Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Birthday/Daily Gam Shot
Anita Page aka Anita Hastings in "The Flying Fleet" aka Queenie Mahoney in "The Broadway Melody" aka Patricia 'Pat' Bonner in "Speedway" aka Alice 'Allie' Brown in "Navy Blues" aka Elvira in "Free and Easy" aka Socialite in "Bob's Night Out (2004)" (Died in 2008 at age 98)
From the Jamestown Foundation. How much of this is true? Who knows?
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/04/2011 09:00 ||
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#1
Nalut is on the border with Tunisia. If they're fighting over Nalut, they've got a long way to go.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
08/04/2011 11:41 Comments ||
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The mention of American "intelligence officers" acting as forward air controllers & directing airstrikes as part of a rebel offensive seems worthy of note.
And did you read the article? It explains pretty thoroughly why they had to clear the border. A fortified salient was being used - vigorously! - as a fire base by the Gaddafi forces. They were able to both periodically shell a major Berber town, and interdict the logistics line between Tunisia and the rebel-held Nafusa mountains.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
08/04/2011 15:36 Comments ||
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Libyan government forces fired a missile at an Italian warship in the Mediterranean Sea on Wednesday in a rare attack on the NATO fleet offshore, a government spokesman said.
The frigate Bersagliere was about 19 kilometers (12 miles) off the Libyan city of Zlitan when the missile fell harmlessly into the sea about 2 km away, the Italian defense ministry and NATO reported.
"The ship was not harmed and continued on its mission," NATO said in a statement. "NATO ships go in harm's way to seek those military targets which continue to threaten the people of Libya."
In Tripoli, government spokesman Musa Ibrahim told reporters that the missile had been launched by troops that remain loyal to longtime Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.
"We have amazing capabilities that we have not felt that we need to use," Ibrahim said. "Our army is still very strong. We haven't used our real military power."
#2
al-jihadzeera says Boy-Gawdawful made a side deal with islamonazi rebels to kill the "liberals" and set up an islamic state. Sounds fishy. But there appears to be political killings on Obama - er, rebel - side.
#6
It could be "limited" retaliation for an alleged NATO strike agz a Gaddafi-family owned tanker, but widout desire on the part of Uncle Muammar for expanded escalation wid NATO.
* IIRC NEWS KERALA > UK FINALLY ADMITS GADDAFI WON'T LEAVE [power] UNLESS INNER CIRCLE ABANDONS HIM.
[An Nahar] The unity of Libya's revolutionaries on Wednesday became the latest casualty of the shock liquidation of a top general, as a key rebel group demanded senior ministers and military brass be fired.
The head of the February 17 Coalition -- whose members kick-started the revolt against Moammar Qadaffy ...dictator of Libya since 1969. From 1972, when he relinquished the title of prime minister, he has been accorded the honorifics Guide of the First of September Great Revolution of the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya or Brotherly Leader and Guide of the Revolution. With the death of Omar Bongo of Gabon on 8 June 2009, he became the longest serving of all current non-royal national leaders. He is also the longest-serving ruler of Libya since Tripoli became an Ottoman province in 1551. When Chairman Mao was all the rage and millions of people were flashing his Little Red Book, Qadaffy came out with his own Little Green Book, which didn't do as well. Qadaffy's instability has been an inspiration to the Arab world and to Africa, which he would like to rule... -- told Agence La Belle France Presse the ministers of defense and international affairs must be sacked in the wake of last week's murder of General Abdul Fatah Younis.
Abdul Salam al-Musmari, a judge who heads the coalition, criticized the events leading up to the Younis murder and the governing National Transitional Council's handling of its aftermath.
The facts surrounding the Younis shooting last Thursday remain opaque, with senior members of the NTC giving incomplete and sometimes contradictory accounts of how he died, who killed him and the motive for the murder.
"We have two main demands," Musmari said. "The resignations of the defense minister (Jallal al-Digheily) and his deputy and for all the gangs to fall under the national army or lay down their weapons."
Aaaaaaaand a shrubbery!
In a separate written statement the February 17 Coalition also demanded the sacking of Ali Alasawi -- the NTC's minister for international affairs -- and a probe into his approval of a warrant for Younis' arrest.
The blistering criticism marks the most public sign yet of tensions between Libya's revolutionaries and the NTC that has come to be their de-facto government.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2011 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Egypt's ex-president Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... was wheeled into court on a stretcher on Wednesday and denied murder and graft charges, as sporadic festivities erupted outside between his supporters and his foes.
The former strongman, looking pale and dressed in white, pleaded not guilty "Wudn't me." from a metal-barred cage to the premeditated murder of protesters who erupted into the streets to topple his regime in an uprising that erupted on January 25.
He and his sons Alaa and Gamal also denied all corruption charges.
After a four-hour hearing -- the former strongman's first public appearance since he resigned on February 11 -- the trial of the Mubaraks was adjourned until August 15.
Former interior minister Habib al-Adly and six of his deputies were also in the dock in the same case, and they are due in court again on Thursday.
Judge Ahmed Refaat, presiding over the Cairo Criminal Court, said Mubarak would be staying at the International Medical Center, a hospital on the outskirts of Cairo, until the next hearing.
In response to a request by the defense team, Refaat agreed to allow an oncologist to follow up on Mubarak's health during his hospital stay.
Alaa and Gamal seemed composed throughout the hearing and appeared to take turns to shield their ailing father from the television cameras, leaning down regularly to talk to him.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2011 00:00 ||
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[Yemen Post] At least three citizens were killed and several others injured in rocket attacks on some villages in Arhab district on the outskirts of Yemen's capital Sana'a where the army has been battling the tribes for months.
Informed sources said the elite republican guard heavily shelled the villages and that the villages also came under attacks from military camps in nearby districts.
Many have been killed and injured and hundreds of families have been displaced due to the battles that started after the tribes intercepted elite republican guard units and prevented them from heading to main cities to crack down on antigovernment protesters.
In the past days, the army stepped up the operations in Arhab and Nihm districts after the tribes tired to take over a prominent elite republican guard camp in Arhab. Jet fighters carried out Arclight airstrikes killing and injuring scores including tribes.
Yemen has been plagued by severe crises amid the persistent unrest including acute shortages, battles in some cities including Abyan where the army has been fighting suspected Al-Qaeda Orcs and similar vermin and a rapidly deteriorating economy.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2011 00:00 ||
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[Yemen Post] A security bigshot in Arhab district, 40 kilometer northeast of the capital Sana'a, said that governmental warplanes attacked governmental soldiers who refused to fight pro revolution tribes in the district.
The official said that more than 240 elite republican guard forces in Sama'e region of Arhab refused to attack tribes with heavy artillery and were negotiating with them on surrendering the Sama'e military base of the elite republican guards.
In retaliation, government air forces attacked the gates of the camp killing more than 200 elite republican guards and at least three-dozen fighters.
The Romans did something like that as I recall...
"The government did not stand quiet when the guards refused orders to clash with tribes and officials in the elite republican guards felt it was necessary that those who disobey orders are killed," the official said.
"The guards who surrendered did not want to attack their own people. They were killed for giving the blood of Yemenis value," he concluded.
Eyewitnesses in Arhab confirmed the incident and the attack but gave higher corpse counts on the tribes and guards lines.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2011 00:00 ||
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[Yemen Post] The Yemeni regime hired Iraqi pilots to carry out Arclight airstrikes in the districts of Arhab and Nihm on the outskirts of the capital Sana'a after Yemeni pilots refused to do that, a military commander said on Tuesday.
Disgruntled Sunnis or former Saddam goldenboys? Or both?
Commander Abu Hatim said the Yemen Air Force are currently using Iraqi pilots at a time when the army is continuing operations in the two districts and that the Iraqis are committing enormous crimes against the Yemeni people.
One of the Arclight airstrikes in Arhab district killed a large number of armed rustics fighting the government as well as elite republican guards. The total number of death varied, with least estimates saying that at least 35 were killed in the air raids.
Some elite republican guards were also killed after refusing to fight the tribes, independent sources said.
A number of the elite republican guard camps in Arhab are being cleansed by the army, especially those which refuse to participate in the battles with the tribes, he said, pointing out that the army is also cleansing commanders accused of links with the opposition.
The remarks came amid continuous battles in the district killing and injuring tens of tribal fighters and soldiers as well as displacing more families.
The elite republican guard has been fighting tribes in both districts for months after they intercepted units and prevented them from heading to main cities to crack down on antigovernment protesters.
Today, Deputy Information Minister, Abdul Janadi, said in a news conference that the army is fighting Al-Qaeda in Arhab whose faceless myrmidons have links to some prominent religions holy mans.
Late last week, the tribes were said to have taken over Al-Sama'a military camp, one of the prominent camps of the elite republican guard, but the army responded to that sending jet fighters that struck the camp killing rustics and troops.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2011 00:00 ||
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[Emirates 24/7] Tajikistan's authoritarian leader has approved a law barring minors from praying in mosques as his secular government seeks to minimize the rising influence of Islam in the Central Asian nation.
President Emomali Rakhmon signed the bill Wednesday despite vocal resistance from rights activists and the opposition Islamic Revival Party.
The law also requires people under the age of 18 to study in secular schools thus barring thousands of students from attending mosque schools seen by authorities as a breeding ground of Islamism.
The impoverished and predominantly Sunni Mohammedan nation shares a long and mostly non-existent border with Afghanistan.
The country was ravaged in the 1990s by a civil war between government forces and a loose alliance of Islamists and democrats.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Minors should be kept out of places of ill repute.
[Dawn] Two soldiers were killed in a roadside blast in South Wazoo Agency on Tuesday while three people received injuries when unidentified persons attacked NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... vehicles in Khyber Agency.
Officials said that soldiers were patrolling Tengar area of Laddha tehsil in South Waziristan when an improvised bomb hit their vehicle. Two soldiers were killed in the blast, they added.
In Khyber Agency, three persons were maimed when unidentified gunnies fired at NATO containers in Landi Kotal on Monday, officials said.
They said that the incident occurred near government degree college on Landi Kotal-Torkhan Bypass when a group of unidentified persons riding in a car opened indiscriminate firing on NATO containers parked in the area.
The windscreens of at least four vehicles were smashed in the attack that also caused injuries to at least three persons, who had taken shelter inside their vehicles.
Local sources said that about 150 containers, supplying goods to NATO forces in Afghanistan and some of them taking Pak export items, were parked along the road as custom authorities delayed their clearance at Torkham.
Accusing the custom authorities of adopting delaying tactics, local transporters demanded of the political administration to ensure their security when they were denied exit at the border owing to no-clearance. Meanwhile, ...back at the pie fight, Bella opened her mouth at precisely the wrong moment... Khasadar Force found a dead body in Jalaldin area of Jamrud. Officials said that the perforated carcass was placed at tehsil office for identification for some time but was later buried at a local graveyard as no one came to claim it.
Which would certainly be disconcerting were one the carcass in question.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Hubba Hubba Club, Nunzio had his hands full of angry bleached blonde... Zakhakhel elders extended support to local administration for restoration of peace in their area. Addressing a presser here on Tuesday, Malik Medak Murad said that they would not allowed any thug organization to operate in their area.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] The Muttahida Qaumi Movement ...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead... (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain said Wednesday that the army and rangers should intervene to end the unrest in Bloody Karachi, DawnNews reported.
He further said that the army should take action against elements regardless of their association.
MQM chief Altaf Hussain, who lives in exile in London, addressed his followers by telephone and invited the military to come to Bloody Karachi and see who is involved in "the ongoing terrorism".
He said that he had given an ultimatum to the president and the prime minister to impede violence in Bloody Karachi within 48 hours but there was no response.
"MQM condemns acts of violence in Bloody Karachi. The government has failed to establish peace in the city, innocent people are being bumped off in Qasba Colony." said Hussain.
"President should end the supremacy of lyari gang war mafia," said Hussain.
Hussain said that he is a Sindhi and declared a social boycott against those who do not consider Muhajirs as Sindhis.
"I also request the international community to use its influence on the Pak government to restore law and order in Bloody Karachi," he added, warning that the situation could worsen if not "tackled seriously".
In an overnight statement, Hussain had warned people to stockpile food for a month as the law and order situation worsens.
Bloody Karachi is Pakistain's largest city, with a population of 17 million. It was gripped by deadly communal violence throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
The Arabian Sea port city is used by NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... to ship the bulk of supplies to troops fighting in Afghanistan.
Government officials and coalition party members have distributed stickers, pamphlets and placards pleading for peace, but to little effect.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Six gunnies riding on cycle of violences opened fire on three trucks carrying fuel for NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... forces in Afghanistan near the Pakistain town of Dasht in the southwest, police said.
Fire brigades rushed at the scene to control the fire from spreading. One of the trucks and a nearby filling station caught fire.
No group has grabbed credit of the attack, said police officials.
There were no reports of casualties.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] A one-day general strike called in Indian-administered Kashmire by separatists to protest the death of a shopkeeper in police custody Wednesday closed down shops, schools and offices.
"The strike is to protest this gross human rights ...which often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... violation," said hardline separatist and chief organiser Syed Ali Geelani in a statement.
The strike was widely followed in the main city of Srinagar and other towns, including Sopore where the weekend incident happened, police sources and residents said.
Nazim Rashid, a shopkeeper, was jugged by counter-insurgency police on Saturday in the northern town of Sopore. He was declared dead early Sunday, with no reason provided as to the cause.
Police said Monday they had registered a murder case and suspended three officers following the death of the 28-year-old man.
But Geelani insisted there should be an impartial enquiry by a UN body or international human rights groups.
Kashmire Chief Minister Omar Abdullah promised "swift and exemplary action" in a Twitter post on Sunday.
Rashid's family has also called for an independent probe, even as the Sopore police chief was transferred late Tuesday to ensure a "free and fair probe".
Last year more than 110 people were killed when police and security forces opened fire during a series of demonstrations triggered by the death of a 17-year-old youth who was hit by a police teargas shell.
Last week there were protests against the alleged rape of a woman by soldiers.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Eight people were bumped off in Bloody Karachi on Tuesday as police and Rangers failed to stem the wave of violence afflicting several localities.
Police said they had found five bullet-riddled bodies stuffed in gunny bags in different parts of the city.
It was perhaps because of the failure of police and Rangers that the Sindh government gave police powers to the Frontier Constabulary, allowing it to carry out raids and make arrests. The Rangers are already enjoying police powers but they have not been able to rein in the killers.
The decision to give the powers to the FC was taken at a meeting jointly chaired by Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah and Interior Minister Rehman Malik Pak politician, current Interior Minister under the Gilani administration. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. He later joined the Pak Peoples Party and was chief security officer to Bhutto. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Näwaz Shärif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men.
The meeting took place against the backdrop of a warning by Muttahida Qaumi Movement ...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead... chief Altaf Hussain to the government to curb lawlessness 'within 48 hours'.
Mr Hussain said in a statement issued from London in the early hours of Tuesday that if Islamic fascistiwere not locked away then "the innocent people being made the victims of terrorist attacks would be at liberty to defend themselves and the government shall be directly responsible for the ensuing consequences". In a bid to restore government's writ in the troubled areas, the
meeting held at the Chief Minister's House also decided to launch an 'indiscriminate operation' against Islamic fascistiwithin 72 hours.
The provincial government also offered a cash incentive to citizens who would share information with the law-enforcement agencies about Islamic fascistiinvolved in murders.
A citizen giving information about a killer will get Rs5 million and the government would give a cash reward of Rs10 million to a person who captures video clips or photographs of a killer.
The meeting between the federal and provincial authorities and security administration apparently brought some respite for residents of Surjani Town and Orangi Town where three days of violence have left over 50 people dead and forced many families to leave their homes.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2011 00:00 ||
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NINEWA / Aswat al-Iraq: Two Iraqi soldiers have been killed in an armed attack on their checkpoint east of Mosul, the center of northern Iraqs Ninewa Province, a security source reported on Wednesday.
A group of unknown armed men have attacked an Iraqi Army checkpoint in east Mosuls Dargazaliya district on Wednesday, killing two soldiers and escaping to an unknown destination, the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/04/2011 00:00 ||
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WASSIT / Aswat al-Iraq: Wassit's police sources announced today that through two operations its forces were able to arrest six persons in Baghdad who were planning to direct attacks against important institutions in the province.
General Hussein Abdul Hadi told Aswat al-Iraq that Wassit police, in cooperation with Baghdad Operations Command, were able to arrest six wanted persons who were planning to attack province premises and police headquarters.
The first raid managed to arrest two person, while the second got four persons, based on intelligence information.
Kut, the center of Wassit province, lies 180 km south of the capital, Baghdad.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/04/2011 00:00 ||
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#2
"As long as Mossad is leading the fight against the bomb, it will get the big budgets," the source told the newspaper. And the question of whether Israel will attack Iran's nuclear facilities will partly depend on the internal power struggle between the IDF and Mossad.
Hasn't been a "question" in the US for decades. DoD has historically lagged lags behind our Klingon "intelligence" masters in the funding olympics.
BHO is on video signing a condolence book in the Embassy of Norway, after an anti-muslim killed people (including 4 muslims). He is NOT on video signing a condolence book in the Embassy of India, after muslims murdered 22 Hindus in the same week. Is the Prez pro-muslim? Just asking.
I have not doubts about his muslim sympathies. What I was wondering is whether or not he would attempt to bring the resources of the U.S. against Israel should an attack occur on the Iran's reactors?
#11
He is NOT on video signing a condolence book in the Embassy of India, after muslims murdered 22 Hindus in the same week. Is the Prez pro-muslim? Just asking.
Hindu Bachelor Farmers don't aren't a swing vote in a possible swing state.
Posted by: S ||
08/04/2011 18:31 Comments ||
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#12
Last count had the Muslim-American population as reaching up toward two million, as I recall, nothing like the six million claimed (the claimers have the same problems with counting as do the Palestinians). They aren't a swing vote anywhere except Detroit. But they fit neatly into the romantic anti-colonial narrative, and so must be favoured.
#13
If O brought US resources up against Israel, or insinuated, he would bring down a firestorm that would topple his presidency.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/04/2011 21:05 Comments ||
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#14
Is the Prez pro-muslim? Just asking.
Obama is pro-Obama. The apparent Muslim favoritism, is, as TW notes, part of the fashionable elitist narrative, and thus is mere pandering to his lefty base.
It shows when 3(?) months ago the admin advertised the unofficial official opening to the campaign and now there are salesmen on TV saying, oh no this jobs tour is about our jaoowbs.
As S said.
Politically, like Netenyahu's deal about '67 borders the other day. It just happened, unexpectedly, right after debt negotiations.
ARTIC = ...
> Iran used guerilla fighters from ANSAR-AL-ISLAM, + is intent on ultimately replacing KURDISH REGIONAL COUNCIL in Iraq wid SAME + AL-QAEDA + HEZBOLLAH PROXIES.
> LOSS OF QUANDIL TO IRGC = Iran will control or dominate the Kurdish populations in BOTH IRAQ + IRAN.
Violence continued to ravage Thailands southern border region Thursday with a string of four killings in a single day.
A Muslim religious teacher was killed in a shooting at his home in Pattani province early Thursday morning, a married couple was gunned down in a nearby district of the same province, and a former village defense volunteer was shot dead in Yala province.
Asming Jaema, 37, an Islamic teacher, was gunned down by a group of suspected terrorists insurgents waiting in a rubber plantation near his home.
In a separate attack, a married couple was killed in a shooting. Two men with pistols shot Mahaseubai Jetae, 40, and his wife Mazeera Madeng, 34, as they rode a motorcycle from home to a rubber plantation.
In neighbouring Yala province former defense volunteer Doromae Phetcherngkhao, 38, was shot while riding his motorcycle from home on some errands. A passenger on a motorcycle shot him twice in his head with a 9 mm pistol. Badly injured, he was pronounced dead while being transferred to the hospital.
Authorities believe that all the fatalities may have been the work of one group group of presumed terrorists insurgents.
In a related development, a school closed temporarily Thursday after teacher Noppadol Sasimonthon was gunned down while travelling to the school on Wednesday morning. Teachers at the school will convene a meeting of security officials to upgrade their security plan.
[An Nahar] The United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... condemned on Wednesday the Syrian government's deadly crackdown on protests and called for those responsible to be held "accountable," as tanks stormed the protest hub of Hama.
A Security Council statement agreed after weeks of often-acrimonious talks said the body "condemns the widespread violations of human rights ...which often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... and the use of force against civilians by the Syrian authorities."
But it also urged "all sides to act with utmost restraint, and to refrain from reprisals, including attacks against state institutions."
"The Security Council calls on the Syrian authorities to fully respect human rights and to comply with their obligations under applicable international law. Those responsible for the violence should be held accountable," the text read.
The council also called on Syrian authorities to "cooperate fully" with the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The statement also highlights President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor... 's reform promises. The members regret "the lack of progress in implementation, and call upon the Syrian government to implement their commitments."
Leb disavowed the statement, saying it would "not help" end the Syrian crisis.
At the same time, the United States hardened its line on Bashir al-Assad, with White House front man Jay Carney saying Washington had no interest in seeing the Syrian president survive just to preserve regional "stability."
As the diplomatic wrangling drew to a conclusion, Syrian tanks had stormed the city of Hama, activists said.
"There are some 100 tanks and troop carriers on the highway leading to the central city of Hama and about 200 tanks around the eastern city of Deir Ezzor," said Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights chief Rami Abdul Rahman.
Telephone and Internet communication were cut in Hama and nearby areas, he told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Abdul Raman also reported that a local official in Deir Ezzor "received advice from well-informed sources that residents should flee while they still had time before the army storms the town by Friday."
In Hama, tanks were deployed in several districts and shelling could be heard across many neighborhoods, another activist told AFP.
"From the sound of the shelling, it sounds like it's open warfare."
The Local Coordination Committees, which represents the protesters, said plumes of smoke could be seen over the city of 800,000 residents.
"People are deserting the city and are faced by live gunfire from security forces and army troops if they don't respond to orders to go back inside," a statement said.
The accounts could not be independently verified as foreign news hounds are not allowed to travel in Syria to report on the unrest.
The fierce crackdown on Hama, where an estimated 20,000 people were killed in 1982 when Assad's father Hafez crushed an Islamist uprising, has prompted solidarity protests across Syria and international condemnation.
In other developments, a mosque official said between 800 and 1,000 persons demonstrated after prayers in the northwestern city of Latakia and were dispersed by police with batons. Thirty people were said to have locked away.
The Security Council had been struggling since Monday over how to respond to the crisis, with European powers and the United States seeking a tough condemnation.
Russia, China and some other nations initially blocked any action, saying it could lead to a Libya-style military intervention by the West.
But on Wednesday, ambassadors agreed to a text that would condemn Syria, diplomats said.
Following those changes, Russia lifted its objections, with U.N. envoy Vitaly Churkin calling the new version "balanced."
It was the council's first pronouncement on Syria since protests started on March 15.
The statement dropped references to a human rights inquiry that Britannia, La Belle France, Germany and Portugal had called for in their earlier versions of the text.
But it said those responsible for the violence would be held "accountable."
U.N. Secretary General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... had joined the fray earlier this week, saying the Syrian president "lost all sense of humanity."
At the White House, meanwhile, Carney said Washington did not view Assad as "indispensible," saying he was completely "incapable and unwilling" to respond to the grievances of his own people.
"The U.S. has nothing invested in Assad remaining in power. We do not want to see him to remain in Syria for stability's sake and rather we view him as the cause for instability in Syria," Carney said.
Some analysts have speculated that Washington was wary of directly calling for Assad to quit because of anxiety that security chaos, even civil war, and a Middle East power vacuum might follow the demise of his regime.
Global condemnation of the crackdown mounted after weekend violence in which an estimated 140 people were killed in a military assault on Hama and other protest towns.
Meanwhile funerals were held on Wednesday for seven members of the security services and army who were killed by "armed terrorist gangs" in a suburb of Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... as well as in Homs, Hama and Daraa, state-run news agency ...and if you can't believe the state-run news agency who can you believe?... SANA said.
State television also aired an amateur video showing corpses being thrown from a bridge into a river, and said the bodies were of security forces killed by protesters. But activists challenged that account, saying the victims were pro-democracy protesters killed by the army.
According to the Syrian Observatory 1,629 civilians and 374 members of the security forces have been killed since pro-democracy protests erupted in Syria on March 15.
On the domestic front SANA said parliament would meet in an extraordinary session on Sunday to discuss "issues concerning the nation and its citizens." It did not elaborate.
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.
Qadaffy
The 
cycle of violence
[Dawn] A one-day general strike called in Indian-administered 
President-for-Life Bashir 
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
