,with a female foreign minister and deputy premier.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2012
11:04 ||
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#1
No word yet on whether they'll wear decorative targets on their heads.
JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Washington: US Army prosecutors on Tuesday requested a death penalty court-martial for a soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan villagers in a predawn rampage, saying that Staff Sgt. Robert Bales committed heinous and despicable crimes.
Prosecutors asked an investigative officer to make the recommendation after the end of a hearing that included remote testimony from witnesses in Afghanistan, including a 7-year-old girl who described hiding behind her father as he was shot dead.
Bales, 39, is accused of slipped away from his remote base to attack two villages early on March 11. Among the dead were nine children. He faces 16 counts of premeditated murder and six counts of attempted murder.
The killings drew such angry protests that the US temporarily halted combat operations in Afghanistan, and it was three weeks before American investigators could reach the crime scenes.
Terrible, terrible things happened, said the prosecutor, Maj. Rob Stelle.
Several soldiers testified that Bales returned to the base alone just before dawn, covered in blood, and that he made incriminating statements such as, I thought I was doing the right thing.
An attorney for Bales argued theres not enough information to move forward with the court-martial. Emma Scanlan said that Bales state of mind on the evening of the killings was still unknown.
The investigating officer said Tuesday that he would have a written recommendation by the end of the week. The ultimate decision would be made by the three-star general on the base, Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state.
None of the Afghan witnesses were able to identify Bales as the shooter, but other evidence, including tests of the blood on his clothes, implicated him, according to testimony from a DNA expert.
The lead prosecutor has said that on the night of the killings Bales watched a movie about a former CIA agent on a revenge killing spree, while drinking contraband whiskey. The lead prosecutor said Bales first attacked one village, returned to his base, then headed out again to attack a second village before returning to his base covered in blood.
Scanlan raised the issue of post-traumatic stress disorder and brain injury, noting that Bales had received a screening at the traumatic brain injury clinic at an Army medical center during a period of time that the center is under investigation for reversing hundreds of PTSD diagnoses. When asked if Bales had ever been diagnosed with PTSD, Scanlan said, Im not going to answer that right now.
Bales wife, Kari, and her sister, Stephanie Tandberg, met with reporters briefly after the hearing concluded. Tandberg read a statement, saying we all grieve deeply for the Afghani families who lost their loved ones on March 11, but we must all not rush to judgment.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/14/2012
11:03 ||
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#1
"Bales, 39, is accused of slipped away from his remote base to attack two villages early on March 11. Among the dead were nine children. He faces 16 counts of premeditated murder and six counts of attempted murder."
That's not murder. The guy is a fucking hero!
You are either a troll or an evil person. Those are not mutually exclusive possibilities.
#11
It's not only that he massacred Civilians, He put every other Soldier in greater danger with his actions. He sounds clear on the charge against him.
A position paper by Israel's foreign ministry proposes "toppling" President Mahmoud Abbas if Palestine's bid for UN non-member state status is approved.
The internal document says it is "the only option" if deterrence efforts do not succeed, despite the consequences.
It also suggests that the Palestinians should be offered immediate recognition of statehood within provisional borders as an incentive to drop their UN bid.
Mr Abbas plans to submit a request to the UN General Assembly on 29 November.
Currently, the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), the umbrella group which represents most Palestinian factions and conducts negotiations with Israel, only has "permanent observer" status at the UN.
Mr Abbas, who is chairman of the PLO and president of the Palestinian Authority, wants Palestine to be admitted as a non-member observer state based on the boundaries which existed before Israel occupied the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip during the 1967 war.
Software giant Apple has blocked an app that would notify subscribers every time a US drone carried out a deadly mission on the grounds that it is "objectionable and crude", according to the program's designer.
Josh Begley, a graduate student at New York University, developed Drones+ to provide up-to-date information on strikes, using reports collated by the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism an organisation that tracks the use of unmanned CIA aircrafts.
We at Rantburg could certainly find uses for this...
But repeated attempts to get Apple to offer the software at its app store have been fruitless. At first, Begley was informed that the program which he hoped would raise awareness of the growing death toll from drone strikes was "not useful" enough and did not appeal to a "broad enough audience".
The company position has since shifted, but only in the reasoning behind its refusal to stock Drones+.
In the latest rejection email, Apple reportedly informed him: "We found that your app contains content that many audiences would find objectionable, which is not in compliance with the app store review guidelines."
A video demonstration of Drones+ shows that the app is designed to flash up an alert when a new strike is reported, with details of how many people were killed. An interactive map shows subscribers where the air assault took place and how many others had taken place near it.
Begley, 27, told the Guardian that he didn't expect the app to be wildly popular, but hoped it would raise awareness. He added: "I built it because it is something I would like to use myself".
Figures from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism show that drones struck Pakistan 75 times in 2011, causing up to 655 fatalities.
The majority of those killed were terrorists alleged militants, but as many as 126 camp followers civilians may have also lost their lives in last year's attacks, the bureau's figures reveal.
Begley's app does not link to any graphic images of drone attacks, but reveals information about their existence. Even so, Apple looks unlikely to sanction the app, having come down against it on three separate occasions.
It has left the software developer looking elsewhere as he plans to take the software forward. "The plan now is to try and develop it for Android," he said.
With in-line advertising. In a drone-zap application. Oh, the possibilities...
Apple did not return the Guardian's request for comment.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/14/2012
10:59 ||
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#1
Apple has blocked an app that would notify subscribers every time a US drone carried out a deadly mission on the grounds that it is "objectionable and crude"
Releasing the info would be "objectionable and crude" or drone-zapping and checking these buggers off the kill list would be? The article is unclear about this. What is the general bias of Apple politics? Very liberal/left would be my guess.
#2
It would seem that this info would be classified. Probably very generic info could be released. Sometimes I've got to scratch my head. The left wing got all bent out of shape about waterboarding and Abu Ghraib but drone-zapping is O.K.
WaterGate and the Valerie Plame brouhaha were kept going by the Donks for a long time. Beghazhi doesn't seem to get much attention from the lame streamers. I guess it all depends on who is doing things. Hypocrisy reigns supreme in the party of the donkeys.
[NY Times] Syrian authorities ordered Arclight airstrikes for a third consecutive day close to the tense Turkish border on Wednesday, and said a French decision to recognize and consider arming a newly formed Syrian rebel coalition was an immoral act encouraging the destruction of Syria.
The French move was depicted by analysts as an attempt to inject momentum into a broad Western and Arab effort to build a viable and effective opposition to hasten the end of a stalemated civil war which has further destabilized the Middle East. For its part, the United States on Wednesday signaled a reluctance to go beyond its characterization of the rebel alliance as a legitimate representative of the Syrian people, rather than as their sole representative.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2012
10:59 ||
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Two months? That gives them time to sell the condo and pack...
ABU DHABI: Foreigners who live without proper residency documents can leave the UAE without paying fines from Dec. 4 under a general amnesty announced by the government.
Lt. Gen. Nassir Al Awadhi Al Menhali, assistant undersecretary for Naturalization, Residency and Ports Affairs at the Ministry of Interior, said the amnesty period will begin from Dec. 4 and end on Feb. 3. Overstayers can visit residency departments across the country to obtain outpasses and leave the country. They can also regularize their visas after payment of fines during the amnesty period.
The general pardon only applies to those who entered the country legally but overstayed, he clarified. Infiltrators will be treated as criminals.
The official added that the immigration offices throughout the country would be working in two shifts to ensure all the illegal immigrants leave the country during the grace period.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/14/2012
10:58 ||
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#1
Foreigners who live without proper residency documents can leave the UAE without paying fines
So that's how other parts of the world do it. Hmmmmnnn?
RAMALLAH, Palestine: The Palestinians on Tuesday began work to open the grave of iconic leader Yasser Arafat ahead of an exhumation of his body for a murder probe, a source close to his family told AFP.
Today they started removing concrete and stones from Arafats mausoleum and the work will last for almost 15 days, the source said.
Fifteen days?!?! What are they using to open it, a toothbrush and a lint comb?
There are several phases, he said, referring to the opening of the tomb ahead of a visit by French, Swiss and Russian experts to forensically test Arafats remains over suspicions he was poisoned with radioactive substance polonium.
It starts with the removal of stone and concrete and cutting the iron (framework) until they reach the soil that covers the body, which will not be removed until the arrival of the French prosecutors, Swiss experts and Russian investigators, the source said.
On Monday, Arafats mausoleum, which is located at the Muqataa presidential headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah was screened from public view with blue tarpaulins ahead of the operation to open the grave.
The process of taking samples is expected to begin at the end of the month after the French and Swiss delegations arrive on November 26, officials have said.
Because of Arafats position and his status, no-one will be allowed, under any circumstances, to photograph his body while the samples are taken, the source told AFP.
When Arafat died at the age of 75 in a French military hospital near Paris on November 11, 2004, French doctors were unable to say what had killed him. Many Palestinians are convinced he was poisoned by Israel.
Many Paleos are convinced about all sorts of fantasies; for example, that each and every one of their grandparents owned a mansion in Haifa...
French prosecutors opened a murder inquiry in August after Al-Jazeera television broadcast an investigation in which Swiss experts said they had found high levels of radioactive polonium on Arafats personal effects.
Speaking at a ceremony to mark the eighth anniversary of Arafats death on Sunday, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said Russia would also be helping the investigation, although he did not specify how. We hope for new facts that we can tell our people and the public, Abbas said.
The new investigation, he said, was bigger and more important that the uproar created by the Al-Jazeera inquiry.
The French murder inquiry was opened in late August at the request of Arafats widow Suha,
...frustrated over her inability to find the Kruggerrands...
but it has caused a split within the family, with the veteran leaders nephew Nasser Al-Qidwa on Saturday condemning the exhumation plans as a hateful idea.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/14/2012
10:52 ||
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"Today they started removing concrete and stones from Arafat's mausoleum and the work will last for almost 15 days," the source said.
Former CIA Director David Petraeus has agreed to testify about the Libya terror attack before the House and Senate intelligence committees, Fox News has learned.
Petraeus had originally been scheduled to testify this Thursday on the burgeoning controversy over the deadly Sept. 11 attack. That appearance was scuttled, though, after the director abruptly resigned over an extramarital affair.
The resignation has since expanded into a sprawling scandal that now includes allegations that Gen. John Allen, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, exchanged "inappropriate" and sexually charged emails with Jill Kelley, a Florida socialite linked to the Petraeus case. The rapid developments in the case have all but obscured what until last week was an intense debate on Capitol Hill and beyond over the Benghazi terror attack.
After Petraeus' resignation, lawmakers complained that the scandal was no reason they shouldn't hear from the man at the helm of the CIA when CIA operatives came under attack alongside State Department employees in Benghazi last month.
The logistics of Petraeus' appearance are still being worked out. But a source close to Petraeus said the former four-star general has contacted the CIA, as well as committees in both the House and Senate, to offer his testimony as the former CIA director.
Fox News has learned he is expected to speak off-site to the Senate Intelligence Committee on Friday about his Libya report.
The House side is still being worked out.
#1
Harry Reid has already opposed a joint committee to investigate Benghazi.
Senate Intelligence Committee Members (Meet this Friday offsite, Petraeus will testify (maybe))
Dianne Feinstein, D, Chair
John D. Rockefeller, D
Ron Wyden, D
Barbara Mikulski, D
Bill Nelso, D
Kent Conrad, D
Mark Udall, D
Mark Warner, D
Saxby Chambliss, R
Olympia Snowe, R
Richard Burr, R
James Risch, R
Daniel Coats, R
Roy Blunt, R
Marcio Rubio, R
#3
Is the point of the whole exercise not to remove Petraeus, which could have been done at any time, but to destroy him? To ensure that he was so tainted that nothing he said about events in the past or his opinions about the future would be given any public weight? Perhaps there are more parallels to the DSK affair and Petraeus scandal than we think. In both cases prominent men were removed from the political chessboard by the titillating use of surveillance information.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
11/14/2012 15:49
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Deacon Blues you are right on the mark.
A Russian business associate of mine explains the actions as another goal as well: "When you crush someone who is in your administration you do it as a warning to every political enemy you got. You're saying, 'See how I treat my friends and be worried.' Its a teachable moment Chicago style."
#7
I can't help but wonder if the Administration tried to hold this over him to keep his silence over Libya and he simply said 'Ok - I f-ked up. But I'm not going to complicate it by committing treason.' and went public by resigning. That was his 'F-k you SIR!'.
[Fox News] The Israeli military says its liquidation of the Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, military commander marks the beginning of an operation against Gazoo hard boys.
Hope and change, baby!
Wednesday's Arclight airstrike in Gazoo killed Ahmed Jabari, head of the Hamas military wing. The killing was a dramatic resumption of Israel's policy of assassinating Paleostinian hard boy leaders.
Military spokeswoman Lt. Col. Avital Leibovitch said the attack is the "start of a broader operation."
Jabari is the most senior Hamas official to be killed since an Israeli invasion of Gazoo four years ago.
Jabari has long topped Israel's most-wanted list. Israel blames him for a string of attacks, including the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit in 2006.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2012
10:35 ||
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The head of the military wing of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, Ahmed Said Khalil al-Jabari, has been killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza City.
He and another senior Hamas official died when the car they were travelling in was hit.
It appears to have been the first step of an Israeli operation against militant groups in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.
A series of air strikes are now being reported across Gaza.
The Israeli Defence Force (IDF) said it had launched "Operation Cloud Pillar" against Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other militant groups.
In recent days, Israeli officials had said they were considering assassinating senior figures in Hamas following a wave of heavy rocket-fire.
Mr Jabari, who was 46, is the most senior Hamas official to be killed in the Gaza Strip since the major Israeli offensive four years ago.
Israel's Shin Bet security service confirmed he had been targeted, saying he was responsible for "all terrorist activities against Israel from Gaza" in the last decade.
"Jabari was responsible for financing and directing military operations and attacks against Israel. His elimination today is a message to Hamas officials in Gaza that if they continue promoting terrorism against Israel, they will be hurt," it said.
Since Saturday, four Palestinian civilians and three militants, including Mr Jabari, have been killed in Gaza, and dozens injured. Eight Israelis have also been hurt.
Hamas spokesman Taher Anunu told BBC Arabic: "This was a heinous crime that will have repercussions.
"The Palestinian government will call for the trial of those responsible for the crime, and for hitting a civilian area, but the Palestinian factions have the right to respond in a way they see fit."
#1
Please let the Israeli government release a statement saying the missile was fired by a drone aircraft. I think they'll have to be that specific (true or not) to catch the attention of the American public and show that this is the same type of warcraft being practiced by Obama in Pakistan.
#6
Check out Groms link to the live blog, it's pretty intense. Paleo's are trying out their long game, trying to get in a lucky shot. But now, for once, targeting information is being acted on and quickly.
#8
It is true that Ahmed Jabari carried out some anti Al Q and anti Islamic J ops as part of his overall duties. However, he has led, planned or directed hundreds of attacks on Israeli civilians.
The next phase will be interesting. Israel has the location of dozens of Hamas ammo storage sites that are in residential or even hospital locations.
Posted by: lord garth ||
11/14/2012 17:57
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#9
Both the US Ambassador to Israel and US State Dept HQ came out with Israel supportive statements today. Both essentially condemned the Hamas attacks and regretted loss of civilian life.
So, at least so far, no throwing Israel under the bus.
Posted by: lord garth ||
11/14/2012 20:45
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#3
It would be interesting to know something regarding her access to classified documents. Was she active duty military? What was her rank if so? What was her security clearance? It doesn't seem coincidental that the FBI investigated both her and Gen. Petraeus. The FBI reports to DOJ. The DOJ seems to be a political instrument lately.
#4
Was she active duty military? What was her rank if so? What was her security clearance?
She is or was a Reserve officer; rank somewhere in the O4-O5 range. I suspect that if she still worked in intel, it would be the level requisite for her work. The information is available open-source (except for her security clearance, obviously). I don't have access to it at this time.
A man was killed and his body dumped on one side of a road in Narathiwat province on Tuesday morning. The body was identified as Sama-ae Mali from Rueso district.
Witnesses said Sama-ae was traveling on a motorcycle from his village to Rueso municipality. Some men followed him in a pick-up truck and opened fire at him with pistols. Sama-ae lost control of his vehicle and fell on the ground.
The attackers walked up to him and shot him in the head and body, killing him on the spot. They took his body and the motorcycle away in the pick-up truck, then dumped the body on the side of the road near Ban Sawo, and fled with the motorcycle.
Police suspected it was the work of terrorists militants. The stolen vehicle could later be used as a motorcycle bomb.
Fill a highball glass half full with ice.
Combine 1 oz each of vodka, coffee liquor, Irish cream liquor and cream over the ice in the glass and serve.
Posted by: Au Auric ||
11/14/2012 15:34
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#3
SO IIUC, Sweden is demanding that the Sun explode and go into Red Giant or Early Red Giant phase in order to save the World + Swedish Bikini Team from the Great Slushy???
WE OVERDOSED ON OUR AM CHOCOLATE MARSHMELLOWS AGAIN, DIDN'T WE?
#4
If sequestration in peat bogs mattered now, CO2 would be decreasing. It's not. If CO2 mattered, it would be getting a lot warmer, per the IPCC. It's not.
We need fewer theories. Paleoclimatology is still in the stamp-collecting era.
La Belle France announced Tuesday that it was recognizing the newly formed Syrian rebel coalition and would consider arming the group, seeking to inject momentum into a broad Western and Arab effort to build a viable and effective opposition that would hasten the end of a stalemated civil war that has destabilized the Middle East.
The announcement by President François Hollande made La Belle France the first Western country to fully embrace the new coalition, which came together this past weekend under Western pressure after days of difficult negotiations in Doha, Qatar.
The goal was to make an opposition leadership both inside and outside the country representative of the array of Syrian groups pressing for the downfall of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Supressor of the Damascenes... . Although Mr. Assad is increasingly isolated as his country descends further into mayhem and despair after 20 months of conflict, he has survived partly because of the disagreements and lack of unity among his opponents.
#2
I suppose we should find out who makes up of the body of rebels to see if the rebels are our enemy but then we have been too particular in the past in Libya or Egypt.
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.
[SF Gate] The violent robbery of a television news crew outside an Oakland school last week was the latest in a series of similar incidents in a city where the rate of strong-arm robberies and holdups is surging.
[An Nahar] The 
[An Nahar] Syrian army tanks shelled a refugee camp and two nearby districts in southern 
[An Nahar] Former prime minister 
Samir Geagea
[An Nahar] Military Tribunal Judge Saqr Saqr issued on Wednesday a search and investigation warrant against the son of Salafist 
[Bangla Daily Star] 
cycle of violence
[Bangla Daily Star] It was a planned attack by the Jamaat-Shibir men. Or so it seemed. They snatched the rifle from a policeman and beat him with its butt, injured over a dozen other law enforcers, attempted to hack a 
PERTH, Australia: United States Defense Secretary Leon Panetta Wednesday backed the top US commander in Afghanistan, saying he had his continued confidence.
[Al Ahram] Following the formation of a new and enlarged Syrian opposition group in Qatar Monday, Arab League welcomes the group but stands short of stating it is the sole Syrian voice
[Al Ahram] The Salafist Nour Party Chairman and presidential advisor Emad Abdel-Ghafour starts negotiations with Sinai-based Islamist groups under the orders of President Mohamed Morsi as part of initiatives to tackle growing violence in the Egyptian peninsula that borders Israel.
[Al Ahram] A spate of apparently coordinated attacks across Iraq on the eve of a 
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
[Al Ahram] Al Qaeda's leader has rejected the notion of nation states and any 
[Shabelle] Jubaland state has accused Kenyan government of generating a fresh civil war in southern Somalia, where its troops are operating under the 
The head of the military wing of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, Ahmed Said Khalil al-Jabari, has been killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza City.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
