GENEVA: The International Committee of the Red Thingy Cross announced plans Thursday to more than double its budget to feed starving Somalis, particularly thousands of children suffering from a confluence of drought, violence and internal terrorism politics.
The group says the malnutrition rate among children under the age of 5 is now above 20 percent and climbing.
At an impromptu news conference, ICRTC President Jakob Kellenberger appealed to donors for 67 million Swiss francs ($86 million) to help a further 1.1 million people in famine-affected parts of ever more desperate Somalia, which would bring its budget for Somalia to 120 million francs this year.
He said the Geneva-based ICRTC recently completed delivery of food and medical aid for 162,000 people in central and southern Somalia, the first large-scale distribution in the region since the start of the year and by far the largest humanitarian operation the group is now undertaking.
The United Nations has said tens of thousands of people have died in the drought, the worst in Somalia in 60 years, and 640,000 Somali children are acutely malnourished, a statistic that suggests the death toll of small children will rise.
Kellenberger said he had no independent figures on the death toll and did not want to comment on others statistics. When asked about US estimates that the drought and famine in Somalia have killed more than 29,000 children under the age of 5, he told The Associated Press, If that is correct, then it is extremely shocking.
Nancy Lindborg, an assistant administrator of the US Agency for International Development, provided the estimate to a congressional committee in Washington, based on surveys by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Kellenberger said the Red Cross is talking with drought committees set up by Al-Qaeda-linked militants who control much of the countrys desperate regions, but said it hasnt paid any money or made other concessions to the Al-Shabab Islamist terrorists insurgents.
Al-Shabab has denied a famine is taking place and wont give access to the World Food Program, the worlds biggest provider of food aid. Kellenberger said his groups two decades of experience in Somalia helped it gain cooperation.
Tens of thousands of refugees have been fleeing south-central Somalia to get food at camps in Ethiopia, Kenya and in Mogadishu, the Somali capital.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/05/2011 00:00 ||
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Yes, this should work out well...
Gunfire said to kill 7 as aid is looted in Somalia
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) Somali government troops opened fire Friday on hungry civilians, killing at least seven people, as both groups made a grab for food at a U.N. distribution site in the capital of this famine-stricken country, witnesses said.
Witnesses accused government soldiers of starting the chaos by trying to steal some of the 290 tons of dry rations as the aid workers tried to hand them out in the biggest camp in Mogadishu for famine refugees. Then refugees joined in the scramble, prompting some soldiers to open fire, the witnesses said.
The US is backing this bunch of nincompoops, the question is why? Because it beats the continuing presence of the current nincompoop in Tripoli, that's why.
Rebel leaders, still reeling from the assassination of their top military commander last week, braced for a reshuffling in their ranks on Thursday, while law enforcement officials said a full-fledged investigation into the murder of the rebel general had gotten under way.
An influential group of lawyers and judges, the Coalition for the Revolution of the 17th of February, called for the resignations of several top officials, including the defense minister and a prominent judge. The group released a statement on Wednesday night calling for the resignations of the vice chairman of the rebel executive branch, Ali al-Essawi; the judge, Jumaah al-Jazwi al-Obeidy; and the defense minister, Jalal el-Digheily, and a deputy, Fawzi Bukatef, who also leads a coalition of armed rebel brigades separate from the army.
The group, which includes many people who helped start the Libyan uprising, said Mr. Essawi and Judge Obeidy should be investigated for their roles in ordering the arrest of the murdered general, Abdul Fattah Younes. According to the murky timeline that has emerged about his last hours, General Younes was escorted by a large group of rebel fighters to Benghazi for questioning shortly before unknown gunmen killed him last week.
Mr. Digheily and Mr. Bukatef should resign, the statement said, because they were out of the country in Egypt while Mr. Younes was being arrested. The group, named for a date symbolically marking the uprising's birth, also demanded the disbanding of the dozens of militias that operate in the rebel areas, saying, "There is no legitimacy to any other armed force but the national army."
Jamal Benour, the justice coordinator for Benghazi, who is helping to oversee the investigation, conceded that despite orders by the rebel leadership for militias to gather under a single leadership, 10 percent of the groups were still holding out.
It was unclear how much weight the Feb. 17 coalition's recommendations would carry. On Thursday, a rebel spokesman said, "There is a reshuffle possibly pending."
But Mr. Essawi, reached on Thursday evening, said, "I'm planning on staying in my job."
Law enforcement officials in Benghazi said a committee formed to investigate the killing of General Younes and two of his aides had already started its work. Three prosecutors and four detectives will be responsible for sorting through a mystery that has exposed raw divisions in the rebel movement, raised fears about score-settling by militant Islamists and distracted a leadership struggling with battles on three fronts.
"Law enforcement officials"...now doean't that sound official. Guess it sounds better then thugs with badges that answer to self-appointed rebel militia leaders.
William Newell, who headed ATFs Phoenix Division during the controversial operation dubbed Fast and Furious, wont be going to Mexico as ATFs attache after all.
The agency has decided to to nix that assignment before he even heads south. Instead, hes been named special assistant to the ATF Assistant Director for the Office of Management in Washington.
The reassignment comes at a time the Mexican Justice Department known as the PGR is reportedly conducting a criminal probe into the Fast and Furious Operation. It has also requested transcripts of Newells recent testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, according to two people familiar with the situation.
Concern had surfaced recently within ATF that the Mexican government might arrest Newell if he came down there as the attache.
ATF first announced internally last Fall that Newell, who is fluent in Spanish, would become the new attache in Mexico City. But after the controversy broke over Fast and Furious, ATF delayed his departure to Mexico and sent him on a detour to Washington to help Congressional investigators and the Inspector General investigate the faulty Fast and Furious operation.
Agents around the country, according to one person, were angry over Newells testimony at a Congressional hearing last month when he denied that ATF let guns walk. During his testimony, he admitted there had been some mistakes, but essentially defended the operation.
La Linea is the armed wing for the Juarez drug cartel. It is the most vicious enforcement group in Mexican organized crime.
Acosta Hernandez said he could not name names, because he did not know any of them. Information he received included locations of Policia Federeal foot patrols and checkpoints.
Most of the information received was from state police, but then Juarez municipal police helped as well, but to a much lesser extent.
Acosta Hernandez AKA El Diego said that he ordered the murder of subprocuradora Sandra Ivonne Salas June 30th, 2010, whose work had caused several arrests of Juarez cartel and La Linea operatives. He said he suspected Ivonne Salas was in the pay of the Sinaloa drug cartel, the Juarez cartel's bitterest rival. To read the Rantbug report on the murder of Sandra Ivonne Salas, click here.
Acosta Hernandez told Policia Federal interrogators the administration of Chihuahua governor Jose Reyes Baeza Terrezas including his attorney general Procuradora General Justicia Estado Patricia Gonzalez, provided much help in the form of information, although there was little from the interview that indicated any specific individuals within the Chihuahua state government.
Wednesday Chihuahua Procuradora General Justicia Estado Carlos Salas took statements from several people who may have knowledge of any nexus with organized crime, although only one name was released, current Chihuahua city mayor Marco Adan Quezada Martinez.
Marco Adan Quezada Martinez has ties with Reyes Baeza, and calls Reyes Baeza his friend.
"He who owes nothing, fears nothing," Quezada Martinez was quoted by the Mexican daily La Polaka as saying.
Other Mexican news reports say that other former officials in the Reyes Baeza administration have given statements, though no names were mentioned.
Patricia Gonzalez ended her term as Chihuahua Procuradora General Justicia Estado under a cloud of suspicion that she had been in the pay of the Juarez cartel. Several narcopintas appeared just after her term ended in Chihuahua city probably put up by local Sinloa cartel operatives which claimed a nexus between her and the Juarez cartel.
Her brother, Mario was kidnapped, then later murdered after a video was released of him saying his sister was in the pay of organized crime. To read Rantburg reports on the kidnapping and murder of Mario Gonzalez, click here and here
Gonzalez had been under investigation by the national attorney general's office, Procuradora General Republica (PGR) since the fall of 2010,but no conclusion or update other than to announce continuation of the investigation have been released since. In high profile cases in which serious crimes are alleged, the usual practice is for attorneys general to gain preventative detention while investigating the charges.
Gonzalez has suffered none of this since the allegations emerged.
Two Chinese naval vessels have docked in North Korea for a rare goodwill visit marking 50 years of friendship between the two countries.
Associated Press television footage showed North Korean people lining the dock at the port of Wonsan on Thursday for the arrival of the training ship Zheng He and the frigate Luoyang. mThe Chinese vessels traveled to North Korea from the Russian city of Vladivostok, where they participated in celebrations marking the 315th anniversary of the Russian navy.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/05/2011 00:00 ||
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ION DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > CHINA PUTS [immense] PRESSURE ON JAPAN, SENDS NAVAL FLEET TO NORTH KOREA.
* SAME > CHINA "VERY DISPLEASED" WID JAPAN WHITE PAPER.
and
* NEWSMAX > CHINA ACCUSES JAPAN OF EXAGGERATING IT AS A MILITARY THREAT.
* TOPIX > CHINA: JAPAN DEFENSE WHITE PAPER "IRRESPONSIBLE".
* SAME > CHINA-JAPAN: JAPAN DEFENSE WHITE PAPER THREATENS RELATIONS.
* SAME > CHINA'S MILITARY BUILDUP MOVES TO PACIFIC.
versus
* WORLD MIL FORUM > US NAVY REQUIRES LARGER-SIZED UNMANNED UNDERSEA VEHICLE [UUV] THAT CAN OPERATE UW FOR UP TO 70 DAYS.
#4
Sure, LOTP, see a Provisional Translation" in PDF at www.mod.go.jp/e/publ/w paper/2011.html.
* ION PEOPLE'S DAILY FORUM > HAS THE PHILIPPINES UNDERSTOOD CHINESE [veiled = subtle] SIGNAL OF WAR?, as per the Spratly [Nansha] + Paracel {Xisha] Islands in South China Seas???
ARTIC > Beijing is politely trying hard NOT to say that it will resort to MILITARY MEANS/FORCE to unliterally enforce its claims, rights of sovereignty in the SCS, CHINA'S DESIRE FOR RESOLUTION VIA DIPLOAMCY DOES N-O-T MEAN IT WILL TOLERATE ON-GOING PHILIPPINE MIL CONTRUCTION OR FACILITIES IN THE SPRATLYS + PARACELS.
* FREEREPUBLIC > JAPAN SHOULD CONDUCT COMPUTER SIMULATIONS ON NUCLEAR WEAPONS: ISHIHARA (JAPAN GOING NUCLEAR), as Nippon already has the Hi-Techs + espec "lots" of Plutonium.
[Mid-1970's SIX MILYUHN DOLLAR MAN = "WE CAN REBUILD HIM ... WE HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY ...
BETTER, STRONGER, FASTER" here].
* WORLD MIL FORUM > DPRK KCNA MEDIA: NORTH KOREA WARNS IT WILL NOT ACCEPT ANY EXTENSION OF SOVEREIGNTY OR ADMINISTRATIVE CONTROL BY JAPAN OVER THE DOKKDO ISLES OR ANY OTHER KOREAN TERRITORIES. MALICIOUS INTENTIONS BY US + NOW JAPAN [territorial, other]VALIDATES NORTH KOREA'S DEVELOPMENT OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS.
* SAME > PURSUING THE TIGERS OF WAR: CHINA CANNOT BE A TRUE ASIAN + GLOBAL SUPERPOWER IFF IT BECOMES THE "STRATEGIC REAR" OF A STRONG JAPAN IN EAST ASIA. THE BARRIERS OF THE "FIRST ISLAND CHAIN", ESPEC IN NE ASIA [Japan-Koreas-Taiwan], MUST BE BROKEN EVEN VIA BY REGIONAL WAR IFF NECESSARY.
* SAME > WORLD GOLD COUNCIL: CHINA'S GOLD RESERVES OF 1054 TONNES IS ONLY ONE-EIGHTH [1/8th] THAT OF THE US. US GOLD RESERVES COMPRISES 74.1% OF TOTAL WORLD RESERVES.
D *** NG IT, "74.1%" + YET WE NEEDED A DEBT DEAL???
The North Korean Red Cross asked for food and cement as flood relief aid in a message to its South Korean counterpart on Thursday morning.
The food for the army; the cement for the bunkers...
The request came in response to an offer made by Seoul via its respective Red Cross agency the previous day to send W5 billion (US$1=W1,061) of daily necessities, medicines and other aid to the flood-stricken North.
The Unification Ministry informed the North through the relief agency on Thursday afternoon that it would provide the emergency goods as promised the previous day.
"We are not considering sending food such as rice and flour, or cement," said a ministry official. "But we are going to deliver nourishing food and instant ramen noodles, which are less likely to be diverted to the North Korean military."
The average Nork private will each ramen noodles just fine.
Based on the North's past practices, Seoul suspects that other materials like cement could be diverted to the regime's military, or its privileged class in Pyongyang to bolster the country's massive construction plan of 100,000 homes in the capital, at the expense of the flood victims who are in dire need of assistance.
Last year when Seoul offered to send relief aid to Sinuiju, the Sino-Korean border city that was ravaged by floods, the regime called for "rice, cement, and heavy equipment." At the time, Seoul dispatched 5,000 tons of rice and 3,600 tons of cement as a partial compromise.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/05/2011 00:00 ||
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Anything and everything they send will be diverted to the army. Why continue to fool themselves? Civilians in NKor are seen as so many mice, eating up food that could be eaten by the military, and breathing air that could be inhaled by the military.
Found this July 2007 article while looking up info in the Scotland airport attack by Muslim doctors. In the article it references chat room transcripts found on the three "cyber terrorists"' possession regarding US Muslim doctors plotting/bragging of terror attacks in the US. I have heard of no US followup on this.
A group of 45 Muslim doctors threatened to use car bombs and rocket grenades in terrorist attacks in the United States during discussions on an extremist internet chat site.
Police found details of the discussions on a site run by one of a three-strong "cyber-terrorist" gang. They were discovered at the home of Younis Tsouli, 23, Woolwich Crown Court in south-east London heard.
One message read: "We are 45 doctors and we are determined to undertake jihad and take the battle inside America. "The first target which will be penetrated by nine brothers is the naval base which gives shelter to the ship Kennedy." This is thought to have been a reference to the USS John F Kennedy, which is often at Mayport Naval Base in Jacksonville, Florida.
The message discussed targets at the base, adding: "These are clubs for naked women which are opposite the First and Third units."
It also referred to using six Chevrolet GT vehicles and three fishing boats and blowing up petrol tanks with rocket propelled grenades.
Investigators have found no link between the Tsouli chat room and the group of doctors and medics currently in custody over attempted car bomb attacks in London and Glasgow.
However, sources said it was "definitely spooky" that the use of doctors for terrorist purposes was being discussed in jihadi terrorist circles up to three years ago.
Part of the inquiry into the London and Glasgow incidents will focus on whether al-Qa'eda has recruited doctors or other medical professionals because they are less likely to attract suspicion and can move easily around the western world.
The three "cyber terrorists" - a British national and two who had been given the right to live in Britain - are facing lengthy jail sentences after admitting using the internet to spread al-Qa'eda propaganda inciting Muslims to a violent holy war and to murder non-believers.
They had close links with al-Qa'eda in Iraq and believed they had to fight jihad against a global conspiracy by kuffars, or non-believers, to wipe out Islam.
The three are the first defendants in Britain to be convicted of inciting terrorist murder on the internet. They waged cyber-jihad on websites run from their bedrooms.
#3
Whoever kills a person it is as if he killed all mankind, and whoever saves a life, it is as if he saved the life of all mankind
Be wary of the "..."
Hereby we take this oath in Thy name, the Creator of all the Heavens and the earth and follow Thy counsel as Thou has revealed to Prophet Mohammad (pbuh).
Whoever killeth a human being, not in liew [sic] of another human being nor because of mischief on earth, it is as if he hath killed all mankind. And if he saveth a human life, he hath saved the life of all mankind. (Quran V/35)
That depends on the definition of "innocent".
Debbie Schlussel's take: Compared to the other Oaths and Declarations, the Oath of a Muslim Physician appears to be unique in its possibly more conditional nature. The phrase, not in liew of another human being nor because of mischief on earth, suggests, licenses, allows or can certainly be interpreted or misinterpreted as to give understanding to a physician taking this Oath and who killeth a human being, that the killing is okay as long as it is in liew of another human being or because of mischief on earth.
Mischief on earth has also been translated as corruption on earth.
So who are the corruptors and mischief-makers?
We have guidance from some apparent experts:
Non-Muslims cannot be called human beings but are animals who roam the earth and engage in corruption. said Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati last week at a ceremony in north-eastern Iran to commemorate the martyrs of the Revolutionary Guards and the war against Iraq (1980-88).
The non-Muslims are [like] those animals that graze, chew their cud, and cause corruption.
#4
Some would find it strange that a doctor's oath would even mention the subject of renouncing terrorism. But then again, in US med schools, I doubt they teach subjects like red wire/green wire confusion.
ANKARA: Turkey selected four new generals to lead its armed forces on Thursday in a shake-up which is seen as consolidating civilian control of the military after the previous four quit last week in protest at the jailing of officers in coup conspiracy cases.
Gen. Necdet Ozel, previously head of the paramilitary gendarmerie, was named as new chief of general staff for the second largest armed forces in NATO.
The shock departure last Friday of Ozel's predecessor Isik Kosaner and the heads of the ground forces, navy and air force, brought to the surface years of tension between the secularist military and a prime minister whose party emerged from a banned Islamic party more than a decade ago.
Islamicism by stealth -- a blending of Islamicist principles and Alinsky pragmatism...
President Abdullah Gul approved the appointment of new army, navy and air force chiefs, presidential spokesman Ahmet Sezer told reporters after a meeting of the Supreme Military Council (YAS).
He said there was also agreement on the new Chief of General Staff, whose appointment required formal Cabinet approval.
Earlier Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited military headquarters to sign off on the promotions, seen as enabling him to tighten control over a military which once had the last word in Turkish politics but whose powers he had curbed while pushing through EU-backed reforms to strengthen democracy.
And to strengthen his own grip on the country.
The new generals, too, may not love the AK Party, given the ingrained antipathy to it in the military establishment. But Erdogan will make sure that they will not turn a blind eye to any fellow officers running rogue operations against his government.
None of the top appointments was a major surprise but the names indicated a measure of compromise. The choice of Gen. Hayri Kivrikoglu as new head of the ground forces will have raised some eyebrows. When the general was serving in northern Cyprus he refused to greet President Gul at the airport.
Another candidate for the post, Gen. Aslan Guner, was appointed head of the military academies. His path to the top was believed to have been blocked by his refusal to shake the hand of the president's wife.
Just over four years ago, the military tried and failed to prevent the AK party from installing Gul as president.
Aegean Army commander Gen. Nusret Tasdeler, who was the subject of an arrest warrant last week along with 21 others over allegations that the military set up anti-government websites, was given the role of education and doctrine commander.
Gen. Saldiray Berk, a potential candidate for the ground forces post, took retirement. He faces trial related to the alleged "Ergenekon" network intent on undermining the AK party.
Another top general missing from the council was one of some 250 officers now jailed on charges linked to various alleged anti-government plots dating back to 2003.
Under the alleged "Sledgehammer" plot, around 200 officers are charged with planning to destabilize the government by bombing mosques and triggering conflict with neighboring Greece. Officers say evidence against them has been fabricated and that allegations of a coup plot arose from a war game exercise.
Former military chief Kosaner issued a farewell message on Friday saying he could no longer bear to stand by while comrades languished in jail, victims of prosecution cases he described as flawed and unjust.
Erdogan's won 50 percent of the vote in a parliamentary election in June, and it will try to build consensus with the main secular and ethnic Kurdish parties to replace a constitution written after the 1980 military coup.
The ructions in the military are unlikely to help reduce a polarization in Turkish politics.
Presidential spokesman Sezer also said a decision was taken at the Supreme Military Council meeting to extend by one year the duties of 14 generals currently jailed as part of the conspiracy investigations. There had been speculation that they would be forced into retirement.
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[Dawn] Three senior Pakistain Navy officers are facing court martial in connection with the attack on a naval air base in Bloody Karachi in May, an official said on Thursday, in a rare public sign of accountability in the powerful military establishment.
The brazen assault on the PNS Mehran base embarrassed the military and raised doubts about its ability to protect its bases after a similar raid on the army headquarters in Rawalpindi in 2009.
"We had set up a board of inquiry, and after its report, court martial proceedings have been initiated against three officers," a senior navy official told Rooters, requesting not to be named because he is not authorised to speak to the media.
The officers being tried include Commodore Raja Tahir, the commander of the PNS Mehran who was relieved of his command two days after the attack. At that time, the navy had insisted that it was a "routine and scheduled" transfer.
However, the hip bone's connected to the leg bone... the naval official said that the initiation of the trial does not mean that the officers were in some way connected with the attack.
"They are being tried because they were at a responsible position, and were responsible for the security and other affairs of the base," he said.
Pak security officials had earlier jugged a former navy commando and his brother in connection with the raid.
A naval front man in Islamabad could not be immediately reached for comment.
The Mehran base attack came nearly three weeks after US Navy SEALs killed Al Qaeda chief the late Osama bin Laden ... who went titzup one dark and stormy night... in a secret raid in the northwestern town of Abbottabad on May 2.
Pak Taliban, allied with Al Qaeda, have vowed Dire Revenge™ for bin Laden's death.
As few as six beturbanned goons infiltrated the PNS Mehran naval base in Bloody Karachi, the headquarters of the navy's air wing, killing 10 security forces and wounding 20.
The turbans, who besieged the base for 16 hours, also destroyed two P-3C Orion aircraft from the Unites States, crucial for Pakistain's maritime surveillance capabilities.
The daring raid was another humiliation for the military, which had already been unable to explain how the Al Qaeda chief hid in the country for years or how the Americans could launch the attack deep inside their territory.
The Pak Taliban grabbed credit for the attack on the Mehran base, but many analysts believe they had inside help.
Pakistain has faced a wave of assaults over the last few years, many of them claimed by the Pak Taliban and other Al Qaeda-linked turban groups.
In October 2009, a small group of beturbanned goons attacked the army's General Headquarters in Rawalpindi, taking 42 people hostage, including several officers. By the end of the day-long siege, nine gunnies, 11 soldiers and three hostages were dead.
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On Thursday, a Christian group in Malaysia condemned a raid by Islamic officials on a church compound as a threat to delicate religious relations.
The raid occurred Wednesday night during a dinner at the Damansara Utama Methodist Church in Petaling Jaya, a western suburb of the capital Kuala Lumpur.
Around 30 Islamic religious and police officials entered the church compound in Selangor state with no warrant and started taking videos and photographs, said Daniel Ho, senior pastor for the church. They subjected guests to "undue harassment" and took down the details of the Muslims present before leaving, he said in a statement.
Officials claimed they had "received a complaint" about the church but gave no further explanation for the raid. However, there were Muslims present at the church gathering, and officials have previously expressed concern about conversion to other religions -- especially Christianity.
Hermen Shastri, general secretary of the Council of Churches of Malaysia said the raid sets "a dangerous precedent and makes a mockery of the sanctity of religious places."
It also caused "undue trauma to all guests of the different ethnic communities", Shastri added in a statement.
Ho said the dinner was held for people involved in the church's welfare programmes, including single mothers and HIV/AIDS victims.
[An Nahar] La Belle France on Thursday slammed as "provocation" a decree by Syrian 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... allowing opposition parties, and said instead he should stop his deadly crackdown on democracy protests.
"In a manner that lacks credibility... the Syrian regime recently announced the authorization of multi-party politics. This is almost a provocation," Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told French radio.
He said that "what we want is an end to the violence against the civilian population which is only defending its rights."
Juppe warned that "if nothing changes in Syria," La Belle France may seek further action from the U.N. Security Council, which on Wednesday condemned the deadly crackdown and said those responsible should be held accountable.
Assad on Thursday issued a decree authorizing political parties to be established and to function alongside the Baath party, in power since 1963 with the constitutional status of "the leader of state and society."
Political pluralism has been at the forefront of demands by pro-reform dissidents who since March 15 have been taking to the streets across Syria almost daily to call for greater freedoms.
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(KUNA) -- Iran's President Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad denied that his country was working on making a nuclear bomb and stressed its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.
"When we say we do not wish to make a nuclear bomb, we mean that. Anyone who wants to have a nuclear bomb must by out of their mind," Nejad told Euronews channel, Wednesday.
Those crazy Americans!
"A sane person could never use a nuclear bomb in any dispute," he stressed,
Those crazy Russians!!
and he refuted all accusations regarding Iran's nuclear activities. "The nuclear program is for medicinal purposes," he insisted.
Those crazy, crazy French!!1!!eleventy!
The west constantly accuses Iran of possession of nuclear weapons under the guise of a peaceful program.
No, Iran is accused of working toward acquiring nuclear weapons, with the aim of establishing regional hegemony. Not quite the same thing, thank goodness.
Tehran meanwhile vehemently denies that.
The Iranian president also defended his country against accusations of human right abuses. "Every country in the world has prisons," he remarked.
"We are a free society, and everybody can declare their opinion, and there are even criticisms against me personally by some opposition figures, who express themselves without fear." The ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), headquartered in Vienna, had recently expressed the view that it was not unlikely Iran is in the process of making a nuclear bomb.
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#1
"Regional hegemony" in support of Islamist Global Jihad - you know, NOT-IMPERIALISM!
[An Nahar] Prime Minister Najib Miqati stated on Thursday that Leb chose to "disassociate" itself from the United Nations ...an international organization whose stated aims of facilitating interational security involves making sure that nobody with live ammo is offended unless it's a civilized country... Security Council statement on Syria out of its "firm position that it will not intervene in the internal affairs of other countries."
He said before news hounds: "Leb does not meddle in the affairs of other nations, especially Arab ones, and it expects others not to meddle in its issues."
"In Leb's view, the Security Council statement does not help in tackling the situation in Syria," he added.
"The Lebanese stand took into consideration the sensitivity of the situation in Leb," he explained. If they weren't effectively run by the Syrian-allied Iranian fifth column their position might well be different...
"Some claims that the government's position is hindering international legitimacy are untrue," the premier said.
"Such allegations are part of the political dispute in Leb or they are derived out of ignorance over how Security Council resolutions are made," Miqati continued.
On Wednesday, Leb "disassociated" itself from a Security Council statement condemning the use of violence against anti-regime protests in Syria, while the rest of the countries present at the meeting voiced their support of the statement.
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[An Nahar] Leb's disavowal of a U.N. Security Council statement condemning Syria's deadly attacks on civilians is "shameful," high-ranking March 14 Those are the good guys, insofar as Leb has good guys... sources said.
The sources told An Nahar daily published Thursday that "despite the unanimity of the other 14 members of the Security Council on the statement, Leb's disavowal is a shameful and disgraceful stance."
They warned that Leb's decision puts the country in a "confrontation with the world ... at a time when the country is in need for the international community in its confrontation with the Israeli greed and threats."
March 14 leadership sources also told al-Mustaqbal ... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri... daily that Premier Najib "Miqati is heading a cabinet allied with the Syrian regime and backs it media wise and politically by its silence on the massacres committed against the Syrian people ... let alone its decision for Leb, which is a member of the Security Council, to reject any presidential statement that condemns the massacres."
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[An Nahar] Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday called the situation in Syria "dramatic" and expressed "enormous concern" over the deadly violence in the country.
"Unfortunately, people die there in large numbers. This arouses enormous concern from us," the Russian leader said in an interview given to Russian media in the southern resort Sochi.
Syria's 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... needs to "carry out urgent reforms, come to terms with the opposition, restore peace and create a modern state," Medvedev said as quoted by the Interfax news agency.
"If he cannot do this, a sad fate awaits him, and in the end we will have to take some decision. We are watching the way the situation develops. As it changes, some of our perspectives also change." It'll maybe be sad for Pencilneck. It won't bother most other people and it'll likely be an occasion for celebration for his subjects...
Medvedev's remarks follow a foreign ministry statement Monday strongly criticizing the government's crackdown on demonstrations in Syria in a sign of a shift in Russia's rigid position on the conflict in the U.N. Security Council.
Russia together with China, both of which hold veto power in the U.N. Security Council, have persistently blocked a Western-drafted resolution on Syria to the irritation of other world powers.
Moscow has repeatedly stressed that it was firmly opposed to foreign interference in Syria, its ally since Soviet times, and believed its regional ally could find a political solution to its crisis.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/05/2011 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
No doubt, seeing Mubarak in a cage motivates all them dictators to reform.
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 Bashir 
Mahmoud 
Najib Miqati
President-for-Life Bashir 
