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Today: 72 articles and 211 comments as of 15:43.
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US ambassador Robert Ford pelted with tomatoes by Syrian brownshirts
Today's Headlines
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Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 09/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Happy Birthday/Daily Gam Shot

Greer Garson aka Mrs. Kay Miniver in " Mrs. Miniver" aka Katherine Chipping in "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" aka Edna Kahly Gladney in "Blossoms in the Dust" aka Marie Curie in "Madame Curie" aka Susie "Sparrow" Parkington in "Mrs. Parkington" aka Mary Rafferty in "The Valley of Decision" aka Eleanor Roosevelt in "Sunrise at Campobello" Note: She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in every picture listed, winning for her performance in Mrs. Miniver. (age 92)



Women Who Bathe
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 09/29/2011 2:09 Comments || Top||

#2  Picayune, from French picaillon, meaning ‘old copper coin,’ originally referred to a coin of little value in Louisiana, especially New Orleans. The word is first recorded in 1804. “Near the green,” the dictionary quotes from 1819, “is a horizontal fandango of four wooden horses. . . . Upon these, children canter and circulate for exercise, by paying a half-bit, here called a pécune.” Picayune “belonged” to Louisiana throughout the nineteenth century, but by now, of course, picayune is a more common adjective meaning ‘of little or no account or value.’
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 09/29/2011 13:21 Comments || Top||

#3  Pic of Peggy from "Gun Crazy".

The ORIGINAL "Gun Crazy", not the picayune remake with Drew Barrymore "acting"...
Posted by: mojo || 09/29/2011 14:41 Comments || Top||

#4  Thus a perfect name for New Orleans' remaining newspaper. Also a neat way of demonstrating the difference between worth and cost.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 09/29/2011 15:23 Comments || Top||

#5  Never thought the WOT needed a Pedants Corner, but there you have it in the best of style.
Posted by: Rhodesiafever || 09/29/2011 19:30 Comments || Top||

#6  Just my .02.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 09/29/2011 19:34 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Taliban Kills 8 Policemen with Insider Help
[An Nahar] Eight Afghan police were killed early Wednesday when Talibs apparently helped by an insider overran their checkpost in troubled southern Afghanistan, an official said.

Daud Ahmadi, a front man for the local administration in Helmand
...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan...
province, blamed the beturbanned goon group for the killings but said the militia had help from at least one police officer conspiring in the attack.

"The attackers were helped by one policeman who now has decamped with his gun," he told Agence La Belle France Presse, referring to the attack in the Nahri Sarraj district of Helmand.

"Three other coppers are injured and the one who was a Taliban informant, the Taliban accomplice, has decamped with the attackers," Ahmadi told AFP.

On Tuesday, five people were killed in a suicide car booming near the police headquarters in Helmand's lovely provincial capital Lashkar Gar, two months after British troops handed the Afghan government control.

Afghanistan is plagued by a deadly 10-year insurgency that has increased each year since it was launched by the remnants of the Taliban following their ouster from power in late 2001.

The rebels have carried out several attacks, some of them high profile, helped by infiltrating the Western-trained Afghan cops.

Late Sunday, one American was killed and another injured when an Afghan employee shot up an annex to the U.S. embassy in Kabul used by the CIA. It was not known if the shooter was a Taliban infiltrator.

Posted by: Fred || 09/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Africa North
Libyan interim government forces capture Sirte airport
(Rooters) - Forces of Libya's interim government have captured the airport in Muammar Qadaffy's
...Custodian of Wheelus AFB for 42 long years...
hometown of Sirte, one of two main remaining bastions of support for the deposed leader, Rooters journalists at the scene said.
Posted by: Fred || 09/29/2011 10:04 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Egypt ex-Minister Gets 7 Years for Corruption
[An Nahar] A Cairo court on Wednesday sentenced the former information minister to seven years behind bars and the former head of state TV to five years on corruption charges.

Judge Abdallah Abul Hashem ordered ex-information minister Anas al-Fikki tossed in the calaboose for seven years "for squandering public money."

Osama el-Sheikh, head of the Egyptian Television and Radio Union, was sentenced to five years on similar charges in a case involving the purchase of soap operas at inflated prices.

Chaos broke out in the court when the verdict for Sheikh was read, with his supporters lunging past security towards the judge as others threw bottles at him. Judge Abul Hashem had to be whisked away by security.

Sheikh had been cleared in a previous corruption case and his family and supporters had expected him to be released.

The two are the latest in a string of former regime officials to go on trial since a popular revolt ousted president Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
in February.

Mubarak himself is on trial for allegedly ordering the killings of anti-regime protesters and for alleged corruption. His two sons are also on trial for alleged corruption.

Posted by: Fred || 09/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


NTC Senior Commander Killed in Bani Walid
[An Nahar] Anti-Qadaffy
...a reminder that a single man with an idea can screw up an entire nation...
fighters Wednesday appealed for help from NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all....
after being blasted by rockets fired by loyalist troops in Bani Walid, one of the ousted Libyan leader's last bastions.

Among 11 National Transitional Council fighters killed in the barrage was senior commander Daou al-Salhine al-Jadak, whose car was struck by a rocket as he headed towards the front late on Tuesday, NTC chief negotiator Abdullah Kenshil told Agence La Belle France Presse.

NTC field commander Captain Walid Khaimej said, meanwhile, that the fierce resistance of Moammar Qadaffy's loyalists had stalled the advance by NTC fighters in the desert town, some 170 kilometers (100 miles) from Tripoli.

"There is always incoming missile and artillery fire. We are returning fire with heavy weapons but we are not sending in infantry. We are waiting for reinforcements to come from Tripoli and Zawiyah," said Khaimej.

"NATO is here but is not doing enough. They take out the rocket launchers firing at us, but they are immediately replaced. We need more help from NATO," he added.

The Western military alliance has under a UN mandate being giving air support to a popular revolt against Qadaffy launched in February which saw the veteran strongman toppled from power after 42 years by NTC forces last month.

Qadaffy has gone into hiding since Tripoli was overrun on August 23 but he and some of his sons are still believed by the NTC to be in Libya, possibly even in Bani Walid or in his birthplace Sirte, where his last remaining forces are putting up fierce resistance.

Jadak was one of the highest ranking NTC military commanders in Bani Walid and hails from the oasis town itself.

Two days before he was killed, he told AFP he had been imprisoned for more than 18 years for helping organize a rebellion against Qadaffy in 1993.

Posted by: Fred || 09/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Among 11 National Transitional Council fighters killed in the barrage was senior commander Daou al-Salhine al-Jadak

And here he thought, after switching from being Al Qaeda to a "rebel", that he's safe from rockets!
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/29/2011 1:33 Comments || Top||

#2  he's safe from rockets!

Much can happen during battle. At least he died while in the field, and not, say, during interrogation.
Posted by: Pappy || 09/29/2011 10:14 Comments || Top||


Libya 'Issues Summons' for Kadhafi's Ex-PM
[An Nahar] Libya has issued a summons for Moammar Qadaffy's
...Custodian of Wheelus AFB for 42 long years...
former prime minister Baghdadi al-Mahmudi, who decamped the country for neighboring Tunisia, the interim justice minister said Wednesday.

"The prosecutor general has issued a summons for former Prime Minister Storied Baghdadi al-Mahmudi," the minister, Mohammed al-Alagi, told a news conference in Tripoli.

Mahmudi, Libya's prime minister until the last days of Qadaffy's regime, was placed in long-term storage last week on Tunisia's southwestern border with Algeria.

A Tunisian court swiftly sentenced him to six months in prison after finding him guilty of illegal entry, but that decision was overruled on Tuesday by a higher court following an appeal by his lawyers.

Mahmudi's arrest was the second in Tunisia of a senior Libyan official since the fall of the regime run by Qadaffy, who has been on the run since Libyan rebels took the capital Tripoli on August 23.
Posted by: Fred || 09/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


AQIM Treasurer Titzup in Algeria
[An Nahar] The treasurer of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) was one of five Islamist faceless myrmidons killed by Algerian troops a clash this week east of the capital, a press report said Wednesday.

The French-language daily Liberte named him as Adel Bourai, alias Ayoub, aged 27, from the corpse-littered Boumerdes region where the Algerian army began a major sweep late last week.
That seems awfully young to be chief regional finance officer. Perhaps the level of needed skills isn't as great when it's really just a drug gang with delusions of grandeur.
I think it was an inside promotion. They had a sudden opening. Now they have another one...
The paper said the other four were all from the same region some 60 kilometers from Algiers and were aged between 28 and 35. It said they were killed as they were preparing to sail along the coast to Jiljel, 300 kilometers to the east, and a number of boats were also destroyed.

Elite army units backed by gunships started sweeping the Chouicha forest near corpse-littered Boumerdes to root out suspected members of AQIM, acting on information received, security sources said.

corpse-littered Boumerdes and the neighboring regions of blood-stained Tizi Ouzou and Bouira -- where groups affiliated to AQIM are active -- are those most affected by a recent surge in violence.


This article starring:
Adel Bourai
Posted by: Fred || 09/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa

#1  See also TOPIX > AL-QAEDA EXPANDS LIBYA CHAOS INTO ALGERIA.

and

* SAME > AL-QAEDA SEEKS MOROCCO EXPANSION, EUROPE ATTACKS.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 09/29/2011 20:27 Comments || Top||

#2  D *** NG IT, ITS FOR IRAN'S = OWG CALIPHATE'S AIRCRAFT CARRIER!
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 09/29/2011 20:28 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Bahrain Court Upholds Life Terms for Opposition Leaders
[An Nahar] A Bahraini special court has upheld life jail sentences served on seven Shiite opposition leaders convicted of plotting to overthrow the regime in the Gulf kingdom, BNA official news agency said.

Jail sentences against seven other activists, ranging between two to 15 years and including Sunni opposition leader Ibrahim Sharif, were also upheld by the national safety appeals court, it said quoting military general prosecutor colonel Yusof Fulaifel.

Seven others, one sentenced to life in jail and the remainder to 15 years, remained on the lam and had not appealed their sentences.

Posted by: Fred || 09/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Angola Expels 16 Lebanese over Terrorism, Money Laundering
[An Nahar] Angola has expelled 140 foreign nationals, including 16 Lebanese, on suspicions of terrorism and money laundering, a government official told Agence La Belle France Presse

"These foreigners were expelled from Angola because of their illegal status and for money laundering and for terrorism," said Fretas Neto, who heads Angola's foreign migration office (SME).

The action was taken, he explained, "to safeguard the national interest and guarantee the internal security of the Angolan state."

Police also probed four other Lebanese nationals and plans to expel them shortly, Neto said.

"They will be banned from the country for a period of more than 20 years," he added.

Since a protracted civil war ended in 2002, Angola has attracted a substantial number of foreigners looking to capitalize on an economic boom fuelled by the flourishing oil industry and the diamond trade.

There are several Lebanese-owned businesses in the capital Luanda, mainly in the import-export sector.

Posted by: Fred || 09/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah


Arabia
Fresh fighting breaks out in Yemen
Fighting! Nice, fresh fighting! Getcher fresh fighting right here!
[Christian Science Monitor] Fresh fighting
... as opposed to day-old stale fighting...
broke out in Yemen's capital today, heightening concerns that increasing division among armed tribal factions and splits in Yemen's armed forces may lead the Arab world's poorest nation into full-blown civil war.

Today the elite Republican Guard, led by President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh
... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower...
's son, engaged in fierce festivities with soldiers loyal to dissident Gen. Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, who once served as the "iron fist" of Mr. Saleh's regime but is now one of his most powerful rivals.

The fighting has broken a three-day period of calm that provided some hope that Saleh would return to a peace plan designed by other Gulf nations, reports Raidió Teilifís Éireann. Diplomats had urged Saleh to stay in Soddy Arabia where he spent three months recuperating after a rocket attack, but he returned on Sept. 23, triggering much unrest.
Posted by: Fred || 09/29/2011 10:11 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


U.S. Embassy in Saudi Warns of 'Terror Kidnap Plot'
[An Nahar] The U.S. embassy in Riyadh warned American citizens on Wednesday of a plot by a "terrorist group" to kidnap Westerners in the Saudi capital. In a statement on its website, the embassy advised "U.S. citizens in the Kingdom of Soddy Arabia that we have received information that a terrorist group in Soddy Arabia may be planning to abduct Westerners in Riyadh." "The U.S. embassy in Riyadh reminds all U.S. citizens to exercise prudence and enhanced security awareness at all times," it added.
Posted by: Fred || 09/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia


Bangladesh
Local JL leader hacked to death in Mymensingh
Mymensingh, Sept 28 (UNB) - A local Jubo League leader was hacked to death by a gang of miscreants at Chakua Beldia village in Gafargaon upazila early Wednesday. The deceased was identified Ilias, 35, son of Mokbul Hossain Tota of the village.

Local people said a gang of miscreants stormed into the house of Jubo League leader Ilias and hacked him to death at around 3am. At one stage they cut off his head and fled the scene with the head of the victim.

On information, police rushed to the spot in the early morning and recovered the decapitated body and sent it to Mymensingh Medical College Hospital morgue for autopsy.
"Okay Sam, here's one for you. Cause of death shouldn't be hard. I'm off to lunch."
The motive behind the murder could not be ascertained immediately.
I'm guessing they didn't like him?
Posted by: Steve White || 09/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Caribbean-Latin America
More Mexican Mayhem
14 die in northern Mexico

For a map click here

A total of 14 individuals were killed in drug and gang related violence in northern Mexican states, including two suspected kidnappers shot to death by Sonora state police agents in Nogales Wednesday afternoon.
  • An unidentified couple was found shot to death at a remote location near the Jardin de Orientes colony in eastern Juarez Wednesday morning. Reports say the victims were kidnapped before they were killed.

  • Three individuals were shot to death in Zona Centro of Chihuahua,Chihuahua Wednesday morning. Two of the victims, a woman identified as Norma Silvia Ortiz Munoz, 41, and another youth were killed on the scene. The third victim later died while receiving medical attention. Reports say armed suspects travelling aboard a pickup truck shot the victims.

  • An unidentified man was shot to death in Juarez Wednesday. The victim was at an auto repair shop on Bulevar Zaragoza at about 1330 hrs when he was shot by armed suspectss.

  • Three unidentified indivduals were shot to death at a residence in Juarez Wednesday. The shooting took place near the intersection of calles Coquena and Tildio in the Granjas de Chapultepec colony where armed suspects entered the residence and killed three occupants inside. Reports say this shooting and another just minutes before at a garage nearby were unrelated.

  • One unidentified armed suspect was wounded in a shootout between Chihuahua state police agents and criminal suspects. The shooting took place near the intersection of Calle Mitla and Avenida de las Torres, where police agents were fired on by suspected extortionists who were travelling aboard a Nissan sedan and a Ford Explorer SUV. Two other suspects were arrested.

  • A presumed drug dealer was shot to death at his residence in Hermosillo, Sonora Tuesday. Joel Martin de la Rosa Pino, AKA El Willy, 19, was shot at the doorway to his home on Calle Pedregal where armed suspects travelling aboard a compact sedan dismounted the vehicle at about 0310 hrs then shot the victim once in the chest with a 9mm handgun.

  • Two unidentified kidnapping suspects were killed in a gunfight with Sonoran state police agents in Nogales, Sonora Wednesday afternoon. The shootout took place at a safe house on Calle Taboso west in the Luis Donaldo Colosio II colony where police agents were dispatched on a report of a kidnapping. An unidentified kidnapping victim was rescued, and several firearms were seized following the gunfight.

  • An unidentified man was shot to death in an apparent mugging aboard a bus in Tijuana, Baja California Wednesday. The bus was on Bulevar Salinas when two armed suspects demanded money from the victim and then shot him.
Posted by: badanov || 09/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The shootout took place at a safe house on Calle Taboso

Safe house not so safe.
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/29/2011 17:01 Comments || Top||

#2  Agreed.

Cops showing up was definitely a WTF moment for the bad guys.
Posted by: badanov || 09/29/2011 21:21 Comments || Top||


Terror in Tamaulipas: 1 dead in series of grenade attacks
exclusive from Rantburg
For a map, click here. For a map of Tamaulipas state, click here

By Chris Covert

One individual was killed and eight others were wounded in a series of bombings, likely using grenades in several Tamaulipas border cities and in the capital city, Ciudad Victoria, according to a statement posted at the Tamaulipas government website.

Enrique Martinez Valdez was killed and seven others were wounded when an explosive device was detonated inside the El Gallo de Oro bar in Rodriguez colony in Reynosa on Monday. Two victims in the attack required hospitalization.

Another explosive device was detonated outside the Cadillac bar in Zona Centro in Reynosa. No one was reported hurt in the blast and damaged was limited to the building's facade and a nearby vehicle.

On Tuesday in the Mil Cumbres colony an explosive device was detonated which damaged two residences and two vehicles nearby. Another device was detonated outside the Dubai nightclub in Rodriguez colony which caused physical damage, but no one was reported hurt.

Two explosive devices were detonated in Rio Bravo. One exploded at about 1500 hrs in front of a movie theater on Avenida Francisco I. Madero, which wounded a bystander. The other exploded across the street outside the Tamaulipas Agencias del Ministerio Público del Fuero Común, which caused damage to three vehicles.

In the capital city of Ciudad Victoria an explosive device detonated outside the building housing the Comision Federal de Electricidad on Calzada General Luis Caballero. No one was hurt in the blast and damage was limited to unspecified physical property.
Posted by: badanov || 09/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Europe
Swiss Parliamentarians Vote for Burqa Ban
[An Nahar] Swiss parliamentarians
...Switzerland is home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell...
approved Wednesday a far-right move to impose a ban on the burqa or other face coverings in some public places, including on public transport.

With 101 votes against 77, the lower chamber of the house approved the motion titled "masks off!"

The draft bill will still have to be examined by the upper chamber.

Put forward by Oskar Freysinger, a politician of the Swiss far-right SVP party, the motion requires "anyone addressing a federal, cantonal or communal authority exercising his or her functions, to present themselves with their faces uncovered."

Burqas would also be banned on public transport, while "authorities can ban or restrict access to public buildings to such individuals in order to guarantee the security of other users."

Explaining the motion, Freysinger noted that "at a time when insecurity is growing in our streets, more and more people are hiding their faces behind a balaclava, a mask or a burqa.

"This makes it impossible to identify these people, a fact that is particularly troublesome in case of violence or identity checks," he noted.

La Belle France was the first European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
country to impose a ban on the burqa in public places, while Belgium joined it some months later.

On September 16, the Dutch government also agreed to a ban on the full Islamic veil under a deal with the far-right party of the anti-immigration MP Geert Wilders.

Posted by: Fred || 09/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Anarchists also rolling eyes and screaming bloody murder.
Posted by: Eohippus Phater7165 || 09/29/2011 6:31 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Mass. man charged with targeting Pentagon, Capitol with aerial explosives
Snip, duplicate from yesterday.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 09/29/2011 01:06 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Probably put paid to radio controlled modeling in the future.
Posted by: kelly || 09/29/2011 21:37 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
US sanctions two leaders of Pakistan militants LeT
[Dawn] US officials on Wednesday imposed financial sanctions on two leaders of a Pakistain-based beturbanned goon group with links to the Al-Qaeda network.

The US Treasury Department named Zafar Iqbal and Hafiz Abdul Salam Bhuttavi, leaders and founding members of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a group on the US terrorist list since 2001.

"Zafar Iqbal and Hafiz Abdul Salam Bhuttavi are two of LeT's most significant leaders," David Cohen, Treasury's under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement.

"Over the past 20 years, Iqbal and Bhuttavi have been responsible for fundraising, recruitment, and indoctrination of operatives," he said. "By targeting the core of LeT's leadership, today's action aims to degrade its ability to facilitate its terrorist activities."
This article starring:
Hafiz Abdul Salam Bhuttavi
Zafar Iqbal
Posted by: Fred || 09/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Lashkar e-Taiba


Finance ministry employee arrested for militant links
[Dawn] Pak authorities have tossed in the clink an employee of the finance ministry on suspicion of links to bad turban groups, police said on Wednesday.

The suspect, identified as Sardar Ali Khattak, was on a hilltop near President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari's
... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ...
residence in Islamabad when apprehended.

"He is being interrogated. He was wanted in connection with a kaboom in Rawalpindi a few months ago," police official Hakim Khan said, referring to the garrison city adjoining Islamabad.

Police raided Khattak's house last week and recovered a boom jacket and other explosives, police said.

Finance Ministry officials said Khattak was an office boy and had been on leave for the past two years, and that they had no knowledge about his alleged links to any bad turban group.

Pakistain has seen a surge in violence by Islamic fascisti loyal to al Qaeda and Taliban since the late Osama bin Laden
... who is currently taking a long nap in the dirt... urm... water...
was killed by US special forces in a secret raid in a Pak town in May.

Militants have vowed Dire Revenge™ for bin Laden's death.
Posted by: Fred || 09/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan


'Toy' bomb kills man, grandson in Buner
[Dawn] An elderly man and his eight-year-old grandson were killed when a toy bomb went kaboom! in their house in Johar village here on Tuesday.
If it blows up it's not a "toy."
Police said that a child identified as Nasir Rehman found a toy in the nearby field and brought it to his home. They said that the toy went kaboom! when the child and his grandfather Gul Rashid started playing with it.

Both of them were killed on the spot, police added. They said that investigation was in progress.

Police claimed that they had launched various campaigns to inform people about improvised bombs to save their lives. People were being asked not to touch any unclaimed luggage or toys, they said.

They admitted that several children had been killed by toy bombs.

In Bajaur Agency, aka Turban Central, two volunteers of a peace committee were killed and six others sustained injuries when their post was attacked by Islamic fascisti in Mandal area of Salarzai tehsil on late Tuesday night.

The volunteers identified as Noor Azam and Nisar Khan were killed on the spot when Islamic fascisti attacked them with automatic weapons in the area located on the border with Mohmand
... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar...
Agency

The political tehsildar said that injured Ismail Shah, Shah Zamin, Masoom Khan, Jan Mohammad, Hakimullah and Gulzada were admitted to the Agency Headquarters Hospital. Three of them were later shifted to Peshawar at death's door, he added.

He said that eight volunteers of peace committees had been killed during the last one week by Islamic fascisti in Bajaur Agency.

In Mohmand Agency, two rustics, who had been kidnapped by Islamic fascisti earlier this month, were set free on Monday night.

According to political administration, Islamic fascisti had attacked the house of Atta Khan in Qandhari area of Safi tehsil on Sept 2 and kidnapped his son and another primitive.

Officials said that the two kidnapped persons -- Hameedullah, son of Atta Khan, and Haya Khan, son of Redi Gul -- were released by beturbanned goons. They reached their home last night, they added.
Posted by: Fred || 09/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Islamabad-Rawalpindi: Button men bang four
[Dawn] Tuesday proved a bloody day for the twin cities where unidentified gunnies rubbed out four persons in assassinations and beat feet unchallenged.

A mother, her daughter and their driver were killed in Islamabad while the principal of a kindergarten school was bumped off in Rawalpindi. Revenge appeared to be behind both the crimes.

According to police of the two cities, the 38-year-old principal Akhtar-ul-Islam had earned ire for divorcing his wife to marry a teacher of his school, and the mother Najma Bibi, 45, was thrice married and allegedly in sex trade.

Islamabad police said Najma had survived a murder attempt in July and had gone into hiding.

Her pursuers got her as she and her daughter Sidra were being driven home by their driver after a court appearance in Islamabad.

Gunmen were apparently shadowing them from the court and got them when their car stopped near a roundabout in Sector F-10 to drop a fourth person travelling in it.

The gunnies swarmed the car and shot the three persons inside dead from close range and decamped.

"Not a single bullet hit the body of the car," said a policeman who reached the scene of the crime and took the victims to a hospital where they were declared dead.

Police Sherlocks are trying to get information about the driver from his native Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
province, to determine whether he was a target or was killed because he could identify the killers at some stage.

In the attack on Akhtar-ul-Islam in Rawalpindi, a lady teacher saw the killers but was too frightened to say that as she was injured in her leg by their get-away firing.

"I cannot identify the gunnies as I was too confused and stunned by the flying bullets as they ran out while I was entering the school," Ms Kiran said from her hospital bed.

Sub-inspector Jawad Shah of Rawalpindi police, who is leading the investigation into the cold blooded murder of Akhtar-ul-Islam in his K-Tech Kindergarten School in Dhoke Matkial locality, said she was the only person who could identify the
killers but he failed to convince her to come out as a witness.

Meanwhile,
...back at the fist fight, Jake ducked another roundhouse, then parried with his left, then with his right, finally with his chin...
Khurshid Ahmed, a cousin and husband of the sister of Akhtar-ul-Islam, has created a weird situation by
nominating brothers of both the former and present wife of the murdered principal as suspects.

Police however have made no arrests yet, arguing that the motive had to be determined to reach the real killers.

Police sources said Akhtar-ul-Islam belonged to Hazara district and had divorced his first wife Faiza six weeks ago and
married Nazima, a teacher in his school he had fallen in love.

In the case of Najma Bibi, the central character in the murders in Islamabad was reportedly seeking separation from her current, third husband of four years, and a share in his property. The husband, a lawyer has sued her of 'kidnapping' their
daughter Sidra.

Islamabad police said her first husband was living in the USA.

She separated from her second six years ago who is living in Kamra.
Posted by: Fred || 09/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Afaq Ahmed to remain detained for one more month
[Dawn] The Sindh government under MPO decided on Wednesday that Mohajir Quami Movement (MQM-H) chairman Afaq Ahmed will not be released from the district jail Malir and according to the home department's notification, will remain in prison for one more month, DawnNews reported.

Ahmed, who was placed in long-term storage on April 3, 2004, was granted bail in the last of the cases against him by the Sindh High Court on Tuesday.

Hundreds of MQM-H supporters, who had gathered outside the Malir District Jail protested the decision and blocked the National Highway.
Posted by: Fred || 09/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Southeast Asia
Four Thai soldiers killed in school attack
Four soldiers were killed while one more and a student were injured when they were attacked in front of a school in Narathiwat province yesterday.

Six soldiers were on security duty at the school in Narathiwat's Rueso district when they were ambushed at noon by terrorists militants armed with assault rifles.

A soldier who escaped unhurt said at least 18 terrorists assailants wearing paramilitary ranger uniforms opened fire on the soldiers as they were taking a short break outside the school. The terrorists assailants fled with five rifles and bullet-proof vests belonging to the soldiers.

Meanwhile, a Malaysian man who was wounded in the Sungai Kolok bombing on Sept 16 was pronounced dead yesterday morning, bringing the death toll to seven.

In Pattani province, a man was gunned down at a village market in Nong Chik district yesterday morning. Eyewitnesses said a mterrorist an shot Khampong Ngok-ngam, 45, twice in the head at a local market.

At about the same time, terrorists assailants set fire to 29 closed-circuit television cameras. Pattani provincial police chief Pichet said footage from surveillance cameras showed the terrorists assailants belonged to the same group as those who recently set fire to security cameras in Nong Chik district.

Meanwhile, a security source said Yase Pateh, a suspected key member of the Pattani United Liberation Organisation (PULO), is expected to surrender to authorities. Yase has arrived in the South from exile overseas. His whereabouts are unknown, but sources say that he is likely to bring 20 to 30 terrorists separatists with him when he turns himself in. The other terrorists separatist members in exile in Europe will arrive in Thailand later.

A source says the expected return of PULO members followed secret talks early this year between Phanu Uthairat, secretary-general of the Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre, and Yase. He said Sapae-ing Basor, believed to be the leader of the Barisan Resolusi Nasional Coordinate, and Masae Useng, another suspected key member of the group, would also surrender.
This article starring:
Masae Useng
Sapae-ing Basor
Yase Pateh
Posted by: ryuge || 09/29/2011 06:14 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
US ambassador Robert Ford pelted with tomatoes by Syrian brownshirts
[BBC] Supporters of 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...
have thrown tomatoes and eggs at US ambassador Robert Ford as he met an opposition figure in 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...

Veteran politician Hassan Abdul Azim said about 100 protesters tried to get into his office as Mr Ford arrived and then surrounded it.

Mr Ford, who has been accused of inciting protests, was trapped inside the building for at least two hours.

Meanwhile,
...back at the pie fight, Bella opened her mouth at precisely the wrong moment...
Syria has accused the US of inciting violence against its military.

"Recent statements from American administration officials... clearly indicate that the United States is involved in encouraging gangs to practice violence against the Syrian Arab Army," a foreign ministry statement said.

It is thought the statement was referring to comments made by US state department front man Mark Toner, who said on Tuesday that it was "not surprising" that the opposition were using violence against the military.

Mr Ford has angered Damascus in the past, notably by visiting the central city of Hama with his French counterpart in July.

It led to both the French and US embassies coming under attack from supporters of the Assad regime.
Posted by: Fred || 09/29/2011 10:13 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  What, the guy who shot Jesse James?
Posted by: mojo || 09/29/2011 12:01 Comments || Top||

#2  Explain to me why, exactly, we still have an ambassador in Syria?

(Other than the ineptitude of our feckless "leaders.")
Posted by: Barbara || 09/29/2011 14:07 Comments || Top||

#3  Funny how he isn't touring Bahrain?

I guess its a tad embarrassing that our "friends" are currently issuing long sentences to medics who treated democracy protesters who'd had their heads caved in by the Bahraini and Saudi stormtroopers.

So much better to talk about freedom in Syria, than to celebrate the crushing of it by our pals in Bahrain.
Posted by: Slolutch White2622 || 09/29/2011 14:20 Comments || Top||

#4  Goes back to the Iranian Protesters with this administration. I found it suprising there was even the consideration of a sternly worded letter, with the victory laps of Libya and all.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 09/29/2011 15:19 Comments || Top||


Syria:14 Dead, Nuclear Scientist Assassinated
[An Nahar] Syrian forces killed fourteen civilians and unidentified attackers assassinated the nuclear engineer Aws Abdel Karim Khalil in the Syrian city of Homs, 160 kilometers north 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...
on Wednesday.

The "2011 Syrian Revolution against Bashir al-Assad" Facebook page disclosed 12 of the civilians' names. The names are: Al-Mounjid Bachir Mansour, a person from Al Rozz, Lieutenant Ahmad Khalaf, the recruit Mohammad Hasyan, Abdul Menhem Bahbuh, Moussa al-Zuluk, Zuheir Traboulsi, Jamal Sifo, Mahmud Hilal, Moussa Abdul Hadi al-Danaf, Sharif Moussa, and Fayez Salam.

Earlier Wednesday, unidentified attackers killed a nuclear engineer in the Syrian city of Homs, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

"Nuclear engineer Aws Abdel Karim Khalil was killed this morning by unknown attackers," the Britannia-based rights group said in a statement.

On Tuesday in the same city, unidentified attackers killed Mohamed Ali Aqil, deputy rector the architecture faculty at al-Baath University, and Nael Dakhil, director of the military petrochemical school.

Rights activists in the city accuse Syrian authorities of carrying out the killings.

Rights activists, who set up an alliance under the name al-Ghad on September 18, accuse the authorities of having "killed scientific personalities in Homs, trying to repeat the scenario of liquidations" perpetrated in Syria in the 1980s.

Syria for some six months has been in the throes of a peoples' uprising in which the U.N. says some 2,700 people have been killed by an army crackdown. The authorities in Damascus accuse the West and "armed gangs" of trying to sow chaos in the country.

On Monday, security forces killed nine civilians during a sweep against gun-hung tough guys in the northwest, south and center of the country, activists said.

Posted by: Fred || 09/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  Syrian forces killed fourteen civilians and unidentified attackers assassinated the nuclear engineer Aws Abdel Karim Khalil

Every cloud has a silver lining.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/29/2011 1:35 Comments || Top||

#2  Maybe Syrian authorities are right about 'armed gangs.' Current unrest is a great opportunity for foreigners to sneak in & rub out key past, present & future mischief makers, with enhanced deniability.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 09/29/2011 11:45 Comments || Top||

#3  Another dead nuke boy. Not a promising career for a young Middle Eastern lad.
Posted by: SteveS || 09/29/2011 18:32 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
47[untagged]
10Govt of Pakistan
4Govt of Syria
1al-Qaeda in Pakistan
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1Hezbollah
1HUJI
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1Lashkar e-Taiba
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1Taliban
1TTP
1al-Qaeda in Arabia
1al-Qaeda in North Africa

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Two weeks of WOT
Thu 2011-09-29
  US ambassador Robert Ford pelted with tomatoes by Syrian brownshirts
Wed 2011-09-28
  NTC Fighters Capture Sirte's Port
Tue 2011-09-27
  1 injured, 2 missing as Egypt pumps sewage into Gaza tunnel
Mon 2011-09-26
  Missile targets Afghan president palace
Sun 2011-09-25
  French Envoy Targeted with Eggs, Stones in Damascus
Sat 2011-09-24
  Paleostinians ask UN for statehood
Fri 2011-09-23
  President of Yemen returns home
Thu 2011-09-22
  Series of bombs kills 1, injures at least 60 in Dagestan
Wed 2011-09-21
  Lashkar-e-Jhangvi gunmen kill 29 Shia pilgrims in Pakistan
Tue 2011-09-20
  Murder most foul: Barhanuddin Rabanni assassinated
Mon 2011-09-19
  Fighting erupts in Bani Walid
Sun 2011-09-18
  "Norwegian" held over Danish cartoonist plot
Sat 2011-09-17
  Syrian Forces Kill 46
Fri 2011-09-16
  NTC Fighters Enter Gadhafi Hometown Sirte
Thu 2011-09-15
  US Drone Attack Kills Two Militants in Pakistan

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