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Gunmen gun down 'chief financier' of Haqqani network in Islamabad
Today's Headlines
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Alec Baldwin's MSNBC Show Falls To New Low, CNN's 'Unguarded' Takes A Hit
[DEADLINE] You would not be saying TGIF in cable newsland if you were Alec Baldwin or Rachel Nichols last week.

The actor's 10 PM MSNBC show Up Late and the former ESPN news hound's Unguarded on CNN both hit demo lows on November 8. With guests Cristina Tzintzun of the Workers Defense Fund and the Coalition for the Homeless' Mary Brosnahan talking immigration reform and anti-poverty programs, Up Late With Alec Baldwin pulled in just 101,000 viewers among adults 25-54 on Friday. That's a 41% drop from the 172,000 demo results of the one-hour show's October 11 debut. While Baldwin's total viewers were up to 395,000 from the 354,000 low of its November 1 show, the demo was down from that show's 130,000.

For CNN's Unguarded, the numbers were even more dire. The Nichols-hosted sports-themed show not only hit a demo low but a viewership low too. The 10:30-11 PM show had a very weak 41,000 viewers in the news demo and just 133,000 viewers overall. That's a 55% free fall in the demo from Unguarded's already soft October 25 premiere. It's also a 54% slide from the 288,000 overall viewers who watched the show's launch.
Posted by: Fred || 11/12/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Their appeal is becoming more selective.
Posted by: Raj || 11/12/2013 0:42 Comments || Top||

#2  And far less effective. Proven by the very low ratings.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 11/12/2013 7:48 Comments || Top||

#3  Rachel Nichols was a horrible reporter whose every report had "so I asked him and he told me *wink*". Glad to see her removed from ESPN to obscurity. Baldwin is a walking POS. Nuff said
Posted by: Frank G || 11/12/2013 7:59 Comments || Top||

#4  A person's got to really hate himself or herself to be watching either of these shows. Such people do exist...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 11/12/2013 8:42 Comments || Top||

#5  Unguarded: can't make a shot.

Likely some of them are professionally required to watch. Others, likely waiting for the Viking short comedies.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 11/12/2013 11:29 Comments || Top||

#6  Well both are vile and have corrosive personalities so it is little surprise that most people don't want to watch that.
Posted by: DarthVader || 11/12/2013 11:36 Comments || Top||

#7  I never heard of either of those shows until now.
Posted by: Glenmore || 11/12/2013 12:06 Comments || Top||

#8  With guests Cristina Tzintzun of the Workers Defense Fund and the Coalition for the Homeless' Mary Brosnahan...

Wow, guests like that and he still can't draw viewers...
Posted by: tu3031 || 11/12/2013 14:57 Comments || Top||

#9  ^ :)
Posted by: Shipman || 11/12/2013 17:52 Comments || Top||


Silicon Valley Tank Collection Heading East
Uh... Tanks-achusetts? Gut nuthin'.
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- The family of a Silicon Valley engineer who amassed one of the nation's most extensive historic military vehicle collections is giving the tanks, missile launchers and armored vehicles to a Massachusetts-based museum that will preserve and display some of them.

Until now, the $30 million fleet of tanks has been refurbished and housed in seven storage sheds on a family estate up a winding, forested road above Silicon Valley; they are visited only under privately arranged tours.

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 11/12/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A nice fleet of tanks at the Big Red One's museum Cantigny Located in Wheaton Illinois

Offical site here
Posted by: 3dc || 11/12/2013 0:52 Comments || Top||

#2  Map of tank park at Cantigny
Posted by: 3dc || 11/12/2013 0:54 Comments || Top||

#3  Massachusetts & tanks have a history - just ask this guy.
Posted by: Raj || 11/12/2013 1:06 Comments || Top||

#4  Maryland has a field full of old Tanks on the way to Baltimore, I think. Its on a military base, can't remember the name. You can see it from the highway. Fun for kids. They even has an old japanese tank built for some little guys. And a T34 which looked like it was designed for Monkeys with no shoes.
Posted by: Spereting Tingle4064 || 11/12/2013 7:02 Comments || Top||

#5  Could they swing by the White House, I'd love to see our Coward in Chief run away again.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 11/12/2013 7:56 Comments || Top||

#6  #4 that would be Aberdeen Proving Grounds and the Army Ordnance Museum which is in the process of being moved to Fort Lee, outside Petersburg, Virginia.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/12/2013 8:16 Comments || Top||

#7  ...Redneck Jim: Yes, it would be interesting to watch PrezBo flailing his arms while exclaiming "The tank corpse is coming! The tank corpse is coming!"...
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 11/12/2013 8:47 Comments || Top||

#8  Maybe they need a Monitor in that riverway.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 11/12/2013 11:28 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Over hundred feared dead as heavy storm hits Puntland
GAROWE, Somalia -- As many as, 100 people are believed dead in Somalia’s northeastern region of Puntland after a powerful tropical cyclone storm unleashed high wind speeds and flooding that washed away hundreds of houses and livestock across its path along the vast coast of Puntland State, Garowe Online reports.

Puntland President Abdirahman Mohamed Farole who Monday held a press conference in Puntland Capital of Garowe has declared, a “Natural Disaster Emergency” in the worst-hit areas of the state and called for immediate response to the calamity, urging the international aid agencies to organize emergency supply delivery via airdrops.

He said, as the storm pattern is expected to expand further inland and continue up to Wednesday, there would be substantially more casualties if the much-needed relief efforts are not coordinated properly soon.

The government said in statement that many people are without access to food, water and medical care, endangering more lives in the aftermath of the tropical cyclone storm.

According to the government press statement, the storm made landfall in the vast coastal area of Puntland, particularly between Eyl, Beyla, Dangorayo and Hafun districts along the eastern coast to Alula district at the tip of the horn of Africa.

Local reports add that faraway Bari regional district of Alula and a number of nearby fishing villages have been witnessing massive destruction and loss of life since Saturday when cyclones with life-threatening flooding began to wreak extraordinary damages in Somalia’s northeastern coastal towns and villages along the Indian Ocean.

Reliable sources tell Garowe Online News Agency that nomadic communities remain most affected by the storm and Puntland government has began to deploy teams who would handle the victims amid struggle for survival and set up makeshift evacuation shelters and command posts for the people displaced by the storm surge.
Posted by: Steve White || 11/12/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
‘Ultras girls', the Muslim Brotherhood’s rowdy female fan base
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 11/12/2013 00:54 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: Muslim Brotherhood


Arabia
Allan smites five Pak pilgrims in Saudi
[Pak Daily Times] At least five persons of Pakistani died and nine others wounded in road accident near Madina Manawra on Monday. According to details, Pakistani pilgrims were coming to Mania after visiting 'Wadi-e-Jin' near second holiest city of Muslims by road. The pilgrims met with an accident while travelling to Madina from Wadi-e-Jin when their van crashed into a bus coming from opposite direction.
Posted by: Fred || 11/12/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I guess they're even more hole-y now...
Posted by: Raj || 11/12/2013 1:13 Comments || Top||

#2  I was hoping it was something infective.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/12/2013 4:31 Comments || Top||

#3  It could have been worse. Some Moslems will go through your pockets and pull out your gold teeth while you are waiting for the ambulance. Even a "moderate" Moslem might do that.
Posted by: Spereting Tingle4064 || 11/12/2013 6:56 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
Bangladesh ministers quit to allow disputed all-party govt
[Pak Daily Times] Bangladesh cabinet ministers submitted their resignations on Monday to allow Prime Minister Sheihk Hasina to form an all-party government to prepare for polls, a plan rejected by the opposition which wants a neutral caretaker government.

The move comes as the impoverished South Asian country has been gripped by a four-day nationwide general strike to force Hasina's ruling Awami League to stage the elections under a technocrat-led government.

Hasina last month proposed the all-party interim government in a bid to break a deadlock over upcoming parliamentary polls slated for January.

But the main opposition BNP and its 17 allies have said they will not accept any government with Hasina in charge and are sticking to their demand for a caretaker government to organise the elections.

The Bangladesh ministers tendered their resignation letters to Hasina on Monday as the prime minister forged ahead with her plan to create the all-party government.

"The ministers are resigning to make way for a polls-bound government," the government's principal information officer Aminul Islam told AFP.

The ministers' resignation letters are now subject to the approval of the president, said another official.

The latest general strike -- one of a series that began on October 25 to press for a neutral interim administration -- was launched Sunday.

At least 23 people have been killed in nationwide festivities during the newest wave of protests, which have pitted BNP supporters against ruling party activists and police.

Zia, who has twice served as premier, has branded the current government "illegal" and says a neutral caretaker government must be set up three months before the polls.

Hasina scrapped the caretaker system, arguing that it enabled the army to seize power in a country which has witnessed at least 19 coups since 1975.

Hasina has rejected Zia's demand for her to step down, calling it unconstitutional.

Bangladesh has been ruled alternately by Hasina and Zia since 1991, apart from when a military-backed government ran the country between 2007 and 2008.
Posted by: Fred || 11/12/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


International-UN-NGOs
NSA and GCHQ Spied on OPEC
I sure as hell hope so. Via Drudge.
Documents disclosed by whistleblower Edward Snowden reveal that both America's National Security Agency (NSA) and Britain's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) have infiltrated the computer network of the the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

In January 2008, the NSA department in charge of energy issues reported it had accomplished its mission. Intelligence information about individual petroleum-exporting countries had existed before then, but now the NSA had managed, for the first time, to infiltrate OPEC in its entirety.

When the NSA used the Internet to infiltrate OPEC's computers, its analysts discovered an internal study in the OPEC Research Division. It stated that OPEC officials were trying to cast the blame for high oil prices on speculators. A look at files in the OPEC legal department revealed how the organization was preparing itself for an antitrust suit in the United States. And a review of the section reserved for the OPEC secretary general documented that the Saudis were using underhanded tactics, even within the organization. According to the NSA analysts, Riyadh had tried to keep an increase in oil production a secret for as long as possible.

Saudi Arabia's OPEC governor is also on the list of individuals targeted for surveillance, for which the NSA had secured approval from the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The documents show how careful the Americans were to suspend their surveillance when the Saudi visited the United States. But as soon as he had returned to Riyadh, the NSA analysts began infiltrating his communications once again.

According to a 2010 report, one of the analysts' conclusions was that the Saudis had released incorrect oil production figures. The typical "customers" for such information were the CIA, the US State Department and the Department of Energy, which promptly praised the NSA for confirming what it had suspected for years.

The British, who also targeted OPEC's Vienna headquarters, were at least as successful as the NSA. A secret GCHQ document dating from 2010 states that the agency had traditionally had "poor access" to OPEC. But that year, after a long period of meticulous work, it had managed to infiltrate the computers of nine OPEC employees by using the "Quantum Insert" method, which then creates a gateway to gain access into OPEC's computer system. GCHQ analysts were even able to acquire administrator privileges for the OPEC network and gain access to two secret servers containing "many documents of interest."
Now that we've been successful let's tell everyone...
OPEC appears in the "National Intelligence Priorities Framework," which the White House issues to the US intelligence community. Although the organization is still listed as an intelligence target in the April 2013 list, it is no longer a high-priority target. Now that the United States is less dependent on Saudi petroleum, thanks to fracking and new oil discoveries, the fact that OPEC is not identified as a top priority anymore indicates that interest in the organization has declined.
Posted by: Steve White || 11/12/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Umm, so what? THIS is what they are supposed to do! Not spy domestically, but on the external worlds.

Are these writers/reporters morons in that they cannot differentiate between the two?
Posted by: OldSpook || 11/12/2013 1:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Did they get free copies of Microsoft Encarta?
Posted by: Raj || 11/12/2013 1:41 Comments || Top||

#3  No, the reporters are apparently from the era when gentlemen did not read other gentlemen's mail. Of course, the would also be the first to scream that the government should have been aware of the terrorist plots before they happened.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 11/12/2013 9:44 Comments || Top||

#4  Are these writers/reporters morons in that they cannot differentiate between the two?

Sorry OS but they can't differentiate between the two. Most reporters now consider themselves "citizens of the world" and superior to any archaic nationalist or legal ideas.

They aren't easily classified with a particular ideology other than their self appointed elitism. They are part of the ELITE and superior to all others.
Posted by: AlanC || 11/12/2013 10:29 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
ISS Infected With USB Stick Malware Carried on Board by Russian Astronaut
...Windows XP + Stuxnet...what could go wrong..?
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 11/12/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:



Who's in the News
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8Govt of Pakistan
2TTP
2Govt of Syria
2Jamaat-e-Islami
1Islamic State of Iraq
1al-Qaeda in Pakistan
1Muslim Brotherhood
1Govt of Iran
1Taliban

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Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2013-11-12
  Gunmen gun down 'chief financier' of Haqqani network in Islamabad
Mon 2013-11-11
  Syria army retakes key base near Aleppo: State TV
Sun 2013-11-10
  Imambargah attacks leave three dead, spark outrage
Sat 2013-11-09
  Zawahiri Disbands Main Qaida Faction in Syria
Fri 2013-11-08
  'Mullah Radio' takes overTTP, terms talks 'waste of time'
Thu 2013-11-07
  Nigeria president seeks state of emergency extension
Wed 2013-11-06
  Mortar round hits Vatican embassy in Damascus
Tue 2013-11-05
  152 soldiers sentenced to die for mutiny in Bangladesh
Mon 2013-11-04
  Blast inside Quetta seminary leaves two injured
Sun 2013-11-03
  Gunmen kill 30 in suspected Islamist attack on Nigerian wedding convoy
Sat 2013-11-02
  Egypt army arrests head of Sinai radical militant group, dozens others
Fri 2013-11-01
  Pakistani Taliban chief killed in drone strike: sources
Thu 2013-10-31
  Israeli warplanes strike shipment of Russian missiles at Syrian port: officials
Wed 2013-10-30
  Suicide blast in Tunisian resort of Sousse
Tue 2013-10-29
  Somalia's al-Shabab commanders 'killed' in strike


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