[An Nahar] A Tunisian court on Thursday opened two more trials of ousted president Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, now living in exile in Soddy Arabia, accusing him of corruption and property fraud.
Ben Ali's daughter Nesrine and son-in-law Sakher el-Materi are also charged in the first case.
The former ruler is accused of having personally intervened to enable his daughter and her husband to buy two plots of land -- at well below the going rate -- in an upscale district of the Tunisian capital.
In the second case, Ben Ali and his son-in-law are accused of having acquired a plot in the same neighborhood initially intended to be a park but subsequently reclassified as building land, considerably boosting its value.
Judge Abdel Jridi noted that the defendants were all absent despite the fact that officials had issued international warrants and requested Ben Ali's extradition. Sakher el-Materi has decamped to Qatar.
Ben Ali and his wife decamped to Soddy Arabia in mid-January after being forced from power by a popular uprising. Since then, he has already been twice convicted and sentenced in trials held in his absence.
On July 4, a Tunis court sentenced him to 15 and a half years in jail for possession of arms, drugs and archaeological artifacts -- and fined him 54,000 Euros.
And last month, Ben Ali and his wife Leila Trabelsi were sentenced to 35 years in prison and fined 45 million Euros for misappropriating public funds after police found large sums of cash and jewelry in their palace.
Ben Ali denounced his first conviction a "parody of justice" and "political liquidation" in a statement issued last month.
But he and his entourage face possible legal proceedings in around 180 other cases.
That's getting kind of silly. Have the courts nothing better to do?
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07/22/2011 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] New ministers in a sweeping reshuffle of Egypt's cabinet took their oaths in front of the country's military ruler on Thursday, the official MENA news agency reported.
"The new ministers in the government of (Prime Minister) Essam Sharaf took their oaths today (Thursday) in front of the commander of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi," the news agency said.
Roughly 14 new ministers and a deputy premier were to take their oaths, but the cabinet has not issued the final line-up.
State media reported that at least two nominees in the new cabinet, which was scheduled to be sworn in on Monday, have been replaced after protests.
The shuffle was further delayed after Sharaf was admitted to hospital on Monday night, suffering from exhaustion.
Sharaf had hoped the new cabinet would mollify activists who have been camped out in Cairo's Tahrir Square since July 8, but they have rejected the new line-up, which retains several ministers they want sacked.
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07/22/2011 00:00 ||
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Newly released data show that North Korea's ruling elite is spending more money on luxury goods despite chronic food shortages most ordinary North Koreans face.
According to government data from South Korea and China released Wednesday, North Korea's total imports in the first five months of the year exceeded US$1.1 billion, but only 4 percent of the total was food. Cigarette imports jumped 117 percent from last year, while alcohol saw a 94 percent increase.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/22/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Numbing themselves.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
07/22/2011 6:35 Comments ||
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Norks use luxury goods. Congresscritters just use spending. Same cause, same effect. Egocentric elitism.
#3
Just like the OHbammy administration. Just think if all our leaders weren't so busy screwing all of us and lining their pockets and feeling up 95 year old woman in diapers(fully loaded) at airports things might get better.Egocentric elitism= what people with common sense call insanity.
#4
Just think if all our leaders weren't so busy screwing all of us and lining their pockets and feeling up 95 year old woman in diapers(fully loaded) at airports
I'd hardly class a part-time TSA employee as a "leader" or "lining their pockets". But hey - if you're into making mindless, populist statements, that's okay. Everyone should have a hobby.
Forty percent of ballistic missiles developing nations have imported since 1987 came from North Korea, VOA reported Thursday.
So the next time Uruguay and Paraguay have problems at a football tournament, they'll pull out the ballistic missiles and hit France?
The claim comes in a report titled "The Evolution of North Korea's Ballistic Missile Market" by Joshua Pollack, a nuclear proliferation expert at the U.S. Science Applications International Corporation, who says, "More than 40 percent of the roughly 1,200 theater ballistic missile systems supplied to the developing world between 1987 and 2009 came from North Korea."
During this period Iran, Egypt, Syria, Libya, Yemen, the U.A.E., and Pakistan imported missiles from the North. The North topped the list of ballistic missile suppliers, followed by Russia (400) and China (270).
But the North's missile export began declining rapidly in 1994.
North Korea's time as supplier of "complete missile systems" to the Middle East at large ended because the Middle East no longer had the need for rapid arms buildup and missile stockpiles after the end of the Iran-Iraq War, Pollack said.
The North proved "adaptable to shifting market and security environments" by "turning instead to the export of missile components and materials." But missile importers had less demand for North Korean missiles as they built their own production capabilities, he added.
Pollack's report was carried in the July issue of The Nonproliferation Review published by James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at Monterey Institute of International Studies.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/22/2011 00:00 ||
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And the masses make soup out of tree bark. Its nice to be equal under communism.
Sydney's Opera House has appeared on the website of al-Qaeda's English-language magazine, Inspire, prompting concerns over its security.
Robert McClelland, the attorney general, said that Australia's terror threat level would not change as a result. "I have been advised this publication does not represent any change to the extent of the terrorist threat within Australia," McClelland said in a statement. "And I am advised it has not been accompanied by any specific threat in Australia or to Australian citizens."
Peter Dein, commander of New South Wales's counter-terrorism operations, said there was no text in the magazine relating to the Opera House and that it was hard to interpret what message it might be sending.
"It could simply be the fact that it's an icon that is well known around the Western world and may not really have any relevance that it is in Sydney. What we are concerned about is the influences this particular magazine can have on vulnerable people in our community who are likely to be influenced by this extremist rhetoric," he said.
Acting DOJ Inspector General Cynthia Schnedar would be wise to keep the results of her investigations into the alleged Dodson leak, Fast and Furious, and any other gunrunning investigations that may develop for as long as is practically possible. As Gerald Walpin discovered the hard way, the Obama administration isn't kind to inspector generals that are determined to do their jobs.
NPR -- yes, NPR -- is now reporting that the Department of Justice inspector general is launching an investigation into whether or not the DOJ illegally retaliated against one of the agents that revealed the gunwalking plot:
The Justice Department's inspector general has opened an investigation into possible retaliation against a whistleblowing agent at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, according to two people briefed on the inquiry.
Watchdogs are examining whether anyone at the Justice Department improperly released internal correspondence to try to smear ATF agent John Dodson, who told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee last month that he repeatedly warned supervisors about what he called a reckless law enforcement operation known as "Fast and Furious."
The inspector general is attempting to determine if Obama's Justice Department leaked one of Dodson's internal memos to reporters in order to discredit him.
Senator Charles Grassley has warned the Department of Justice repeatedly not to attack whistleblowers, apparently with little effect:
"I've warned the administration several times not to retaliate against the whistle-blowers who speak to Congress," Grassley wrote in an email to NPR Thursday. "Unfortunately, there are indications that the administration leaked Privacy Act-protected documents to the press in an effort to discredit Mr. Dodson with half-truths even though those documents had been withheld from Congress. It's a very serious matter that should be thoroughly investigated."
In addition to retaliating against Dodson, the DOJ stands accused of firing 30-year ATF Agent Vince Cefalu for his role in bringing this and other illegal operations to light at a website he helped found: CleanUpATF.org.
In addition to allegations that the DOJ participated in attempting to smear and fire ATF whistleblowers, the Department stands accused of trying to stonewall congressional oversight investigations into Operation Fast and Furious -- first by stopping Acting ATF Director Ken Melson from testifying at a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform about what he knew of the operation:
The Justice Department blocked senior ATF leaders from cooperating with Congress in its investigation of the "Fast and Furious" weapons operation, ordering them not to respond to questions and taking full control of replying to briefing and document requests, the agency's top boss told congressional investigators.
Kenneth E. Melson, the embattled acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, told Senate Judiciary Committee and House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform investigators during a secret interview designed to circumvent Justice Department attorneys that he was "sick to his stomach" when he learned about problems with the controversial operation.
To date, not all of Melson's testimony has been released -- it is apparently being withheld in a game of high stakes brinkmanship as Issa and Grassley face down a recalcitrant administration.
#1
I smell a whitewash. Better to get an Independent Counsel
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/22/2011 16:46 Comments ||
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you notice the investigation is into whether a whisleblower was punished, not whether A,T&FU illegally ran guns to Mexican Cartels. In an interesting sidenote. Pajamas media has an article (via Instapundit) indicating that it looks like State was in competition with ATFU and DOJ. State looks to have benn directly supplying arms to the Zetas while ATFU was allowing guns to go to the Sinaloa Cartel. If I were Mexican, I'd be playing the Cut-throat song.
[Dawn] A US Congress panel on Thursday rejected a proposal to cut off all aid to Pakistain due to concerns over the country's relationship with gunnies after the raid that killed the late Osama bin Laden. ... who had a brief but splitting headache...
The House Foreign Affairs Committee easily rejected the measure, with five politicians voting yes and 39 voting no. But the bill in its current form would still impose tighter controls over aid, making it contingent on measurable progress by Pakistain.
Representative Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican from Caliphornia, had offered the amendment to a spending bill for the year starting in October that would have barred any US funds to provide assistance to Pakistain.
Rohrabacher raised questions about how Pakistain was using assistance from the United States at a time that Washington is seeking to curb spending to tame a ballooning debt.
President Barack B.O. Obama's administration recently suspended about one-third of its $2.7 billion annual defense aid to Pakistain.
But it has assured Islamabad it is committed to a five-year, $7.5 billion civilian package approved in 2009 that aims to build schools, infrastructure and democratic institutions.
The rival Republican Party controls the House and has drafted a measure, which remains in the spending bill, that would also cut off civilian aid unless Pakistain is certified to be fighting myrmidons.
But even if the full passes through the committee, the measure's prospects are uncertain. Obama's Democratic Party controls the Senate, where Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, the Senate's current foreign policy expert, filling the vacated wingtips of Joe Biden... is a staunch advocate of civilian support to Pakistain.
Democratic politicians argue that civilian aid is crucial in the long-run to strengthen democratic institutions and raise educational levels in Pakistain in hopes of reducing the appeal of bully boys.
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07/22/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Wikileaks - Pakistan Ambassador Patterson: Summary: In response to queries posed by the National Security Council, Embassy Islamabad believes that it is not/not possible to counter al-Qaeda in Pakistan absent a comprehensive strategy that 1) addresses the interlinked Taliban threat in Afghanistan and Pakistan, 2) brings about stable, civilian government in Afghanistan, and 3) reexamines the broader role of India in the region. As the queries presuppose, the ending of Pakistani establishment support to terrorist and extremist groups, some Afghan-focused and some India-focused, is a key element for success. There is no chance that Pakistan will view enhanced assistance levels in any field as sufficient compensation for abandoning support to these groups, which it sees as an important part of its national security apparatus against India. The only way to achieve a cessation of such support is to change the Pakistan government's own perception of its security requirements.
[Dawn] Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ... on Thursday said Pakistain considered its relations with the United States 'extremely important' and stressed that victories in the fight against terrorism must be credited to Pakistain.
"As we [Pakistain and US] are working together in fighting militancy, victories should be shared along with losses," Gilani said at a presser here at the conclusion of his four-day visit.
He acknowledged that the two countries were undergoing a strained period after the unilateral action by the US in Abbottabad against al-Qaeda leader the late Osama bin Laden. ... who was laid out deader than a mackerel... The premier said the incident resulted in misunderstanding between the two countries after Pakistain voiced its reservations for not being taken into confidence for violating its illusory sovereignty.
Gilani said Pakistain would not allow any restrictions forced on it from outside and added that the country's sovereign parliament had already adopted a resolution opposing such a step.
When asked about the need for a more independent foreign policy, he said the parliament had all the rights to review national strategies.
On the relations with India, he said the two countries had come on the table to discuss all the issues, including the Kashmire dispute.
He said Pakistain and India had realised that their relations should not become hostage to the Mumbai incident and added that the foreign ministers would be meeting on July 27 to discuss a range of issues.
"If the two countries do not talk, the beneficiaries will be the hard boys," he said.
When asked to comment on the arrest of Kashmiri leader Ghulam Nabi Fai in the United States, Gilani clarified that he [Fai] belonged to the Occupied Kashmire and his detention had nothing to do with the Pakistain's clear-cut policy on Kashmire.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/22/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Credit where credit is due: WikiLeaks: Pak wont abandon terror groups Secret cables, which were leaked by WikiLeaks, show that US diplomats and spies believe Pakistan army and its Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) continue to quietly back four militant groups the Afghan Taliban, its allied Haqqani and Hekmatyar networks on the western Afghan frontier, and LeT on the eastern border with India.
#3
Gilani has a point, credit where credit is due. Mad props to his minions for not getting in the way and being turned into Land of the Puree brand meatslabs whilst our Seals explained the error of his ways to OBL.
[Dawn] Separatist leaders in Indian Kashmire condemned on Thursday the arrest of a man accused of acting as a Pak government agent in the United States.
Ghulam Nabi Fai, 62, a US citizen, is suspected of links to a decades-long effort that allegedly funnelled millions of dollars to Washington to lobby US politicians on behalf of Kashmiri causes.
The US Justice Department said that Fai and Zaheer Ahmad, 63, a US citizen and resident of Pakistain, faced five years in prison if found guilty.
Mohammedan-majority Kashmire is split between India and Pakistain, with the Indian-administered sector hit by a violent 20-year insurgency against rule from New Delhi.
"It is unfortunate that a leader like Fai is being dubbed an agent. He has been representing Kashmiris at various forums to make the world hear our views," said Shabir Shah, a senior separatist in Kashmire.
"We strongly condemn his arrest. It is aimed at suppressing the voices who call for Kashmire's freedom from India," Shah told AFP.
The allegations, which come amid increasingly strained ties between the United States and Pakistain, centre on the Kashmiri American Council (KAC), a Washington-based group founded in 1990.
The KAC is suspected of being run by Pakistain's powerful military intelligence service, the Inter-Services Intelligence Agency (ISI).
Shah said the centre worked to "highlight Indian oppression in Kashmire" where more than 110 protesters were rubbed out by police last year to quell independence protests.
Hardline Kashmiri separatist Syed Ali Geelani said Fai's arrest was unjustified.
"It has been done at the behest of India and under a conspiracy to weaken the movement of Kashmiris at the diplomatic level," he said.
Kashmire leaders said they were unaware of the identity of Zaheer Ahmad, the second suspect tossed in the slammer in the US with Fai.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/22/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] The judge of Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday expressed his displeasure over slow progress in the case regarding missing activists of the banned Hizbut Tahrir. ...an al-Qaeda recruiting organization banned in most countries. It calls for the reestablishment of the Caliphate... Single bench of IHC comprising Justice Mohammad Anwer Khan Kasi resumed hearing of two identical petitions filed by the close relatives of Hizb activists Imran Yousafzai and Hayyan Dawar Khan.
Standing counsel for federation, Shabbir Abbasi, informed the court about the progress on police investigation in the case.
The cases of missing activists have been registered with the Margalla and Koral cop shoppes under section 365 of PPC.
He said officials of secret agencies could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.
He, however, said that officials of Judicial Commission on Missing Person had been contacted and the matter of Imran Yousazai and Hayyan disappearance was formally brought to their notice.
Justice Mohammad Anwer Khan Kasi while passing his remarks said that such sort of abductions were taking the society back to the `stone age`.
He said citizen must not be picked like sheep and goats by any of the law enforcement agencies.
Umer Hayat Sindhu, counsel for the petitioners, said the agencies had kidnapped both the individuals last week.
Koral police sub-inspector Abdul Sattar produced FIR regarding abduction of Hayyan Khan.
The FIR, lodged by Hayyan father Ihsan Dawar Khan on July 19, alleged that on July 13 about eight to nine individual came in plain clothes and picked up Hayyan from his car near PWD Housing Society at about 8:15am.
The SI Sattar said the preliminary investigations had been conducted into the case and any progress into the case would be communicated to the court.
Justice Kasi directed adjourned the hearing till July 25.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/22/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Charles Evans Hughes ... arrived on the Indonesian resort island of Bali on Thursday to attend Asian security talks and prepare a visit by President Barack B.O. Obama in November.
Clinton will meet her counterparts from the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the wider East Asia Summit on Friday.
On Saturday, she will take part in the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) security dialogue which includes foreign ministers from ASEAN as well as China, Japan, the Koreas, Russia and Australia.
Issues such as territorial disputes in the South China Sea, North Korea's nuclear programme, the Thai-Cambodia border dispute and human rights ...not to be confused with individual rights, mind you... in Myanmar are expected to be discussed in the course of the meetings.
Clinton will also be laying the groundwork for Obama's visit to Indonesia in November for the East Asia Summit leadership meeting, which will be the first time a US president has attended the forum.
Clinton's visit comes after China and Southeast Asian nations announced a "breakthrough" in drawn-out talks on their overlapping territorial claims in the South China Sea.
The countries endorsed a set of guidelines designed to reduce tensions in the strategic waterway and create an atmosphere conducive to the eventual adoption of a binding code of conduct.
China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan all have overlapping claims to parts of the South China Sea, believed to be rich in oil and gas deposits and home to shipping lanes vital to global trade.
Clinton riled the Chinese delegation at the last ARF in Hanoi a year ago when she stated that it was in the United States' "national interest" to keep those shipping routes open for business.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/22/2011 00:00 ||
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BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: The Official Spokesman for Northern Iraqs Kurdistan Regions Border Command, Major-General Jabbar Yawar, has denied on Thursday the issuance of any military orders to move Iraqi forces to the borders with Iran, saying that there is no reason for that.
There are 1,500 Peshmerga (Kurdish forces), belonging to its 4th Brigade, in a training center close to Chuar-Qurna village, to carry out normal training, and there are no additional mobilization of troops, because there arent any antagonist movements necessitating that, Yawar told al-Sharq al-Awsat Newspaper, denying the issuance of any military orders to move troops close to the joint Iraq-Iranian borders.
The newspaper had quoted the Commander of the 18th Brigade in Kurdistans Balak Area, Salah Dilmany, as saying that the Kurdish Sibay position, belonging to the Kurdish Goran (Change) opposition movement, that there were 15,000 Peshmerga forces, who were mobilized in Pijdar and Betwein areas, close to the Iranian borders, who have been laid under state of utmost warning.
The Iranian artillery has been bombarding the Kurdish villages and border areas of northern Iraqs Kurdistan Region, in the areas of Choman, Haji-Omran and Soran, under the justification of chasing the anti-Tehran opposition forces in the area.
The Iraqi Kurdistans border areas of Mergasur, Kani-Rash and Taki-Shin of Choman township in Arbil Province, had come under bombardment by the Iranian artillery, forcing the inhabitants of about 20 villages to desert their home areas, according to local sources.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/22/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
This Artic may it sound like the IGA does NOT even control its own national Army.
#2
A different report says that Iraqis are mustering their border defenses, because Iran is making a major infiltrator push with the double intention of attacking the American withdrawl, and destabilizing the Iraqi government as soon as possible.
In response to Iran sending military units into northern Iraq to set up bases, and other border problems, the Iraqis are blocking Shiite pilgrims from entry.
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- The military wing of Hamas, the Al-Qassam brigades, announced the death of one of their members Thursday. The military wing told Ma'an that Muhammad Junid, 25, from Jabalia died at dawn on Thursday after a smuggling tunnel collapsed in Gaza. No doubt bringing in a load of new coloring books for the kiddos...
The Al-Qassam brigades did not specify where the tunnel was located. Ummmmmmm...underground?
[An Nahar] Israel will not "take responsibility" for the deaths of nine Turkish nationals by apologizing to Ankara over its botched 2010 raid on a ferry heading for Gazoo, a senior cabinet minister said Thursday.
"We are not ready to apologize as apologizing is taking responsibility," Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Yaalon told news hounds in Jerusalem.
"There is no room in my mind for any kind of apology that means taking responsibility," he said of the pre-dawn raid on a six-vessel convoy which was aiming to break Israel's naval embargo on the Gazoo Strip in May 2010.
However, if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well... Israel would be prepared to make a statement regretting the loss of life when its commanders stormed the Mavi Marmara, the Turkish-owned ferry which was leading the convoy.
"We are ready to regret the loss of lives," he said, repeating an offer which has been rejected by Ankara as not going far enough.
The operation sparked a major diplomatic crisis in ties between Israel and Turkey, who were once close allies, and repeated attempts to patch up relations since then have failed.
Ankara has demanded an official apology and compensation for the victims' families as a condition to repair ties, but Israel has so far refused, in part fearing that such an apology could open the way for commandos who took part in the raid to be prosecuted.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has repeatedly said the Jewish state will not apologize for the raid, although privately officials acknowledge that upgrading relations with Ankara would be desirable.
Yaalon's remarks also flew in the face of an assessment by Ozdem Sanberk, a senior Turkish official involved in attempts to patch up ties, who on Tuesday said he believed Israel would apologize.
"I would be surprised if there were no apologies since both sides have the political will to resolve this crisis," said Sanberk, who represents Turkey on the U.N. committee which is probing the Israeli raid and which is due to present its final report on July 27.
Israel's Haaretz daily reported on Sunday that the defense establishment in the Jewish state wanted to see ties with Turkey repaired, even supporting an apology to Ankara over the 2010 raid.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/22/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
...ask if the Turks want to sponsor some "do it again"?
Smile ....and look them in the eye so everybody knows what that will get you if you try.
How big IS Allah's swarthy moustache? And how stupid is Mustapha?
"Storm fort or redoubt you had only to shout for Abdrool Abulbul Amir"....
and the next verse has the line "or harass the foe from the rear."
the Turks are particularly good at some of that "rear" business.
Posted by: de Medici ||
07/22/2011 5:52 Comments ||
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de Medici: get yourself under control. We don't tolerate race and religious hatred at Rantburg.
AoS
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/22/2011 12:23 Comments ||
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Iranian Christians sources publish the text of the Supreme Court ruling against Youcef Nadarkhani, sentenced to be hanged in the first instance, unless he renounces the Christian faith, for apostasy. Must he show that he was not a follower of Islam between 15 and 19 years of age.
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.
Forty percent of ballistic missiles developing nations have imported since 1987 came from North Korea, VOA reported Thursday. 
[Dawn] A US Congress panel on Thursday rejected a proposal to cut off all aid to Pakistain due to concerns over the country's relationship with 
Hillary Clinton
North Korea
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- The military wing of Hamas, the Al-Qassam brigades, announced the death of one of their members Thursday. The military wing told Ma'an that Muhammad Junid, 25, from Jabalia died at dawn on Thursday after a smuggling tunnel collapsed in Gaza.
