Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2011 11:09 ||
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#1
Happy Birthday/Daily Gam Shot
Charlotte Rampling aka Meredith in "Georgy Girl" aka Anne Boleyn in "Henry VIII and His Six Wives" aka Sarah Morton in "Swimming Pool" aka Consuella in "Zardoz" (age 65)
#2
She also played the girlfriend who turns out to be a mole for the opposition that tries to trash Paul Newman's case in The Verdict. Newman cold cocks her in a bar when he finds out.
One of Newman's best movies.
[Asharq al-Aswat] Twelve Sudanese journalists covering a a meeting at the opposition communist party headquarters were among 16 people nabbed in Khartoum, a party front man said on Thursday.
"Twelve journalists working for (communist party newspaper) Al-Maidan, including five women, were nabbed last night (Wednesday)," Saddiq Yussef told AFP, revising an earlier number he had given of just two.
He said the arrests took place after a meeting of opposition activists at the party headquarters, at around 11:00 pm, when the cars the journalists were travelling in were chased by security officers and 12 of them were taken away.
Another four people were also nabbed in the swoop, including members of the party, added Yussef, who provided the names of all those jugged.
The women were later released but ordered to report to security officials on Thursday, the communist party official said.
There was no immediate confirmation of the arrests, which follow an outburst of localised but vocal anti-government protests in north Sudan this week, organised by student activists via the Internet, and a sharp media crackdown.
More than 10 journalists were held on Sunday, including an AFP cameraman, during the demonstrations in Khartoum that called for regime change, civil liberties and an end to debilitating price rises.
Fresh protests took place on Thursday in the town of Sennar, about 300 kilometres (185 miles) southeast of Khartoum, where some 200 students erupted into the streets demanding change before being scattered by riot police who fired tear gas, witnesses and a student said.
All week the police have used tear gas and batons to disperse protesters, more than 70 of whom have been jugged.
One student demonstrator beaten by police on Sunday died of his wounds later, his fellow students said. The police denied the claim, and warned against "rumours which are aimed at undermining security and stability."
Jehanne Henry, the head of research on Sudan for Human Rights Watch, said on Thursday that the arrests of those outside the communist party's headquarters appeared to be unrelated to the protests but were part of a pattern.
"This fits in with the restrictions on the freedom of expression in Sudan, and the continued use of the national security apparatus, which has a long history of ill treatment and torture, to detain journalists and activists," she said.
Amnesia Amnesty International called for the release of the 16 journalists and activists jugged on Wednesday.
"The Sudanese government must immediately release all those jugged during this blatant attempt to stifle free speech," Amnesty's Africa Programme director Erwin van der Borght said in a statement.
In addition to rounding up journalists, the authorities blocked the distribution of two independent newspapers on Monday.
The student and youth groups organising the protests, inspired by events in Tunisia and neighbouring Egypt, are demanding a new government, job opportunities and the resolution of Sudan's economic crisis that has driven up food and fuel prices as the cash-strapped government seeks to cut subsidies.
Demonstrations also took place in the capital on Tuesday, in Al-Kalakla district of south Khartoum and at Al-Nilein University, where five Darfuri students were nabbed.
Top officials in Sudan's ruling National Congress Party have called the protests illegal and say the government does not fear popular uprisings of the kind that have rocked the regime of Egyptian geriatric President Hosni Mubarak.
Widespread economic and political discontent have provoked sporadic street protests in north Sudan in past weeks, with security forces maintaining tight control in Khartoum.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2011 00:00 ||
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A pipeline that runs through northern Sinai which supplies gas to Israel was blown up, state television reported, although it is not yet clear what impact the blast had on gas flows.
"Saboteurs took advantage of the security situation and blew up the gas pipeline," a state television correspondent said, reporting a big explosion. He blamed the blast on "terrorists".
AFP version of the story here. They describe it as a gas supply pipeline to Jordan.
#4
I would think that the harvesting of the natural gas off Israel's coast would to them have about the same priority as the Manhattan project had to us.
They should be throwing money and resources at it, so that they can get their own strategic energy supply. It will also shift their economy into overdrive.
#5
From the JPost, The head of Egypt's natural gas company on Saturday said a fire at a gas terminal in the northern Sinai Peninsula was caused by a gas leak.
#6
Jawa, via WSJ, says the pipeline mainly supplies Jordan, which would be consistent with hasty claims of "just a gas leak." So, maybe file this one under muzz-on-muzz premature-jihad bloopers.
#7
I would think that the harvesting of the natural gas off Israel's coast would to them have about the same priority as the Manhattan project had to us.
It's a high priority, Anonymoose. But Israel had been attacking this weakness on multiple fronts: solar power, battery power, electric vehicles, improved energy efficiency... The fact is that they had to have been looking for natural gas sources in order to find them. It's not that the sea god Neptune one day stuck a hand out of the Mediterranean holding a sign that said, "Find gas here." ;-)
Evil Crusader infidels found it and built the infrastructure to get it out of the ground. Without them, the Bedouins would still be trying to wipe it off their camel's feet.
Exactly, SteveS. ;-) But the Juices were deprived of that advantage by British intransigence and U.N. connivance, which is why it took them so long to discover it on their own.
/Under the circumstances, does this count as Jewish humour?
#12
Moses and Co did not know about the petroleum age, being agriculture and herd folks and all.
But if the Israelis get a serious natural gas field going, they also can produce urea from the CO2 from NH3 and the combustion of natural gas, and you have a home grown fertilizer industry.
Every disaster is a new opportunity, like my friend said after the Alaska earthquake of 1964.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/05/2011 15:01 Comments ||
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#13
Is there an arab word for "opportunity"? WWMD?
#15
Jpost.com had a lot to say: El-Arish blast causes shut off of natural gas flow to Israel and Jordan; Egyptian security officials say explosives were detonated at terminal. Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau said in a statement Saturday that Israel is prepared for unexpected disruptions in the supply of natural gas from Egypt, and that a drill was held last June in which exactly such a scenario was simulated. The terminal is part of a pipeline system that transports gas from Egypt's Port Said on the Mediterranean Sea to Israel, Syria and Jordan. Today, roughly half of the fuel Israel uses to generate power comes from natural gas, drawn in equal parts from Israeli sources and Egypt, which starting pumping to Israel in 2008 under a 15-year contract. Any guesses on how long that contract will be honored if Egypt goes for Jihad? "The deal (to sell gas) was a blow to the pride of Egyptians and a betrayal," former diplomat Ibrahim Yousri told The Associated Press on Saturday.
Yousri led a high court challenge to try to halt Egypt's sale of gas to Israel. Although the high court ruled in his favor in February 2010, the ruling was widely ignored by the government.
Uh-oh, didn't know that the contract has already been labeled illegal.
[Ennahar] An Italian tourist was kidnapped last Thursday evening in a first operation on the Algerian territory since 2003. According to local sources, the tourist, an Italian woman named Mariani Maria Sandra, aged 56, has been a kidnapping Thursday evening in the region of Alidena, near Niger and at the Algerian-Libyan border, 250 Km of Djanet in the province of Illizi.
The victim was with her driver and her tourist guide "T. M.", aged 39, aboard a Toyota vehicle, in a tourist trip in the Sahara regions.
The guide was released by the kidnappers.
The kidnapping of the Italian tourist took place very quickly and she was taken towards the borders of Niger by her kidnappers who were armed with two all terrain vehicles. These latter allowed her to use a mobile phone "Thuraya" to inform the head of the tourism agency in Djanet. This has in turn informed the security services.
Until late yesterday evening, no party has claimed the kidnapping. Alerted by the driver, the security services have begun research in the region.
The operation seems to be the work of smugglers who are working with the terrorist organization of Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat ... now known as al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb... and precisely katibet Essahra (phalanx of the Sahara) led by Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, which is still holding eight hostages from Areva Group in Niger, kidnapped in September last year.
According to sources of Ennahar, this kidnapping is the work of a group of smugglers, with the complicity of the tourist guide who has alerted the security services 24 hours later. Moreover, thanks to information provided by the guide it turned out to be smugglers.
The tourist was allowed to use a mobile phone "Thuraya" to inform the director of the tourism agency.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2011 00:00 ||
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[Ennahar] A secret document, of which Ennahar holds a copy, reveals some of the fortune amassed by Egyptian geriatric President Hosni Mubarak, deposited in Swiss banks.
The document issued by a Swiss bank, shows that Mubarak had made a bank deposit in 1982 of a $ 15 billion.
Only one year after his inauguration, geriatric President Hosni Mubarak made a large deposit of crude Platinum, used in the manufacture of jewelry (platinum or white gold), estimated on the document from the Swiss bank to 14 billion and 900 million dollars .
Where are they storing it, in the entire third sub-basement of the building plus part of the fourth?
Right next to all the gold bullion the Nazis stole from the Jews...
According to the document dated December 11, 1982, Mubarak had made a deposit transaction of 19,000 tons of Platinum through the UK office Flying Horse, based in London, a company specializing in paltinum and derived business, to a Swiss bank.
Mubarak did not wait very long before beginning to grab his country wealth. The evidence, the secret document from the Swiss bank which is dated December 1982, only a year after his inauguration, so, in thirty years of reign, he must have accumulated aPharaoh's fortune.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Mubarak had made a deposit transaction of 19,000 tons of Platinum
Black propaganda, but whose?
http://www.suite101.com/content/platinum-demand-likely-to-outpace-supply-a186871
1. Platinum is so rare that all of the metal ever mined would fill a room measuring less than 25 feet on each side.
2. One cubic foot weighs a little more than 1,330 pounds.
So all the platinum ever mined weighs less than 10,400 tons.
Posted by: George Hupaviger4591 ||
02/05/2011 3:51 Comments ||
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The Mubarak family is said to be worth about $40-70 billion. The Mubarak family owns properties in London, Paris, Madrid, Dubai, Washington, New York and Frankfurt. Not too bad for a public official.
#5
The Mubarak family is said to be worth about $40-70 billion
I've been puzzling over that since it was first mentioned here a few days ago. We've been paying Egypt one to two billion dollars a year since the Sadat signed the peace treaty, right? And it was not long after that Sadat was killed, giving Mubarak access to all that lovely money. In order to have that kind of a net worth, he would have had to skim off almost all the dollars coming in, right? Or at least half that much, given the growth of property values in the place JohnQC listed.
#9
I think this is a falsehood being spread by the same guys who also say that 9/11 was an inside job. Citizens of a lot of Third World countries - including expatriates who have to the US - think that their home countries are poor because we are robbing them blind. If they can believe such crock I don't see why they wouldn't believe that Mubarak has $50B in the bank. At the peak of his wealth, Brunei's king - who has access to oil revenues of $8b a year - was only worth $40b.
#10
Bambi's ears started flapping when he heard Mubarak has $70 billion.
"Mubarak, Mubarak" "my second name is Barak, I wonder if we are related?"
"Why that's more than the Boss has"
Just then the phone rang and Bambi sprung to attention.
"Don't even think about it" the voice bellowed.
"When I buy you, you stay bought, you miserable twerp, do you understand?"
"Yes Mr Soros, yes Mr Soros" Bambi whined, but he could not get his mind off that $70 billion.
[Ennahar] Algerian army in pursuit of kidnappers of Italian tourists kidnapped on Wednesday in the Sahel region ... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas... south of Algeria has not managed to locate them, said Friday a security official in the South.
The military "have not found their mark," said the source to AFP.
The Italian, 56 years old, whose identity was not revealed, was kidnapped with her driver and guide around 6:00 pm Wednesday (5:00 GMT) in the area of Alidena, 130 km south of Djanet, the main town in south-eastern Algeria. Both men were later released, security sources said.
The kidnappers, "fourteen men were traveling in two Toyota station vehicles", according to these same sources.
According to the Algerian APS agency, the kidnappers have allowed their hostages to warn using their cell phones the boss of the travel agency who arranged her trip to Djanet. This immediately raised the alarm.
In Rome, the Foreign Ministry has merely stated that "investigations were underway" on this information.
The Sahel has become the stronghold of Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb has grabbed credit for several kidnappings of Westerners in the neighboring countries of Algeria for several years.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2011 00:00 ||
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[Ennahar] The Qatar-based satellite TV station Al-Jazeera said on Friday that its Cairo office had been ransacked by unknown assailants who destroyed its equipment.
"Unknown persons broke into the office of Al Jizz in Cairo and destroyed its equipment," said the chain on a ticker.
In a statement, it then clarified that a "goon squad" had stormed its office in Cairo, and "fire with its equipment."
This attack seems to be a new attempt by the Egyptian regime or its supporters to prevent Al-Jazeera from covering the events "in Egypt," said Al-Jazeera.
Sunday, the outgoing Egyptian Minister of Information, Anas el-Fekkai, had ordered the ban on Al-Jazeera, which has extensively covered the uprising against geriatric President Hosni Mubarak. The channel had estimated that this decision was aimed at "silencing Egyptian people."
Al-Jazeera noted that besides the interference of its satellite transmissions and attempts to shut down its websites, all of its journalists had been revoked in recent days of their accreditation in Egypt and nine of its news hounds were briefly jugged.
"We can reassure everyone, we will continue our coverage without being discouraged," said a front man for the channel, cited in the statement.
Al-Jazeera, which has always had tense relations with the Egyptian government, covers the continuous anti-government protests which began on January 25 in Egypt.
Attacks against foreign media have multiplied in recent days in the Egyptian capital.
Journalists were beaten by supporters of the president, others nabbed by the police. The International Press Institute in Vienna denounced those attacks "orchestrated" during protests.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2011 00:00 ||
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[Ennahar] A Maghreb site located in Morocco, offered to Egyptian users a program to circumvent censorship on the net, was the victim of a "sophisticated" cyber attack that made it inaccessible," said its manager to the AFP Friday.
"That night at 4 o'clock in the morning someone entered the site" and made it inoperative by "overwhelming what allows it to access the worldwide web," said Dr. Francesco Landogna, CEO of the site Wall5.com.
Wall5 proposed in recent days to Egyptian Internet application to bypass the cut internet set up by the authorities.
It was a program like "Ghost IP, allowing essentially bypass the filter in place between Egyptian domestic users and the rest of the web, says Mr. Landogna.
He said the number of downloads of this program to continue to consult the web has surpassed the 200,000 Thursday night.
Mr. Landogna does not believe in coincidence. "It's been three years we are on the net without any problems and I find it somewhat odd that this happens after this action we have taken," he said.
For him it's not hackers but people with sophisticated tools that have entered the server and crushed it."
Asked about the origin of the attack, Mr. Landogna says it can not be determined. "This is certainly not an Australian," he joked, holding that the attack did not come from Morocco.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2011 00:00 ||
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[Arab News] Tens of thousands packed central Cairo for the 11th day Friday, which they called the "Day of Departure" for geriatric President Hosni Mubarak as the United States pressed Egypt for a swift start toward greater democracy, including a proposal for Mubarak to step down immediately.
At a summit in Brussels, the European Union's 27 leaders said Egypt's "transition process must start now" and condemned this week's violence while issuing a veiled threat of suspending aid.
Thousands including families with children flowed over bridges across the Nile into Tahrir Square, a sign the movement was not intimidated after fending off storms of hurled concrete, metal bars and Molotov cocktails, fighters on horses and camels and automatic gunfire barrages.
In the wake of the violence, more details were beginning to emerge for a transition to democratic rule after Mubarak's nearly 30-year reign.
The B.O. regime said it was discussing several possibilities with Cairo, including one for Mubarak to leave office now and hand over power to a military-backed transitional government.
Around 200,000 protesters demonstrated in the square in the largest gathering since the quarter-million who rallied Tuesday, holding up signs reading "Now!"
The crowd attended Friday prayers, followed by funeral prayers for the hundreds who fell to police bullets and attacks by pro-government agents. Prayers over, they chanted their message to Mubarak: "Leave! Leave! Leave!"
Mohammed Rafat Al-Tahtawi, the front man of state-run Al-Azhar Mosque, the country's pre-eminent Islamic institution, announced on Al Jizz that he had resigned from his position to join the protesters.
In the afternoon, a group of Mubarak supporters gathered in a square several blocks away and tried to move on Tahrir, banging with sticks on metal fences to raise an intimidating clamor. But protesters throwing rocks pushed them back.
The Arabic news network Al Jizz said a "gang of thugs" stormed its offices in continuation of attacks on journalists by regime supporters that erupted Thursday. It said the attackers burned the office and damaged equipment.
The editor of the Mohammedan Brotherhood's website, Abdel-Galil El-Sharnoubi, told the AP that coppers stormed its office Friday morning and nabbed 10 to 15 of its journalists. Also festivities with sticks and fists between pro- and anti-government demonstrators erupted in two towns in southern Egypt.
Defense Minister Mohammed Hussein Tantawi -- regarded by Washington as a key plank of any post-Mubarak administration -- visited the square to appeal to demonstrators to give up their protest in the light of Mubarak's pledge earlier this week not to seek re-election. "The man (Mubarak) told you he won't stand again," Tantawi told the protesters flanked by troops.
He urged opposition leaders, including the supreme guide of the powerful Mohammedan Brotherhood, Mohammed Badie, to join talks with the government on political transition.
Various proposals for a post-Mubarak transition floated by the Americans, the regime and the protesters share some common ground, but with one elephant-sized difference: The protesters say nothing can be done before Mubarak leaves.
The 82-year-old president insists he will serve out the remaining seven months of his term to ensure a stable process. "You don't understand the Egyptian culture and what would happen if I step down now," Mubarak said he told President Barack B.O. Obama. He warned in an interview with ABC News that chaos would ensue.
But the B.O. regime was in talks with top Egyptian officials about the possibility of Mubarak immediately resigning and handing over a military-backed transitional government headed by Vice President Omar Suleiman.
Such a government would prepare the country for free and fair elections later this year, according to US officials speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... . The officials stressed that the United States is not seeking to impose a solution on Egypt but said the administration had made a judgment that Mubarak has to go soon if there is to be a peaceful resolution.
Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed El-Baradei, one of the leaders of the protest movement, laid out his scenario on Friday: a transitional government headed by a presidential council of two or three figures, including a military representative.
El-Baradei said he respects Suleiman as someone to negotiate with over the transition, but did not address whether he should have any presidential role.
The Egyptian Football Association said the country's football league has been suspended until a "return of stability" to the country.
Egypt told the United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society it is unhappy with Secretary-General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon's public criticism of the government and his calls for change, according to a spokeswoman for Egypt's UN mission. Ban this week urged Mubarak and his government to take "bold measures" to address the concerns of people demonstrating for change.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Appeasing one's enemies at the expense of one's friends (such as they are). Genius, pure genius.
#3
Murbarak was VP and standing in the same reviewing box with Anwar Sadat when the assassins killed the President, 10 others, and wounded 28 to include Murbarak. Betcha the panty waist academics and bureaucrats in the Beltway forget that. Issue another sternly worded paper warning to the man. Yep, that's the ticket. /sarc off
#5
Since when does Bummer get to say who rules Egypt?
And I wonder how those 27 European Union leaders would like it if Mubarak started making pronouncements on their internal affairs?
Bummer's plan to set up a US puppet smacks of the worst kind of jingoistic meddling. It sounds like the best possible way to make damn sure that Suleiman is seen as a tool of the West and is thoroughly despised on the Arab street. I don't see how that helps.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/05/2011 12:51 Comments ||
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#6
Betcha the panty waist academics and bureaucrats in the Beltway forget that. Along with virtually everyone else commenting on this issue. 'The Arab street' -- weren't they the same ones who were dancing & celebrating mass murder on 9/11/2001? Aren't they the ones always itching for jihad, lynching for blasphemy, and the whole panoply of traditional Islamic abuse of humanity?
#7
CNN this Guam AM > GUEST ME PERT > acknowledged that the Muslim Brotherhood = Radicalists should not be underestimated as per exploiting + "hijacking" the claims or sentiments of the pro-Reform/Democratic Protestors in order to get elected but then usurp Political Power at a later time, once anti-Islamist elements are effectively cowed or eliminated???
[Ma'an] Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq on Friday ruled out the possibility that geriatric President Hosni Mubarak would hand over power to his vice president, amid deadly protests calling for the leader's ouster.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2011 00:00 ||
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[Maghrebia] A Mauritanian police officer was shot and killed Thursday (February 3rd) during a clash with suspected al-Qaeda beturbanned goons in Bezoul, ANI reported. The shootout occurred while police were chasing two men allegedly involved in the Nouakchott suicide kaboom thwarted Wednesday by the Republican Guard (BASEP). Villagers reportedly alerted the Lexeiba mayor to the men's presence. Security services are searching for the suspects in the southern Trarza region.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2011 00:00 ||
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[Maghrebia] Algerian troops killed three bully boyz near Ladjiba, 35km east of Bouira, Tout sur l'Algerie reported on Thursday (February 3rd). The clash occurred Wednesday while ANP soldiers were following up on a tip about terrorist activity in the region. The army has since extended the search for other members of the group to the Tikjda mountains.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2011 00:00 ||
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[Asharq al-Aswat] Egypt's army has been instructed to assist foreign media and help protect them from groups in plain clothes who have attacked and beaten journalists as the capital's streets have become lawless, the cabinet said.
The United States Thursday condemned a "concerted campaign" to intimidate foreign news hounds covering protests against Mubarak and said Egypt must not target journalists. Britain also criticised the harassment of journalists.
"I spoke to the prime minister about journalists' problems. He was very much disturbed. He contacted the armed forces and instructed them to facilitate the job of the foreign media and stop any interference in their job," cabinet front man Magdy Rady told Rooters.
"The army will help you in areas where you have contact with people," he added, referring to groups in civilian clothes who have been prowling the streets and often hassling journalists.
Two news hounds working for The New York Times were jugged overnight and released, the newspaper said.
The Washington Post's Cairo bureau chief Leila Fadel and photographer Linda Davidson were jugged covering Thursday's protests. They were later released but Egyptian authorities told them they were not permitted to leave a hotel near the airport, Douglas Jehl, the newspaper's foreign editor, said.
Among other cases, Rooters television said one of its crews was beaten up Thursday close to Tahrir Square while filming a piece about shops and banks being forced to shut during festivities.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2011 00:00 ||
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[Jerusalem Post Front Page] An Egyptian news hound who was shot during festivities a week ago died of his wounds Friday, his employer said, in the first reported death of a journalist in the chaos surrounding Egypt's anti-government protests.
Ahmed Mohammed Mahmoud, 36, was taking photographs of fighting between protesters and security forces from the balcony of his home when he was shot Jan. 28, state-run newspaper Al-Ahram said on its website.
Mahmoud worked for Al-Taawun, a newspaper put out by the Al-Ahram publishing house. He lived near central Tahrir Square, the focal point of protest rallies as well as festivities this week between large crowds of supporters and opponents of geriatric President Hosni Mubarak.
The United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society described brazen assaults on news hounds that occurred during this week's violence as an attempt to stifle coverage of anti-government protests. President Barack B.O. Obama said attacks on news hounds, human rights ... which are not the same thing as individual rights, mind you... workers and peaceful protesters in Egypt were "unacceptable."
The Qatar-based television network Al-Jazeera said its offices in Cairo were set ablaze, along with the equipment inside it. The station announced later Friday that security forces nabbed its Cairo bureau chief Abdel-Fattah Fayed and a correspondent Ahmed Youssef.
Mubarak supporters assaulted dozens of correspondents with virtual impunity in central Cairo this week with little intervention from nearby military units.
There were fewer reports of such attacks on Friday, when anti-government protesters staged a mostly peaceful rally in Tahrir Square.
The Egyptian government said reports of "an official policy against international media" were false, and that violence against journalists was unacceptable.
"International media have been, and are always, welcome in Egypt," said the state-run Cairo Press Center, which oversees media accreditation. It said more than 1,000 international journalists were in the country.
"Regrettably, international journalists have been endangered by the same conditions that have threatened all Egyptians in areas of the country where there have been major disturbances and a breakdown of security," the center said.
It said the Ministry of Information had worked with authorities to speed the release of those journalists who were jugged.
The White House said it was working with the US Embassy in Cairo on getting American journalists who have been beaten or jugged out of Egypt.
Press secretary Minister of Information Robert Washington Bob Gibbs said the US government continues to receive disturbing reports about what he called a "very systematic targeting of journalists."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2011 00:00 ||
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DEVELOPING: A failed assassination attempt on Egypt's vice president in recent days left two of his bodyguards dead, U.S. sources tell Fox News, though that information has yet to be confirmed on the ground in Cairo.
Such an attempt on the life of Omar Suleiman would mark an alarming turn in the uprising against the government of President Hosni Mubarak, who only recently named Suleiman as vice president in an effort to quell the unrest and possibly line up a successor.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs declined to address the assassination reports when asked by Fox News.
"I'm not going to ... get into that question," Gibbs said.
#1
"I'm not going to ... get into that question," Gibbs said.
Like it doesn't matter to the US who ends up running the place. Let's change to subject to the president designing school lunch menus.
Posted by: George Hupaviger4591 ||
02/05/2011 4:05 Comments ||
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#2
ION WAFF > [NYT]YOUNG IRAQIS ARE LOSING THEIR FAITH IN ISLAM DUE TO MUSLIMS KILLING EACH OTHER.
ARTIC > IIUC as a Class they originally trusted the Mullahs-Clerics as children but no longer as older Teens + young Adults - they espec dislike the seemingly heavy-handed, unconditional Islam/Sharia-based Restrictions + Conditions, etc. imposed as per their real or desired Personal, Interpersonal Behaviors, Lifestyles, etc.
* Also from WAFF > MUSLIMS ATTACK TWO CHRISTIAN FAMILIES IN EGYPT, ELEVEN KILLED INCLUDING CHILDREN.
[Yemen Post] Confirming the fact President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, after serving as a lieutenant colonel in the army. He had been part of the conspiracy that bumped off his predecessor, Ibrahim al-Hamdi, in the usual tiresome military coup, and he has maintained power by keeping Yemen's many tribes fighting with each other, rather than uniting to string him up. ... largely supports tribes in return for their support in time of need, thousands of rustics are occupying Tahrir Square in downtown capital Sana'a on an indefinite sit-in that only a positive response from the opposition to Saleh's recent initiations can end.
President-for-Life Saleh ... exemplifying the Arab's propensity to combine brutality with incompetence... made concessions on Wednesday at the emergency meeting of the House of Representatives and the Shura, saying he will not run for president and will not bring his son, Ahmed Saleh, to power when his term expires in 2013.
"No extension, no power succession and no to resetting the clock," he said, ordering to freeze discussing constitutional amendments omitting limits over the presidential term that have recently been approved by Parliament.
Furthermore, he urged to continue dialogue between the General People's Congress, the ruling party, and the opposition coalition JMP through the Commission of Four, and urged the JMP to stop mobilizing the people for rallies.
But the opposition turned down the presidential initiations, stating what Saleh said had nothing new and leading hundreds of thousands of protesters next day demanding reforms.
"We are here for a third successive day, eating, consuming qat and sleeping inside these tents," said Waleed al Hamdani, 28, one of the sit-inners while chewing qat inside one of many large tents that were set up following Saleh remarks on Wednesday.
President Saleh made concessions and the opposition should respond positively to his initiations, said Waleed, adding:" We are here in favor of President Saleh, dialogue and all peaceful means to serve our country".
Officials including Sana'a and Amran governors come and go to the tents to inspect the sit-in being organized by Sana'a governorate, though an informed source, who asked not to be named, said the ruling party is organizing and spending millions a day for the sit-in.
On Thursday, tens of thousands of people gathered in Tahrir Square in favor of President Saleh.
"We are here for the sake of the country and we will not leave this square until the JMP responds to the president's initiations including coming back to the dialogue table," said another sit-inner.
Ali al Khatabi, 31, from al Haima al Dakhilya district, Sana'a, said the sit-in aims to support President Saleh after he had made concessions that the opposition should take seriously." Sana'a governorate, ruling party leaders in the governorate, sheikhs and elders as well as otherscalled for the sit-in," he said.
"We urge moderation and dialogue because only dialogue can be the solution to the current situation," he said.
President Saleh made concessions, so why does the opposition insist on turning a deaf ear to his initiations?, he wondered.
"We are not here in favor of a specific party or group. We came here for this country and will continue our protest until the opposition make up their minds putting the nation interest ahead of anything else," said al Khatabi.
"The opposition is seeking to disturb Yemen and this is unacceptable. Our country should not follow Egypt. We love our country and all parties should be wise enough to avoid acts that can lead to bad consequences," he added.
The sit-inners came from Sana'a districts including Arhab, Khawlan, Manakha, al Haima al Dakhilya and others.
Inspired by the Tunisian revolution that ousted the regime and forced President Zain al Abidin bin Ali out of the north African country last month and a revolution underway in Egypt, protests erupted in Yemen demanding change.
At first, small protests were organized, but later massive demonstrations and rallies organized by the JMP erupted including the biggest ever rally on Thursday, a day of rage.
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President-for-Life Saleh
A phrase that describes a lot of dictators throughout history, but it mostly doesn't end up meaning what they thought it meant. In that position life doesn't tend to end naturally.
[Yemen Post] At least 22 people were nabbed by Yemeni security forces in Aden province while they participated in a rally organized by the opposition, the Joint Meeting Parties, JMP.
Protesters in the rally chanted anti-government slogans and urged the ouster of the regime, "We need freedom. Get out!"
Eyewitness said that Yemeni authorities in Aden tightened the measures of security in an attempt to stop protesters from participating in an anti-government rally in Aden.
Yesterday, Yemeni opposition, JMP, called for the day of rage to hold rallies in various Yemeni cities to protest against the ruling party.
Thursday's demonstration came a day after Saleh announced that he would not seek another term in office and would not anoint his son, Ahmed, as his successor, when his term ends in 2013. The move was widely seen as an attempt to prevent the sort of upheavals seen in Egypt and Tunisia.
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[Yemen Post] At least four people were maimed, two of them at death's door, during a protest that took place in Hadramout province.
The protesters erupted into the streets in several districts chantingd anti-government slogans, and demanded the release of detainees of Sothern Movement.
In return, security forces used tear gas and gun fire to disperse the protesters before they nabbed dozens of members of Sothern Movement during the protest.
The main leaders of the Southern Movement, Ali Salem Al-Baid, who is in exile, and Hassan Baoum called for Tuesday to be a day of rage and protest against the Yemeni government coinciding with the opposition rallies in Yemeni provinces.
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[Iran Press TV] A high-ranking Iraqi army officer and two of his sons have been killed in a drive-by shooting north of the capital Storied Baghdad, police say.
Colonel Abbass Nuri, the chief of an anti-terrorism squad, was shot and killed in central Tuz Khormato, in Kirkuk Province, late Thursday after unknown gunnies opened fire on his car.
Nuri's sons who were killed were aged 15 and 16. Two of Nuri's sons and his father were also maimed in the attack.
Recent terrorist attacks in Iraq have mainly targeted the majority Shia community and security forces.
According to Iraqi police, at least 22 people were killed and 44 others were maimed across the country on Thursday.
In Thursday's worst attack, a parked car laden with explosives exploded at around 7:15 pm (1615 GMT) in the center of Ramadi, in central Iraq, drawing a crown, a police officer said.
He added that shortly afterwards, a bomber blew up explosives strapped to his body among the crowd, killing at least eight people and wounding 15 others.
The blast set many cars ablaze and damaged nearby houses.
Last week, following a deadly car boomkaboom at a funeral wake in Storied Baghdad's Shia district of Shula, which killed at least 35 people and maimed dozens of others, young Iraqi men furious over the government's failure to prevent the bombings, pelted security forces at the scene with stones.
Iraqi troops finally fired shots into the air to disperse a crowd of residents gathered for a demonstration against lack of security.
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[Iran Press TV] Hundreds of Jordanians have gathered outside the prime minister office in the capital, Amman, calling for wide and quick political and economic reforms.
Around 1,000 protesters marched toward the prime ministry following the Friday Prayers and urged Jordan's newly-appointed Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit to bring in the public on the country's decision making process.
Demonstrators said they demand more government reforms than the appointment of a new prime minister. The protest was organized by the Islamic Action Front (IAF), the political arm of Jordan's Mohammedan Brotherhood.
On Tuesday, after three weeks of anti-government protests, King Abdullah sacked the prime minister, Samir Rifai, and appointed Marouf Bakhit in his place, instructing him to "take practical, quick and tangible steps to launch true political reforms."
The opposition, however, says Bakhit is not a reformist.
"We want seriousness on the ground. We want a genuine reform. We want initiatives and now so that people feel they are partners in decision making," Secretary General of IAF Hamzeh Mansour said.
"We want freedom, not martial laws. We need a government for the poor. We want electoral law that satisfies the young and old," protesters shouted.
The protest came one day after Jordan's King Abdullah held a rare meeting with key Mohammedan Brotherhood leaders at the royal palace in an attempt to defuse tensions between authorities and the opposition.
Protesters then left the prime minister's office for the Egyptian Embassy nearby, where they staged a sit-in in support of anti-government protests in Egypt.
"We salute and support the great Egyptian people. Long live Egypt. Down with Mubarak. Fight! Fight! Fight Mubarak," the demonstrators chanted.
"We are marching today to support the brave Egyptian protesters in their struggle to remove Mubarak the tyrant," Mohammedan Brotherhood leader Hammam Said told AFP.
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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.
President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh
