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At Least 26 Dead as Tens of Thousands Rally in Syria
Today's Headlines
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Africa Horn
Former Somali president Dies in Dubai hospital
[Shabelle] Former Somali president Abdullah Yusuf Ahmed has died this morning at a hospital in Dubai after he has been complaining about illness for several years, officials and colleagues said on Friday.

Relatives confirmed to the death of Mr.Yusuf who has been sick and taken to Dubai for health reasons and he lately died in the hospital on Friday night. Abdullah Yusuf Ahmed was elected as Somali president in 2005 and stepped down in 2009.

Mr. Yusuf has been in exile in Yemen and moved to the United Arab Emirates for health care after he left from office and he was suffering liver illness for long-time.
Posted by: Fred || 03/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "...I TOLD you I was sick!"

-Abdullah Yusuf Ahmed



Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 03/24/2012 7:20 Comments || Top||


Africa North
AU suspends Mali until constitutional order returns
Every African Union nation has a constitution, you know...
ADDIS ABABA — The African Union on Friday suspended Mali following a military coup and said it would send a joint team with the West African bloc ECOWAS to urge a return to constitutional order.

The AU Peace and Security Council “decided that Mali should be suspended... until effective restoration of constitutional order is achieved without delay,” Paul Zolo, Nigeria’s envoy to Ethiopia and the AU, told reporters.

AU Commission chief Jean Ping said the pan-African bloc and ECOWAS will send a joint team to Mali after mutinous troops ousted President Amadou Toumani Toure on Thursday.Ping said sanctions such as travel bans and asset freezes would follow if the coup is not reversed.

Rebel soldiers calling themselves the National Committee for the Establishment of Democracy seized control of the capital Thursday, accusing the government of failing to tackle terrorism and put down a Tuareg-led insurrection in the north.

The coup has sparked widespread condemnation from all quarters including the AU, individual African countries, the European Union and the United States.

The Economic Community of West African States, which met in Nigeria, condemned the action by the renegade soldiers who claimed they had seized power from an “incompetent” regime. ECOWAS president Kadre Desire Ouedraogo was headed Friday to the Malian capital to meet the junta leaders.

“It will be an initial contact which we will have in Bamako,” Ouedraogo told reporters in Burkina Faso. He said that ECOWAS “deems it necessary to be on the ground to evaluate the situation and to hold talks with the authorities to ensure that the guiding principles of democracy and good governance are respected.”

What began as a mutiny over the government’s response to the rekindled Tuareg insurrection in the north on Wednesday turned into a full-blown coup as soldiers seized control of the presidential palace and the government broadcaster.

President Toure was forced to flee and his whereabouts remain unclear. France said its efforts to reach him were unsuccessful and urged coup leaders not to harm him.

Coup leader Captain Amadou Sanogo told journalists in an interview that Toure was “doing very well”, and members of the government arrested by soldiers were safe.

On Thursday, the coup leaders ordered all borders closed. The Kenyan government said it was in contact with Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula and other government officials stranded in Mali.

“We have been told that additional participants may be there so we have asked the embassies (in Ethiopia) to give us information and to tell us if they want us to intervene in any way or another to evacuate them,” Ping added
Posted by: Steve White || 03/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Clinton Opens Way to Resume Aid to Egypt
[An Nahar] U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
... sometimes described as For a good time at 3 a.m. call Hillary and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another John Foster Dulles ...
gave the green light Friday to resume $1.3 billion in annual military aid to Egypt despite fears it is slipping in its avowed transition to democracy.
They didn't actually have to do anything, just wait for us start doing what we were doing before. Short Attention Span Syndrome strikes again.
The move marked the denouement of a crisis in the 30-year-old U.S.-Egyptian alliance that erupted over a crackdown in December on pro-democracy groups by Egypt's interim military rulers.

"Today, Secretary Clinton has certified to Congress that Egypt is meeting its obligations under its peace treaty with Israel," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a statement.

The move clears the way for $250 million in economic aid this year, which had not been in serious question.

"The secretary has also waived legislative conditions related to Egypt's democratic transition, on the basis of America's national security interests, allowing for the continued flow of foreign military financing to Egypt," Nuland said.

The move frees up $1.3 billion in U.S. military aid this year.

"These decisions reflect America's over-arching goal: to maintain our strategic partnership with an Egypt made stronger and more stable by a successful transition to democracy," Nuland said.

Clinton began reviewing aid to Egypt after it raided the U.S.-funded International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute and Freedom House as well as Egyptian and other foreign pro-democracy groups.

Even though a court case continues against U.S. and other members of such non-government organizations, U.S. officials say Egypt is making progress toward democracy and Washington sees cooperation with Cairo in its national interest.

And Nuland suggested the United States was keeping an eye on the case.

"We remain deeply concerned regarding the trials of civil society activists -- non-Egyptians and Egyptians alike -- and have raised these concerns at the highest levels, urging an end to harassment," Nuland said.

But the secretary's waiver is "designed to demonstrate our strong support for Egypt's enduring role as a security partner and leader in promoting regional stability and peace," Nuland said.
Posted by: Fred || 03/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  But the secretary's waiver is "designed to demonstrate our strong support for Egypt's enduring role as a security partner and leader in promoting regional stability and peace," Nuland said.

Translation:

But the secretary's waiver is in keeping with the deal made regarding the recent detainment and subsequent release of NGO's by Egypt.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/24/2012 1:32 Comments || Top||

#2  Yup, I think that's it.

Of course, our NGOs are out of Egypt now...
Posted by: Steve White || 03/24/2012 11:31 Comments || Top||

#3  Cash for Bunkers.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 03/24/2012 12:21 Comments || Top||

#4  Any guesses on how long it'll be until a Muslim Brotherhood-dominated coalition government is empowered, followed by Israeli allegations of Egyptian military and intelligence funneling of weapons to Hamas in Gaza?
Posted by: Kentucky Beef || 03/24/2012 15:19 Comments || Top||

#5  Makes me want to throw-up. Give the $ to the fleeing Coptics for resettlement purposes.
Posted by: borgboy || 03/24/2012 15:36 Comments || Top||

#6  Wow, I wasn't even aware that we had ever cut off the $$$ delivery system. I guess I should be thankful it was stopped for just -- what? 3 weeks or so? Sheesh!
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 03/24/2012 17:29 Comments || Top||


Returning Tuareg fighters from Libya fuelled Mali coup, says UN
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Last year's 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...
-assisted overthrow of the Libyan regime is a factor in this week's military takeover in Mali, the United Nations
...where theory meets practice and practice loses...
' chief political officer said on Thursday.

"Well, of course, there is a relationship," UN Under-Secretary General for Political Affairs B Lynn Pascoe said following a Security Council meeting on the coup in Mali.

Mr Pascoe explained that "much more firepower and drive" were added to a simmering rebellion in northern Mali by up to 2,000 Tuareg fighters who had been employed in Libya until the ouster of Muammar Qadaffy
...The late megalomaniac dictator of Libya, admired everywhere for his garish costumes, funny hats, harem of cutie bodyguards, and incoherent ravings. As far as is known, he is the only person who's ever declared jihad on Switzerland...
in October.

The Tuaregs, some of whom held high ranks in the Libyan army, then returned to Mali with their weapons, Mr Pascoe said.

Malian military officers who overthrew President Amadou Toumani Toure cited as a key grievance the government's inadequate support for army operations against the strengthened Tuareg orcs.

The coup in Mali can thus be seen as an example of "blowback" -- an unintended and negative consequence of the overthrow of Libya's dictatorship. (READ: Mali soldiers say they have seized power)

NATO's intervention against the Qadaffy regime, a decisive factor in its overthrow, had been opposed by the African Union
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
Posted by: Fred || 03/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Arabia
FM: Marines protect US embassy in Sana'a
[Yemen Post] Yemen's Foreign Minister Abu Bakar Al-Qirbi has revealed about the existence of US marine forces in Sana'a that are tasked with protecting the US Embassy from any Al-Qaeda's risks.
Isn't that what Marines have been doing at American embassies for quite a while now?
Only for two hundred and some years...
Media sources said that the Sheraton Hotel has been completely allocated for the US forces since last June, pointing out that these forces are replaced regularly.

In an interview with the weekly Al-Wasat newspaper, Al-Qirbi affirmed that there are forces inside the Sheraton Hotel that overlooks the embassy.

He pointed out that Yemen turned to a field of regional and international interventions.

This revelation came following the killing of an American national in Taiz and threats released by Al-Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula(AQAP) in which it said it would target foreign embassies in Yemen.

The US embassy was subjected to the most violent attacks of the terrorist organization on September 17, 2008, when a number of the embassy workers and Yemeni soldiers were killed and maimed.

Yemeni news sources had stated early of March that the US sent a marine unit to protect Hadi.

However,
there is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened...
sources of the Yemeni President Abdu-Rabo Mansour Hadi denied the news about the marine forces, stressing that Yemen has forces that could absolutely carry out their duties, asking media outlets to be accurate and credible.

Meanwhile,
...back at the Hubba Hubba Club, Nunzio had his hands full of angry bleached blonde...
In remarks to the London-based Arabic-speaking newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, Al-Qirbi cautioned against the Iranian interventions in Yemen, stressing that the Iranian interventions became known for every one.

He further called the super powers to prevent Iran from interfere in Yemen's affairs, emphasizing that such interventions could affect on Yemen's security and stability.
Posted by: Fred || 03/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  Are these accusations of Iranian intervention related to the arming of a Yemeni religious sect? I can't remember the name, but there's a significant religious minority in, I believe the North Central part of Yemen, that is essentially Shiite. They're called Ismaeli's or something like that. They're considered apostates by the Sunnis. Is this who Iran is accused of arming? Anybody have more insight on this Iran connection?
Posted by: Kentucky Beef || 03/24/2012 15:24 Comments || Top||

#2  Wikipedia has an article on the Ismailis, Kentucky Beef -- are they who you thought they might be? I can't speak to your other questions, sorry, but they are good ones. :-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/24/2012 16:34 Comments || Top||


Mid-East Democracy Deficit due to Arab Conquest
I examine the determinants of the Arab world's democratic deficit in 2010. I Önd that the percent of a country's landmass that was conquered by Arab armies following the death of the prophet Muhammad statistically accounts for this deficit. Using history as a guide, I hypothesize that this pattern reflects the long-run influence of control structures developed under Islamic empires in the pre-modern era and Önd that the available evidence is consistent with this interpretation.

Once one accounts for the 28 countries conquered by Arab armies, the evolution of democracy in the remaining 15 Muslim-majority countries since 1960 largely mirrors that of the rest of the developing world.

If the Arab League's democratic deficit today can be traced to the long-term effects of the region's institutions, what institutional developments following the Arab conquests had such enduring an enduring impact? I use history and recent scholarship as a guide to suggest that this pattern reflects the long-run ináuence of control structures developed under Islamic empires in the pre-modern era. This literature suggests that these historic control structures have left a legacy of weak civil societies where political power is concentrated today in the hands of military and religious leaders that work to perpetuate the status quo.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 03/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


China-Japan-Koreas
KCNA succeeds where the AP failed
Josh Stanton at One Free Korea thanks the KCNA for demonstrating the close links between it and the new Associated Press outlet in Pyongyang. It's even worse than when CNN made a deal with Saddam to stay in Baghdad for the Gulf War. A big hat tip to Josh for running this story down.

Now, let's get back to advocacy of the violent overthrow of the North Korean government.
Posted by: Steve White || 03/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Picture of N.Korea's Rocket Launch Pad Released
Radio Free Asia on Thursday unveiled a satellite picture of North Korea's missile launch pad in Tongchang-ri, North Pyongan Province.

The radio station and website got the picture from commercial satellite imagery company GeoEye. It was taken on Tuesday, four days after North Korea announced its plan to launch what it says is a satellite-bearing rocket. Construction work was already going on in the area in 2009, but there seems to be no construction going on now.

The launch pad appears to be fully paved. The rocket cannot be seen, but the launch pad looks ready for use any time.
Posted by: Steve White || 03/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Down Under
North Korean missiles aimed at Australia
A senior US official says a long-range missile which North Korea plans to test next month will for the first time be aimed towards South-East Asia and Australia.

The assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific, Kurt Campbell, says the US believes the North Korean missile will land in an area between Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Previous North Korean rockets have been launched over Japan.

Fairfax reported on Saturday that Mr Campbell delivered the message in person to Foreign Minister Bob Carr.

"If the missile test proceeds as North Korea has indicated, our judgment is that it will impact in an area roughly between Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines," Mr Campbell was quoted as saying.

"We have weighed into each of these countries and asked them to make clear that such a test is provocative and this plan should be discontinued."

Nuclear-armed North Korea plans to launch the rocket in April to put a satellite into orbit, a move the US, Australia and other nations see as a pretext for a long-range missile test banned by the United Nations.
Posted by: tipper || 03/24/2012 02:34 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Some years back my daughter's elementary school class launched rockets in their schoolyard; some of them must have been aimed at North Korea. I figure they had as much chance of hitting it as the NorKs do of hitting Australia.
Posted by: Glenmore || 03/24/2012 9:33 Comments || Top||

#2  Strongly worded memo in 3..2..1..
Posted by: Ackoopmed || 03/24/2012 13:33 Comments || Top||

#3  Aiming a missile at Australia, huh?

A. The NorKs don't have a missile that will get that far.

B. With any luck, it will drift off course and land in China. Hilarity would ensue.
Posted by: Barbara || 03/24/2012 14:26 Comments || Top||

#4  They aimed a freighter- the Pong Su- full of heroin at us a while back, so this is progress, I suppose.
Posted by: Grunter || 03/24/2012 17:52 Comments || Top||

#5  "Shoot straight you BASTARDS!"
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/24/2012 19:29 Comments || Top||


Europe
French intelligence under fire over Merah
Pretty good intel brief on what was known about Merah. It's even more frustrating in retrospect of course, but it does seem that Merah was a well known bad boy who should have been allowed to finish his journey to Afghanistan -- and then be drone-zapped.
PARIS: France’s prime minister rejected accusations on Friday that intelligence lapses allowed a young Muslim with a violent criminal record, spotted twice in Afghanistan, to become the first Al-Qaeda-inspired killer to strike on its soil.

Hardened by battling Islamic militants from its former North African colony of Algeria, the French security services have long been regarded as among the most effective in Europe, having prevented militant attacks on French soil for the last 15 years.

Opposition politicians, including far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, suggested that negligence or errors had permitted Mohamed Merah, 23, to carry out three deadly shootings within 10 days before he was identified, located and killed.

But Prime Minister Francois Fillon said the police and intelligence agencies had done an exemplary job. “Resolving a criminal case of this importance in 10 days, I believe that’s practically unprecedented in the history of our country,” Fillon told RTL radio.

Foreign Minister Alain Juppe had appeared to acknowledged on Thursday that there were grounds to question possible security flaws, saying: “We need to bring some clarity to this.”

Merah shot dead three Jewish children and four adults in three separate attacks despite having been under surveillance by the DCRI domestic intelligence agency, which questioned him as recently as November.

“Since the DCRI was following Mohamed Merah for a year, how come they took so long to locate him?” Socialist party security spokesman Francois Rebsamen asked on the JDD.fr website.

Merah’s elder brother Abdelkader, 29, who is now under police questioning, was also on a security watch list after being linked with the smuggling of Jihadist militants into Iraq in 2007, government officials said.

The left-leaning daily Liberation asked in an editorial whether the intelligence services had not “failed miserably.”

“How could they have so underestimated the potential danger of an individual they already knew?“

Merah, a French citizen of Algerian extraction, amassed a cache of at least eight guns under the noses of French intelligence, including several Colt .45 pistols of the kind he used in the shootings, but also at least one Uzi submachine gun, a Sten gun and a pump action shotgun.

In Washington, two US officials said Merah was on a US government “no fly” list, barring him from boarding any US-bound aircraft. The officials said that his name had been on the list for some time.

The officials said the entry included sufficient biometric detail to make clear the man on the blacklist was the same person involved in the Toulouse shootings. He was put on the list because US officials deemed him a potential threat to aviation, one of the officials said.

Rebsamen said that after the shooting of two paratroopers in Montauban, near Toulouse, on March 15, Merah’s name was on top of a DCRI list of 20 people to be particularly closely watched in the southwestern Midi-Pyrenees region. Yet the agency appeared to have lost his trace.

Investigators only tracked down Merah on Tuesday, a day after he had shot dead three children and a rabbi at a Jewish school in Toulouse. Interior Minister Claude Gueant said Merah was identified with certainty when a police helicopter overflew his home and he came to the window.

Police came up with his name when a list of 576 people who viewed an Internet advertisement placed by the shooter’s first victim was compared with the DCRI’s watchlist on Monday and led them to the IP address of Merah’s mother.

He had, however, been known to the Central Directorate of Interior Intelligence (DCRI) - the powerful super agency created by President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2008 - since 2010. Merah first visited Afghanistan that year, was stopped at a road checkpoint by Afghan police in Kandahar province and sent back to France by American forces.

His second visit ended after three months last October when he contracted hepatitis and returned home, according to the public prosecutor in charge of the case.

He was interviewed by DCRI agents in Toulouse in November but told them he had been on holiday - and even showed them photographs, prosecutor Francois Molins said.

Merah told police negotiators at his besieged home on Wednesday that he trained at an Al-Qaeda camp in the lawless Pakistani border region of Waziristan during the same trip.

Interior Minister Claude Gueant said there had been no grounds to arrest Merah prior to the attacks.

“The DCRI follows lots of people involved in radical Islam. Expressing ideas, espousing Salafist beliefs, is not a sufficient reason to arrest someone,” he said.

Although Merah could not have been arrested without proof of criminal intent, critics say authorities could have taken intermediate steps. French anti-terrorist law allows for the telephones of suspects to be tapped without judicial approval on the authority of the prime minister and an advisory panel.

Le Pen suggested the DCRI may have missed the gunman partly because it had been diverted by Sarkozy’s government to snoop on journalists and political opponents.

The agency’s head, Bernard Squarcini, is under investigation himself for ordering the illegal surveillance of Le Monde reporters’ telephones.

Squarcini said in an interview with Le Monde that security officials had naturally asked themselves whether they had missed clues or could have acted differently or faster. “But it was impossible to say on Sunday evening (after the first shooting on March 11) ‘It’s Merah, let’s get him’.”

He also said Merah’s attack on the Jewish school had been a spur-of-the-moment decision after the gunman failed to find a soldier he planned to kill, according to his conversation with police negotiators during the siege of his home.

While allies Britain and Spain have suffered major militant attacks in the last decade, following the US-led NATO invasion of Afghanistan to topple the Taleban, France had not seen a major attack on its soil since the mid-1990s. The Algerian Armed Islamic Group (GIA) carried out a wave of attacks, including the bombing of a crowded commuter train in July 1995 which killed eight and injured 150 people.

The rise of Al-Qaeda, based in Afghanistan, posed a new challenge to French security services more used to watching Algerian-related militants, often with connections in what some French officials called “Londonistan.”

French-born Zacarias Moussaoui was sentenced to life imprisonment in the United States as one of the conspirators in the Sept. 11, 2001 Al-Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington and French-born Muslims were also active among Jihadi militants in Iraq.

The terror alert in France was raised after Al-Qaeda founder Osama Bin Laden singled it out as one of the worst offenders against Islam in October 2010.

But despite a spate of kidnappings of French citizens abroad, there were no attacks in mainland France. Officials say the intelligence services foiled several plots.

“In the last six years, at least eight attacks of the same type as the one that was perpetrated (by Merah) were broken up by the police without any publicity,” said Roland Jacquard, head of the International Terrorism Observatory.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White || 03/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The good news is that he [Merah] will kill no more and French intelligence has learned a great deal about our common enemy. Le Pen should set politics aside and shut her yap!
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/24/2012 1:26 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Gilani to remain in office even if convicted: Khosa
[Dawn] Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani
... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ...
will continue to hold his office even if convicted in the contempt of court case, declares Governor Sardar Latif Khosa.

"There has been a consensus in the Pakistain People's Party that there will be no replacement of Gilani (if he is convicted). In case of conviction, Gilani will not be disqualified from holding the office," the governor, who is also a lawyer by profession, said in a talk with Dawn on Thursday.

Khosa was however quick to predict that Gilani would escape punishment in the case. "The prime minister cannot be convicted under the Constitution, and I hope the apex court decision will be in accordance with it (constitution)."
Posted by: Fred || 03/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Imran bashes Zardari, Sharif over family politics
[Dawn] Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf
...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations....
(PTI) chief Imran Khan
... aka Taliban Khan, who isn't your heaviest-duty thinker, maybe not even among the top five...
on Friday severally criticised the top two political parties, PPP and PML-N, of the country over hereditary politics, DawnNews reported.

Speaking to a large public gathering in Sialkot, he said the 'Tsunami' has reached Sialkot and "it will march towards Islamabad now."

The PTI chief said that both President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari
... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ...
and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif
... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf...
are the passengers of "Samjhota Express" of corruption and personal gains and they are running this train of their political gains successfully to protect each other.

"I competed against players all my life.....but now the opponents are 'political alligators'," he added.

Khan said the PTI will be a party where anyone can become the leader. The PTI chief further criticised Sharifs, saying the Raiwand natives could not "buy youth by giving away free laptops to them."

Khan expressed grave concern over the worst law and order, rampant corruption and sky rocketing price hike, urging the rulers to stop deceiving the masses by making tall claims and false slogans.

The former Cricket legend emphasised that he knows the art of competing against all type of oppositions and vowed to take all wickets on one ball.

Party president Javed Hashmi, vice president Shah Mehmood Wormtongue Qureshi and local leaders were also present on the occasion.
Posted by: Fred || 03/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
'Israel warned neighbors: Don't march to Jerusalem'
Invading armies didn't work, intifadas didn't work, rains of missiles from Hizb'allah and Hamas didn't work, so now they're trying a civilian march.
According to Al-Sharq al-Awsat, Arab countries, Paleostinians warned not to approach Israeli borders during 'Universal Jerusalem march' next Friday

Following the deadly festivities last year during the Naksa and Nakba marches to its northern border, Israel issued a stern warning to Arab countries and Paleostinians to refrain from approaching the border.
 
London based newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat reported Friday that the warning was issued in reference to the "Universal Jerusalem March" planned for next Friday to commemorate "Land Day."
 
According to sources, Israel reiterated it would treat anyone who approaches the border as an infiltrator, and will act against them decisively. The report said Israel claims the march is organized by hostile elements. In a message to Syria, Leb, Jordan, the Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, government in Gazoo and the Paleostinian Authority, Israel called on Arabs not to allow escalation in the area by allowing marches to the borders.
 
Security sources confirmed such a message was delivered to the Paleostinian Authority. According to them, coordination talks were held with Paleostinian security services, with the purpose of avoiding violent riots. Similar talks were also conducted last year before the Nakba day events. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs refused to comment.

The organizers plan to send convoys of vehicles to approach Israel's borders simultaneously from Arab countries and from PA-controlled territories. More than 700 institutions from 64 states are involved directly or indirectly in planning the rally, said the organizers. At the same time of the march, protests are planned outside Israeli embassies in Europe and Arab countries.
 
It is estimated that due to the fragile political situation in Egypt and Syria, these countries will not authorize marches to the border, but preparations in other countries are underway. In recent days the organizers are using social networks to recruit more protesters to the march.
 
One of the Facebook pages promoting the event claimed that the purpose of the march is to reach Jerusalem and al-Aqsa mosque. Later it was amended to Jerusalem or "any point closest to it".
 
One of the event organizers, Paleostinian Said Yakin, said the event is meant to be a non-violent protest that will include parliament members, citizens and religious figures from all over the world -- including Jews.
 
"We will not protest violently" Yakin told Ynet earlier this week. "We don't expect the IDF to shoot at protesters, just as it didn't open fire at a million Israeli protesters during this summer's social protest."
Posted by: || 03/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Invading armies didn't work, intifadas didn't work, rains of missiles from Hizb'allah and Hamas didn't work, so now they're trying a civilian march.

In one of my nyms here (caint remember which), I wondered about this contingency. I hope Israel has a proper plan.
Posted by: Gabby Cussworth || 03/24/2012 20:01 Comments || Top||


Debka: Israel develops 500lb bunker buster upgrade kit for Mk82
Posted by: Water Modem || 03/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Southeast Asia
Christian pastors face death on Mindanao
Posted by: || 03/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
UNHCR Calls for Funds to Help Syrian Refugees
[An Nahar] The United Nations
...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society...
Friday launched an appeal for 84 million dollars (63 million euros) to help Syrian refugees who have decamped abroad because of the current fighting.
Can we just put up the entire amount up front? That way we won't have to keep shelling it out every year for the next 70 years.
Turkey has taken in some 17,000 refugees, Leb 16,000, Jordan about 8,500, with Iraq welcoming an unknown number, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement.

The UNHCR, along with other agencies, said it was already assisting some 110,000 people inside Syria.

But it expects the number of those fleeing abroad to increase and is making contingency plans for looking after 100,000 abroad.
Posted by: Fred || 03/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  Invoice the Russians!
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/24/2012 1:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Shift the funds from UNWRA.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/24/2012 11:47 Comments || Top||

#3  Shift the funds from the IPCC; Invoice the Iranians and the Saudis.
Posted by: AlanC || 03/24/2012 13:44 Comments || Top||

#4  "UNHCR Calls for Funds to Help Syrian Refugees"

Get it from their co-religionists the Saudis.
Posted by: Barbara || 03/24/2012 14:08 Comments || Top||


Hijab-Wearing Policewomen Cause Stir In Lebanon
Hizb'allah invading on a new front...
AFP - Lebanese authorities are weighing up what action to take after a group of newly recruited policewomen showed up for training wearing the hijab, a security official said on Friday.

The policewomen, numbering nearly 40 and all reportedly Shiite Mohammedans, were among hundreds who sat for an exam to join the Internal Security Forces earlier this year.

But when they turned up for their first training exercise this week, they wore the hijab, an Islamic headscarf, which goes against the military's code of conduct, the security official told AFP.

A government official said several of the policewomen had agreed to remove the garment, but about 20 refused and did not take part in the training session.

"According to the military code of conduct, whether it be for the police, army or general security, all religious symbols are not allowed," said the security official who requested anonymity.

"Any symbols linked to a community or religion are banned, whether it be a cross, a veil or any other symbol," he added. "We are simply applying the law."

The official said the matter would probably be resolved by cabinet ministers.

Leb, a multi-confessional country of four million, is considered among the most liberal in the Arab world.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Besides, it would be nice to know just WHO was raking the Police Test
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 03/24/2012 0:59 Comments || Top||

#2  Hey Sarge…should I tell Khadeeja and Fatima that’s not what we meant by under-cover.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 03/24/2012 9:55 Comments || Top||

#3  Thin end of the wedge. "Get ready here they come."
Posted by: AlanC || 03/24/2012 10:12 Comments || Top||

#4  The question isn't why is she wearing a hijab, but why is she out and about, unaccompanied by a male relative. Get in the kitchen and make us some falafel, woman!
Posted by: SteveS || 03/24/2012 16:18 Comments || Top||



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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
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Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2012-03-24
  At Least 26 Dead as Tens of Thousands Rally in Syria
Fri 2012-03-23
  German court gives online terror recruiter five year sentence
Thu 2012-03-22
  Gunman dead as French siege ends
Wed 2012-03-21
  French police in standoff with Jewish school killing suspect
Tue 2012-03-20
  Turkish Diplomat Says Two More Syrian Generals Defect
Mon 2012-03-19
  Heavy Shelling Kills 16 'Qaida' Fighters in Yemen
Sun 2012-03-18
  Five Killed In Bali Terror Raids
Sat 2012-03-17
  Qaeda suspects kidnap Swiss woman: Yemeni officials
Fri 2012-03-16
  Philly man arrested on charges of supporting Uzbeki terrorists
Thu 2012-03-15
   Karzai orders NATO out of all Afghan villages
Wed 2012-03-14
  Leon Panetta unhurt after suspected attack
Tue 2012-03-13
  U.S. Drone Attack In Pakistan Reportedly Kills 15 Suspected Militants
Mon 2012-03-12
  Army airstrikes kill 20 al-Qaeda militants in south Yemen
Sun 2012-03-11
  Syrian Ground Forces Storm Rebel Stronghold of Idlib, 62 Killed in Violence
Sat 2012-03-10
  Air strikes in Yemen kill suspected al Qaeda militants

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