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Yemen army seizes Shuqra after Qaeda pullout
Today's Headlines
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Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 06/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Is the current theme Women in Coats, Fred?
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2012 0:38 Comments || Top||

#2  I'm gonna go with Women with Ironmongery.
Posted by: SteveS || 06/16/2012 0:40 Comments || Top||

#3  An image for the collection
Posted by: phil_b || 06/16/2012 1:45 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Afghan drug trafficker 'Haji Baghcho' sentenced to life over Taliban ties
[Tolo News] A notorious Afghan narco, Haji Baghcho was sentenced on Tuesday by a US court to life imprisonment for using proceeds of one of the world's largest heroin distribution operations to support the Taliban insurgency.

Haji Baghcho was manufacturing heroin in secret laboratories along Afghanistan's border with Pakistain and send drugs to more than 20 countries.

He was tossed in the slammer
Please don't kill me!
on May 2009 and brought to US to face charges following a yearlong investigation by both Afghan and American prosecutors.

Prosecutors said that his drug trafficking network in eastern Afghanistan produced hundreds of thousands of kilograms of Heroin intending to ship to United States.

He was also had close ties with Taliban's high ranking official who protected from police in the area.

He was also order to forfeit more than $254 million over drug proceeds.

According to information obtained from sources, Haji Baghcho's network was responsible for trafficking more than 123,000 kilograms of heroin with a wholesale value of more than $261 million in 2006 alone. According to officials, the amount is roughly one-fifth of the total amount of heroin produced worldwide that year.
Posted by: Fred || 06/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under: Narcos


Africa Horn
Al shabab attacks Somali, Ethiopians forces in Yurkud,Gedo region
(Sh.M.Network)- A witness says Al shabab fighters have launched an attack on Somali and Æthiopian troops in Yurkut village which locates near the border between Bay and Gedo regions of southwestern Somalia.

The fighting broke out when Al shabab fighters armed with heavy and small weapons ambushed a convoy of vehicles carrying Somali and Æthiopian forces in Yurkud village, sparking face-to-face confrontation.

Residents in the two nearest villages say they heard kabooms and gun fire which they believe to be an indication of heavy fighting
... as opposed to the more usual light or desultory fighting...
erupted in Yurkud on Thursday afternoon.

"The fighting is now over and (the Al-Shabaab
... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda...
) have been heavily repelled during the attack and many of their fighters were killed by the coalition forces," said Isac Gees-dheer, ASWJ official who gave an interview to Shabelle Media.

Shabelle Media cannot independently confirm the casualties of the warring sides, but ASWJ claims victory.

Somali government and Al shabab are yet to comment on the battle. Yurkut is a key position on the supply line for Æthiopian forces in Bay and Gedo region of southwestern Somalia.

Al shabab which merged Al Qaeda early this year continues to carry out attacks on Æthiopian, AMISOM and Somali troops despite the group was pushed out from several towns they controlled in south and central Somalia.
Posted by: Fred || 06/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab


French court convicts 4 in piracy trial, acquits 2
(Sh. M. Network)-A Gay Paree court has convicted four Somalis in a 2008 attack on a French luxury vessel and acquitted two others.

Sentences handed down late Thursday for the attack on the Ponant in the Gulf of Aden ranged from four to 10 years. The 10-year prison term went to the only man who admitted he was a pirate, 31-year-old Ismael Ali Samatar.

Two other Somalis who said they boarded the boat received seven-year prison terms. The driver of a pick-up truck used to flee was given a four-year term for complicity.
Next time flee faster...
The 30 people on the Ponant were freed after its owner paid a ransom of $2.15 million. The French army tossed in the clink
Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please!
the six on Somali territory.
Posted by: Fred || 06/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: Pirates

#1  Gotta respect the French for giving the stiffest sentence to the most cooperative defendant.
Posted by: American Delight || 06/16/2012 5:16 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Egypt's SCAF tells People Assembly to close doors, bans MPs from entering building
[Al Ahram] The secretariat of Egypt's People's Assembly on Thursday received an official notification from Egypt's ruling military council to immediately dissolve the lower house of parliament in line with Thursday's High Constitutional Court (HCC) verdict.

According to a source who asked to remain anonymous, the Assembly's secretary-general, Sami Mahran, received the notification, which also prohibits everyone except workers and parliamentary reporters from entering the parliament building.

On Thursday, the secretariat had distributed the work agenda for the week to MPs as the Islamist-led Assembly was set to hold a meeting on Tuesday to discuss the ramifications of the HCC decision.
Posted by: Fred || 06/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Africa Subsaharan
Tanzania sends terror suspect to Germany
(Sh.M.Network) -- An official in Tanzania says his country will transfer a terror suspect to Germany.

Acting Director of Criminal Investigations Isaya Mngulu said Thursday that Tanzanian security officials have alerted German officials of Emrah Erdogan's imminent arrival.

Mngulu told Tanzanian state radio that Erdogan is a member of al-Qaeda who has fought in Afghanistan.

Erdogan is a 24-year-old German of Turkish origin. His name has been linked to a May 28 kaboom inKenya, though Kenyan officials have not formally accused him in the attack.

Officials say that Erdogan recently traveled from Somalia toKenyaand then toTanzania.
Posted by: Fred || 06/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab

#1  Glad I'm not on that flight.
Posted by: American Delight || 06/16/2012 5:18 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Yemen army seizes Shuqra after Qaeda pullout
[Al Ahram] Yemeni troops took control of the city of Shuqra on Friday after Al-Qaeda Orcs and similar vermin pulled out, the third jihadist bastion in the south to fall in the space of a week, a military official said.
"The army has taken control of Shuqra," said a military official, adding that "troops have taken positions in the centre" of the coastal city while Orcs and similar vermin were seen fleeing.

A local official told AFP that Al-Qaeda gunnies "pulled out towards Azzan," in Shabwa province, some 110 kilometres (70 miles) to the northeast.

The official said that Orcs and similar vermin fled after the army "tightened the noose from three fronts."

Shuqra was the last major stronghold of Al-Qaeda in Abyan
...a governorate of Yemen. The region was a base to the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army terrorist group until it dropped the name and joined al-Qaeda. Its capital is Zinjibar. In March 2011, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula declared the governate an Islamic Emirate after seizing control of the region. The New York Times fastidiously reported that those in control, while Islamic hard boyz, are not in fact al-Qaeda, but something else that looks, tastes, smells, and acts the same. Yemeni government forces launched an effort to re-establish control of the region when President-for-Life Saleh was tossed and the carnage continues...
province to fall to government forces, which launched an all-out offensive last month that had already resulted in the recapture of the towns of Jaar and Zinjibar.

The Orcs and similar vermin remain in control of the smaller Abyan town of Al-Mahfad.

At least 48 people, including 40 myrmidons, were killed on Thursday in the battle for Shuqra, state media said.

The official Saba news agency said the air force had launched around 100 raids against Orcs and similar vermin holed up in the city.

On Tuesday, the military drove the jihadists out of the lovely provincial capital of Zinjibar and Jaar, with Al-Qaeda gunnies believed to have fled east to Shuqra.

Taking advantage of the weakening of central government control by an Arab Spring-inspired uprising last year, the Orcs and similar vermin had overrun most of Abyan, taking full control of Zinjibar, Jaar, Shuqra and several villages.

On May 12, the army launched an all-out offensive to recapture territory lost to the jihadists.

A total of 540 people have died in the campaign -- 402 Al-Qaeda myrmidons, 78 soldiers, 26 Islamic fascisti and 34 civilians -- according to an AFP tally compiled from various sources.

The recapture of Jaar and Zinjibar on Tuesday came just hours before the UN Security Council unanimously passed a resolution threatening sanctions against groups seen as undermining Yemen's political transition.

The main targets of Resolution 2051 were the family and supporters of ousted president President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh
... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it...
, although they were not named in the text, diplomats in New York said.

Saleh has been accused by his opponents of allowing Al-Qaeda to take hold of large swathes of the country's south and east, and of meddling in the new government's affairs.

The resolution also backed President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, who pledged to destroy Al-Qaeda when he was sworn in as Saleh's successor in February.
Posted by: Fred || 06/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia


Europe
Basque Youth Group Close to ETA Says it has Dissolved
[An Nahar] Segi, an outlawed youth group linked with the armed Basque separatist organization ETA, said Friday it had disbanded.

Segi, which was declared a terrorist group by Spain's Supreme Court in 2007 over its suspected ties to ETA, said it "has ended its course", in a statement published in pro-independence Basque newspaper Gara.

"With its mistakes and successes, it has already accomplished what it set out to do. We have always known how to adapt and we have made the right choice. Segi has ended but we are not going home," it added.

The Spanish government had accused Segi of being a "recruiting ground" for ETA, blamed for the deaths of over 800 people in more than 40 years of bombing and shooting for an independent Basque homeland in northern Spain and southern La Belle France.

Segi members have in the past thrown Molotov cocktails at symbols of Spain such as post offices, banks and political party offices.

ETA itself announced what it said was the "definitive" end to its campaign of violence in October 2011.

Segi's announcement comes just two days after Askatasuna, an outlawed group championing the rights of prisoners including ETA orcs, said it was dissolving the movement.

Askatasuna, created in 2001 from a fusion of a pro-amnesty association and a support group for Basque political prisoners, was banned by Spain in 2002.
Posted by: Fred || 06/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:


The Grand Turk
Report: Turkish Police Detain Qaida Suspects
[An Nahar] Police incarcerated
... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not...
eight people in western Turkey over alleged links to the al-Qaeda network, Anatolia news agency reported Friday.

Police tossed in the clink
Drop the rosco and step away witcher hands up!
seven suspects during simultaneous raids at different addresses in Bursa province and one in Balikesir province, Anatolia said.

The suspects are claimed to have been trained at al-Qaeda camps in some countries and have recruited members to the organization, it added.

Turkish security forces have regularly targeted suspected al-Qaeda supporters since twin suicide kabooms hit Istanbul in November 2003.

A Turkish cell of al-Qaeda was held responsible for the attacks, in which explosive-laden trucks first targeted two synagogues, and then the British consulate and a British bank, killing a total of 63 people, including the British consul.

Seven men were cooled for a few years
Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please!
for life in 2007 over the bombings, among them a Syrian national who criminal masterminded and financed the attacks.
Posted by: Fred || 06/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Turkey


India-Pakistan
At least five killed in Karachi violence
[Dawn] At least five people were killed in latest incidents of violence in Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
, DawnNews reported on Friday.

One person was rubbed out in the city's North Bloody Karachi area while two were killed in incidents of firing in the Garden area.

In an incident of firing on Jahangir Road, one person was killed and two others were maimed. The area became tense in the aftermath of the firing.

Moreover, in the city's SITE area, a policeman was rubbed out and another was maimed.

Four 'hit mans', two Taliban men placed in long-term storage

Four 'hit mans' were placed in long-term storage
Into the paddy wagon wit' yez!
in an operation carried out by police personnel in Bloody Karachi's Garden and Kharadar areas, SSP South said.

The four, Saeed Pathan, Iqbal alias Arif Gul, Shahid and Mohammad alias Baba, are also alleged to have associations with political parties.

The police recovered four hand grenades, four 7-MM guns and four TT pistols from the suspects' possession. The four are alleged to be involved in over 30 incidents of assassinations.

Meanwhile,
...back at the argument, Jane reached into her purse for her .38...
the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) of police placed in long-term storage
Into the paddy wagon wit' yez!
two alleged bully boyz in a raid in the city's Pak Colony area.

Police claimed both suspects were members of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP), and that they were involved in murder and acts of terrorism both in Bloody Karachi and the tribal areas.

One killed, five wounded in Chicago violence

A man was killed and nine other people were wounded in shootings across the city Friday afternoon into Saturday morning, police said.

The one death was Antonio Buck, 32, of the 5400 block of South Aberdeen Street, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. He was one of two people shot about 1:30 a.m. this morning in the 5100 block of South Honore Street in the Back of the Yards neighborhood, police said.

A 29-year-old woman was shot in the shoulder in the incident and is in guarded condition at Mount Sinai Hospital, police said.

When police first responded to the scene, they found her with a gunshot wound. Someone drove Buck from that scene to Holy Cross Hospital, where he died from a gunshot wound to the head, police said. Police spotted the vehicle carrying Buck as it sped away and tried to pull it over, but the driver kept going. It was only when they arrived at Holy Cross that police realized the driver was shuttling a man who was shot.

A 23-year-old man was shot about 6:20 a.m. Saturday on the 7900 block of South Ellis Avenue in the East Chatham neighborhood, police said. He was shot in the lower back and leg. Additional details weren't immediately available.

Another man, 23, was shot in both legs near the intersection of Clark and Division streets in the Near North neighborhood about 2:30 a.m. It's not clear why he was shot. He "self transported" to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, police said. He told police he heard shots and felt pain.
Posted by: Fred || 06/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Sri Lanka
26 Dead as Thousands Rally in Syria on 'Friday of Readiness'
[An Nahar] At least 26 people were killed in violence on Friday as thousands protested against the regime across Syria, activists and a monitoring group said.

Activists uploaded videos of protests outside mosques or street marches on what they named a "Friday of Readiness."

The Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, said regime forces killed six people in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, six in the southern province of Daraa, five in the central province of Homs, three in the northern province of 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...
, three in Damascus
...The place where Pencilneck hangs his brass hat...
' countryside, two in Damascus and one in Idlib.

For its part, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said eight people were killed in Busra al-Sham in the southern province of Daraa in an kaboom outside a mosque, while another blast was reported in al-Midan area of Damascus, without reports of casualties.

Regime forces also tried to reassert control over the central city of Homs and the town of Andan in Aleppo province, clashing with rebels and leaving two people dead in shelling, the Observatory said

The Britannia-based group had reported at least another 84 people killed in festivities and bombings nationwide on Thursday.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said major powers could hold a conference at the end of the month in Geneva on the crisis which erupted in mid-March 2011 and has since cost more than 14,400 lives, according to the Observatory.

"There is a possibility of holding a conference in Geneva on June 30," Fabius told La Belle France Inter radio.

Participants would include U.N. Security Council countries, but the meeting would be held "without the constraints of the Security Council," he added.

Fabius also said that talks were under way with Russia on Syria's future if Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Trampler of Homs...
was ousted.

But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov swiftly denied such talks had taken place with La Belle France or the United States, which have both been pushing for Assad to step down.

"There were no such discussions and there could not have been such discussions. This completely contradicts our position," Lavrov told news hounds. "We are not involved in regime change."

Russia, along with China, has vetoed two Security Council resolutions against Assad and has vowed to oppose any military intervention.

Also on Thursday, 14 people were also maimed in suicide vehicle bombing near an important Shiite Mohammedan shrine in the capital, the state news agency SANA said.

Syrian authorities said they had uncovered an al-Qaeda plot to bomb Damascus mosques around the main weekly prayers.

A suspect tossed in the slammer
Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out!
on Thursday confessed that he had been planning a suicide kaboom during Friday prayers at Al-Rifai Mosque in the heart of the capital, SANA reported.

The suspect told interrogators that the group's members "have prepared young men... to carry out suicide kabooms in several areas in Damascus during prayers on Friday, June 15," SANA said.

In a fresh report of bloodshed, the Syrian Observatory said nine bodies, some of them mutilated, had been found.

"The bodies of nine people were found in Hamouria in Damascus province, some with their throats slit," the watchdog's head Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence La Belle France Presse. "It is unclear who carried out the attack."

In Istanbul, Syrian opposition leaders were meeting on Friday in a bid to settle their differences and forge a united front to confront the escalating conflict in their homeland.

"We will work towards a unified vision," Burhan Ghalioun, the former head of the main opposition group, the Syrian National Council, told Agence La Belle France Presse shortly before the two-day gathering kicked off.

Human Rights Watch
... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world...
, meanwhile, accused Syrian government forces of having used sexual violence to torture men, women, girls and boys tossed in the slammer
Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out!
since the unrest broke out in March 2011.

The New York-based group said it had interviewed 10 former detainees, including two women, who described being sexually abused or witnessing such abuse in detention.
Posted by: Fred || 06/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Palestinian Dead, 3 Hurt as Residents Clash with Army in Nahr al-Bared
[An Nahar] A Paleostinian was killed and three others were maimed on Friday when the Lebanese army opened fire during a spat at the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in northern Leb, a Paleostinian source told Agence La Belle France Presse.

The violence erupted after the army set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock
You have the right to remain silent...
two Paleostinian men who were on a cycle of violence and refused to stop at a checkpoint, the source said.

State-run National News Agency said the motorcyclist had no identification papers. It later identified him as Mohammed M.

The arrest prompted hundreds of the camp's residents to block roads with burning tires and hurl stones at army troops, the source told AFP.

Meanwhile,
...back at the ranch, Butch and the Kid finally brought their horses under control...
LBC television reported that residents in the al-Beddawi camp, also in northern Leb, "blocked roads with burning tires to protest what happened at the Nahr al-Bared camp."
Posted by: Fred || 06/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:



Who's in the News
18[untagged]
3Arab Spring
2TTP
2al-Shabaab
2Govt of Syria
1al-Qaeda in Arabia
1Hezbollah
1Narcos
1Pirates
1al-Qaeda in Turkey

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Steve White
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Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2012-06-16
  Yemen army seizes Shuqra after Qaeda pullout
Fri 2012-06-15
  Syria Violence Kills More Than 60
Thu 2012-06-14
  Army takes over in Egypt
Wed 2012-06-13
  At Least 73 Dead in Shelling and Clashes across Syria
Tue 2012-06-12
  Helicopter Gunships Deployed as More Than 100 Dead in Syria
Mon 2012-06-11
  Church Bombing Kills 15 in Nigeria
Sun 2012-06-10
  Syria Army Kills 70 Civilians in Protest Cities
Sat 2012-06-09
  Tuareg Rebels, Islamists, Clash in Northern Mali
Fri 2012-06-08
  UN monitors shot at trying to get to Syria massacre
Thu 2012-06-07
  47 Die in Hama Countryside 'Massacre' as Clashes Rock Damascus
Wed 2012-06-06
  Armed groups kill 15 Syrian soldiers in Latakia
Tue 2012-06-05
  U.S. Official: Al-Qaeda's No. 2 Killed In Drone Strike
Mon 2012-06-04
  US drone strike kills 10 in NW Pakistan
Sun 2012-06-03
  At least 12 dead in Nigerian church bombing
Sat 2012-06-02
  US drone strike kills three militants in Pakistan: officials


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