The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) condemns the assault, torture, mistreatment and overnight detention of broadcast journalist Ali Ilyas Abdullahi by security forces in Baidoa, in southwest Somalia.
On Wednesday evening, 5 February 2014, security forces under the instructions of Baidoa district administration beat and detained Abdullahi, a journalist working for Radio Warsan and HornCable TV in Baidoa, after he was blamed of attending and covering a meeting taking placing at Bakin Hotel where elders and politicians want to form a Regional State in south-western region of Somalia, according Warsan Radio and local journalists. Baidoa administration is against the said meeting.
Ali Ilyas Abdullahi, who was picked up from Radio Warsan neighbourhood, was taken to central prison in Baidoa where he was subjected to severe beatings in the detention before he was released this morning. He was unable to go to work today due to beatings. The journalist experienced pains all over his body including his right eye.
But did he get the story?
"Baidoa authorities are employing violence, detention, and intimidation against journalists to hide events in Baidoa from their own people and the rest of the nation," said Omar Faruk Osman, NUSOJ Secretary General. "Journalists have a right and a duty to report on what is going on in Baidoa."
Provided they can stay alive...
At least 5 journalists told NUSOJ that they were intimidated by local security forces and senior officials of Baidoa administration who warned them not to cover the meeting taking place at Bakin Hotel. Two other journalists were briefly detained last month in Baidoa.
"Authorities should put a halt to their terrible practice of violent censorship," added Osman. "Both at regional and district levels, the local administration is responsible for ensuring that journalists can carry out their work without the threat of assault."
It is inefficient for the authorities to chase after you guys. Much better if you're like the NYT, WaPo, HuffPo and Journolist and just do the job yourselves...
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02/08/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Many a time during Intifada I, I dreamed of breaking every bone in some journalist's body.
Mogadishu -- Somali security forces have conducted massive security operation in villages of Mogadishus Wadajir district after gunmen shot and killed a local elder in Nasteexo neighborhood of Wadajir, officials said.
Speaking to Shabelle Media in Mogadishu, a deputy Commissioner in Wadajir for Somali Govt, Mohamud Saney Warsame said that Govt troops made door to door operation in the district, with security forces arrested dozens in connection with the killing of the elder.
Even though the gunmen disappeared "immediately" and no one knows their motives or identity...
We are classifying the arrested people at the police station in Wadajir district, if any one of the detainees was found guilty will be on the trail and others will be released soon said Mr Warsame.
Mr Mohamud Saney Warsame the deputy Commissioner in Wadajir for Somali Govt called for the local people to work with security forces in order to prevent insecurity acts.
This massive crackdown came after unknown assailants armed with pistols killed a well-known elder in Mogadishus Wadajir district.
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Mogadishu -- armed groups have gunned down two people on Mogadishus Wadajir and Hodan districts, the latest in series of killings on Soldiers and civilians in the capital, witnesses said.
Sheikh Abdihamiid, a well-known elder has been killed by gunmen armed with pistols in Nesteeho village of Wadajir district as the killers escaped from the crime scene uncaught. Mohamuud Araaye, a chief security forces in Wadajir told Shabelle Media that the Somali troops are investigation on the incident and comment it later.
Meanwhile, according to local residents, masked men armed with revolvers shot and killed a Somali Govt soldier at the back of Digfeer Hospital in Mogadishus Hodan district. The perpetrators have managed to escape immediately from the shooting spot.
Immediately. Both times. Amazing how that happens...
The motives of the murders are unclear, with no one claimed responsibility for them so far.
Maybe it was a Baptist revival...
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[Libya Herald] More than 80 gunnies attempted to storm Libya Al-Ahrar's office in Benghazi last night, setting fire to a car outside the building when they were unable to break in.
A security employee for Libya Al-Ahrar told the Libya Herald that he noticed unusual movements on surveillance cameras at around 10 pm, prompting him to close the building's iron shutters. Moments later the attack began when the assailants, some wearing masks, opened fire on the shutters.
They then tried to detonate a homemade-bomb in an attempt to break through the shutter but this failed to explode. The attackers eventually set fire to one of the channel's trucks parked outside the building and left, the security employee said.
Al-Asima TV has decided to withdraw its staff from Benghazi following threats of violence and the suspected kidnapping of its Benghazi office director, Mohammed Al-Sarayit, who has disappeared in mysterious circumstances. Sarayit's wife told Libyan news channels that when her husband failed to returned she tried to contact him numerous times but his phone was turned off.
She said she feared he may have been kidnapped.
Both Libya Al-Ahrar and Al-Asima TV have been critical of Ansar Al-Sharia and the Moslem Brüderbund.
There have also been unconfirmed reports of an attack on Libya Awilan channel workers in Benghazi.
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02/08/2014 00:00 ||
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[Libya Herald] The two Italian construction workers kidnapped three weeks ago near Derna have been released.
A source close to Derna Local Council confirmed to the Libya Herald that the two Italians, La Belle Francesco Scalise and Luciano Gallo, were returned to the authorities today although the circumstances of their release had not been disclosed. They were immediately flown to Rome on a chartered Falcon 900.
The two were kidnapped near the town of Matouba, 25 kilometres from Derna on 18 January. They had been working with a construction company, General World, for five months on a road building project.
"I wish to express my heartfelt gratitude to all the men and women of the Foreign Ministry and other institutions that have enabled it to reach a favorable outcome of the story in a difficult environment," said Italian Foreign Minister Emma Bonino on hearing the news.
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[Egypt Independent] A new group has grabbed credit for the bombing that targeted a police force above an overpass at Giza Square Friday morning.
"Walla" (set fire), as it calls itself, said it carried on the blast that left four coppers and two others maimed. It said on its facebook page that it had "begun its operations with the Giza bombing."
Officials reported two IEDs had went kaboom!, targeting a police force on its way to a checkpoint above the overpass. The group, however, denied using IEDs, claiming it only focuses on "Molotovs and other primitive devices such as sonic bombs, pellets and pyrosol."
Six were ijnured in an kaboom above an overpass at Giza Square early Friday, the Health Ministry said in a press statement.
The injured were taken to hospital and no deaths were caused by the blast, the statement said.
"The Friday attack is just the beginning. The coup will be combated and defeated with all possible means except for killing....The regime will fall and we will celebrate victory very soon, God willing."
Walla denied any links to the Moslem Brüderbund, saying such claims are "totally untrue."
The group, on its Facebook page, says it was established on 15 January, defining itself as "a group resisting the Interior Ministry" that relies on "setting fire to prisoner carriers, police vehicles and all tools of repression and murder." It says it does not instigate the murder of humans disregarding their political stances."
"Those terrorist operations will not discourage us from performing our duties," Giza security chief Kamal al-Daly told Al-Masry Al-Youm. "The IEDs were planted half an hour before the force arrived to the checkpoint."
Prime Minister Hazem al-Beblawy condemned the blast, stressing that terorrism will not stop Egyptians from resuming "their steady steps towards the future."
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#1
Disrupting traffic at an overpass... Was Governor Christie involved??
[Egypt Independent] Security forces clashed with supporters of deposed president Mohammed Morsy on Friday in Giza and Fayoum, leaving one protester dead, according to a statement by the Health Ministry.
The Ministry said Ahmed Khaled Abdallah, 40, died as medics at the province's public hospital tried to save him. Eight others were maimed in Cairo, Giza and Fayoum during Friday festivities between police and Brotherhood protesters.
Youssef Taha Gabra, 14, was also reported to have died as a result of festivities in Delga, Minya, south of Egypt. Medical and official sources said he died on his way to the hospital, though the Health Ministry has not yet confirmed his death.
Police had shot tear gas at the march in Minya after alleged assaults from protesters in an attempt to disperse march by Morsy supporters.
In Fayoum, security also tossed in the slammer Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! seven demonstrators, allegedly with Molotov cocktails in their possession.
The festivities flared following a march by Moslem Brüderbund loyalists that sat on from the Mohammedan Youth Mosque, and where protesters chanted anti-police and army slogans.
Police shot tear gas after protesters shot BB guns and pelted stones at the forces.
In Ain Shams, east of Cairo, a number of pro-Moslem Brüderbund protesters reportedly threw Molotov cocktails at the police deputies' institute as they marched from al-Naam Square to the area. Police responded with tear gas.
Forces controlled the fire that caught at the institute.
Meanwhile in Imbaba, Giza hundreds also blocked al-Sahel Bridge, shooting off fireworks and setting car tires on fire. Police mobilized forces to confront the protests but no casualties were reported.
In Faisal, Giza, supporters of General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi clashed with Brotherhood supporters who rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud against the army and police. The festivities left some protesters injured. Other demonstrators set on marches from al-Istiqama Mosque in Giza Square.
In Zeitoun, Cairo, police used tear gas to disperse a march by Morsy supporters.
State TV reported other less serious festivities in Nasr City and Alf Maskan in Cairo, as well as Mohandiseen in Giza.
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[An Nahar] Fresh festivities between Iranian catspaws and rustics backed by Sunni Islamists erupted near the Yemeni capital on Friday, the rebel Ansarullah group said, a day after a government mediator resigned.
The rebels have been advancing from their mountain stronghold in the far north to other Zaidi Shiite-majority areas nearer Sanaa in a bid to expand their hoped-for autonomous zone in a future Yemen.
But they have met resistance from tribes loyal to the huge Hashid confederation and their Sunni Islamist allies in the Islah party.
Intermittent festivities pitted "our supporters against hostile elements" north of Arhab, 35 kilometers (20 miles) from the capital and near its international airport, Ansarullah front man Mohammed Abdessalam said, without saying if there had been casualties.
A tribal source also said tensions were high in Arhab district, particularly as government mediator Abdulqader Hilal announced his resignation via Facebook on Thursday night.
Hilal, tasked by President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi with ending the fighting, has accused Ansarullah of failing to respect the terms of a truce agreed last weekend.
But Abdessalam rejected the charge, saying the mediator should resume his mission after talking to the rebels, who are also known as Huthis.
"Ansarullah is calling for guarantees of a simultaneous withdrawal of both sides from Arhab, the neutrality of the army and the opening of a road linking Omran and Sanaa via Arhab," he said.
Last week, the rebels seized areas in the northern province of Omran, leaving more than 150 people dead and overrunning the home base of the Al-Ahmar clan which heads the Hashid confederation.
Political sources have said the rivals had been seeking to win ground ahead of the demarcation of provinces for the creation of a federal Yemen, as agreed in a national dialogue which concluded in late January.
But the Ansarullah front man said his movement, which is based in Saada near the border with Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... , was not seeking to expand its influence.
"We do not intend to control Sanaa, where our supporters are already present," he said. But "if hostile forces do not stop their attacks on Arhab, we will expel all of them from the region".
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A total of 300 soldiers were deployed to southern Chihuahua to reinforce the Mexican 42nd Military Zone, according to Mexican news accounts.
A news report last week posted on the online edition of El Diario de Juarez news daily said that the unit, coming via road march from Cuernavaca in Morelos state, arrived Thursday in Hidaldo de Parral municipality. The unit is an element of the Mexican 9th Artillery Regiment.
The units is expected to reinforce road patrols throughout the region, a total of 41 municipalities covered by the 42nd Military Zone. A week ago an additional 100 soldiers were moved to southern Chihuahua.
Southern Chihuahua has experienced a severe increase in drug related violence in the last three weeks. More recently, at least four individuals have been killed in drug related violence.
The owner of a seafood kiosk in Parral was shot to death Thursday, according to a separate news report in El Diario de Juarez. Alfredo Valenzuela, 33, was shot near Avenida Independencia when an unidentified armed suspect shot him three times. The shooting took place near a location where a seller of sushi was killed a few days before.
An undisclosed number of armed suspects were killed in an apparent intergang firefight near the village of Villa Matamoros in Guadalupe y Calvo municipality Wednesday afternoon. The shooting started as part of a kidnapping at around 1400 hrs. Police arrived to find a Chevrolet Suburban SUV afire from rifle fire. Dead were reported at the scene, but the death toll was not disclosed by police.
An unidentified man was found dead Monday near the road connecting Parral and Jimenez municipalities. The victim had been tortured and was found with his hear wrapped in tape. The news account failed to indicate how the victim was killed.
An unidentified cattleman was shot and wounded in Guadalupe y Calvo municipality Sunday. It is unclear why the 43 year old victim was shot, but it is apparent he is expected to survive his wounds.
A traffic police officer was shot to death in Jimenez municipality Sunday. Victor Manuel Ramirez Salas 34 was shot by armed suspects as he was driving his personal vehicle on Calle 9th. He is the second transit police officer killed in Jimenez in January.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com and BorderlandBeat.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com.
Mexican authorities say four human heads have been found in a town in Michoacan, a western state where rural vigilantes sprang up a year ago to try to drive out a cult-like drug cartel.
A federal official says police investigators also found a threatening note along with the human remains in Zacan but wouldn't reveal its content. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not allowed to talk to the press.
He said the remains found Thursday belong to four men between 22 and 55 years of age.
[USATODAY] Turkish security officers on Friday subdued an airline passenger who threatened to hijack an airliner to Sochi, Russia, where the Winter Olympics are starting, Turkish officials said.
Pegasus Airlines said that a flight that left Kharkiv, Ukraine, with 110 people aboard landed in Istanbul after a man on the plane claimed to have a bomb.
The plane landed with an F-16 military jet alongside at Istanbul's Sabiha Gokcen airport and was surrounded by security officers, Turkish news channels broadcast. The officers entered the plane and apprehended the man, a Ukrainian national, Turkish Samanyolu Haber news channel reported.
The other 109 passengers were evacuated, the channel said.
Huseyin Avni Mutlu, the Istanbul governor, said on Twitter that the man was slightly injured and did not have a bomb on him. The man's motive was unclear, but Mutlu said he had "requests concerning his own country" and wanted to relay a "message concerning sporting activities in Sochi."
"We were receiving through various channels information that there could be initiatives to sabotage the spirit of peace arising in Sochi, but we are saddened that such an event took place in our city," Mutlu said.
The passenger was in seat 2F and was tricked into thinking the plane had landed in Sochi, Samanyolu Haber reported. Russia's Interfax news agency reported that the Ukrainian Security Service said the man was drunk.
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[DAWN] A suspected terrorist was killed while another outlaw and two personnel of law enforcement agencies sustained injuries in a cross firing incident in Mianchannu, some 35 kilometres away from Khanewal in Punjab on Friday.
According to RPO office sources, police along with law enforcement agencies on a tip-off established a picket at bridge 84/15L near a sugar mill in the limits of Chubb chowky cop shoppe.
They signalled a vehicle to stop but the driver sped-up and opened fire on police which was retaliated by the law enforcement agencies.
The paramilitary force chased the criminals when they tried to escape the site and in the shoot-out, an alleged terrorist was rubbed out and another sustained bullet injuries.
Two officials of the agencies including Danish and Rashid also sustained injuries and were rushed to a local hospital.
Police and security agencies cordoned off the area and launched an initial investigation into the incident.
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[DAWN] The United States on Thursday designated Malik Ishaq, the chief of proscribed Lashkar-e-Jhangvi ... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ... (LJ) bully boy group of Pakistain, in its list of most wanted international terrorists.
"The Department of State has designated Malik Ishaq as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under Executive Order (E.O.) 13224," said a statement issued by the US State Department.
The US government also decided to keep his outfit on the international terrorist organization list.
"In addition to Ishaq's designation, the Department of State has also reviewed and maintained the Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) designation of LJ in accordance with Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended," said the statement.
The statement said that Ishaq has grabbed credit of his role in various terrorist activities that killed more than 100 Pak civilians mainly Shia Moslems.
"More recently, in February 2013, Pak police enjugged Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! Ishaq in connection with attacks on January 10 and February 16, 2013 in the northwestern city of Quetta that killed nearly 200 Pak civilians. LJ grabbed credit for the Quetta bombings."
American citizens and companies are now prohibited for engaging in transactions with the LJ chief after Thursday's announcement. The US authorities can now act in freezing all his financial assets and properties in the United States as well, said the statement.
"The Department took these actions in consultation with the Departments of Justice and Treasury," the blurb added.
Malik Ishaq is facing charges relating to killing of more than 100 people belonging to the minority sect and the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in March 2009 and has spent around 15 years in Pak jails.
He was initially a member of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain ...a Sunni Deobandi organization, a formerly registered Pak political party, established in the early 1980s in Jhang by Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi. Its stated goal is to oppose Shia influence in Pakistain. They're not too big on Brelvis, either. Or Christians. Or anybody else who's not them. The organization was banned in 2002 as a terrorist organization, but somehow it keeps ticking along, piling up the corpse counts... (SSP), a banned Sunni bully boy group but later disassociated himself from it for his alleged 'violent policies' and formed his own outfit. The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi was proscribed by the Pakistain government as a terror group soon after its inception in early 1990s.
After reaching an agreement with Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat ...which is the false nose and plastic mustache of the murderous banned extremist group Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain, whatcha might call the political wing of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi... (ASWJ) chief Ahmed Ludhianvi, Ishaq joined as second in command of the former SSP in 2012.
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[An Nahar] Five Paleostinians were maimed by Israeli army gunfire Friday near the border fence in the northern Gazoo Strip, Paleostinian medical sources said.
Ashraf al-Qudra, a front man for the Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,-run health ministry in the territory, said the five men were in their early twenties.
One was at death's door from a shot to the chest, he told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Paleostinian witnesses said the soldiers opened fire after they were attacked by stones hurled over the border fence.
An Israeli military spokeswoman told AFP there were a series of festivities along the border, including east of Jabalia, where "Paleostinians hurled stones at soldiers and tried to sabotage the security fence."
"The soldiers tried to distance the crowd using riot dispersal means and firing several warning shots in the air" before shooting "towards one main instigator," she said.
Clashes are common on Fridays, with regular protests near the border in support of Gazoo farmers who say troops uprooted their trees to create a buffer zone.
Earlier in the day, Israeli troops cleared a Paleostinian protest camp in the Jordan Valley, ending a week-long demonstration against Israel's refusal to pull out of the area in any future peace deal.
Soldiers, border guards and police asked the protesters to leave before forcefully evicting them, a statement from the army said.
"The agitators were evacuated due to rock hurling earlier this week at the main Jordan Valley route, and other legal considerations," it said.
But protesters said the army had not given them any warning.
"At 1:30 am (on Friday, 2330 GMT on Thursday) the army raided the village unexpectedly," activist Diana al-Zeer said.
"They started throwing sound grenades and were very violent while they evacuated us."
Last Friday, around 300 Paleostinians together with Israeli and foreign activists set up the camp in abandoned houses in the village of Ain Hijleh near Jericho in the West Bank to protest against Israel's refusal to pull out of the Jordan Valley in the event of a peace deal.
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Two government militiamen were killed and five others injured in a clash late Friday with gunmen in the southern Philippine province of Basilan. Officials said the fighting broke out in Sumisip town where gunmen earlier threatened workers for a government water project.
Capt. Jefferson Mamauag, a spokesman for the 1st Infantry Division, said troops belonging to the 64th Infantry Battalion fought with about 15 gunmen under Kotatong Balaman. He said, There could be more casualties from the enemy side as bloodstains were spotted in their routes of withdrawal."
Lt. Col. Leandro Dacumos, the battalion commander, said villagers reported gunmen in the area and sought assistance. He said, The encounter was in response to a report by concerned citizens regarding the presence of armed lawless elements sighted at the water system project of the local government. The lawless elements occupied the area and threatened the workers of the project."
The military did not say if the gunmen were members of the Abu Sayyaf or Moro Islamic Liberation Front which are actively operating in the area.
A defense volunteer was killed and a village assistant chief and a civilian injured in Narathiwat province and anti-government banners displayed and car tires set on fire at 17 locations in Yala and Pattani provinces on Friday.
In Narathiwat, a territorial defense volunteer was gunned down and an assistant village leader and a civilian were injured during a walk-in shooting in Yalas Yaha district early Friday. The three men were sitting chatting in front of a house when two men arrived on a motorcycle. The killer walked over to them pretending to join in the conversation, then took out a handgun and shot them. The attackers then fled.
All three victims were rushed to the hospital in critical condition.The defense volunteer, was pronounced dead on arrival.
Police providing protection for teachers were ambushed in Yalas Kabang district on Friday morning. Witnesses said five policemen returning from escorting teachers were traveling along the road when gunmen hiding in roadside trees fired at them with assault rifles. No police were wounded.
In Pattani, banners written in the Malayu language were hung on trees and flyover bridges and suspicious boxes were found at several points. The banners said that the "Siam government" cannot govern its own country, how it can govern Malayu Pattani. Car tires were set on fire in these areas and suspicious seeming boxes which could have contained explosives were also placed there.
[An Nahar] Syrian troops retook Friday most of Aleppo's prison, lost to rebels a day earlier, in fighting that has killed at least 46 people over two days, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
But the fate of hundreds of prisoners reportedly freed after Islamist and jihadist fighters overran the facility was unclear, with suggestions that they may not have been able to flee amid the fighting.
The Observatory also said regime aircraft continued their assault on rebel-held districts of the northern city with barrel bombs, which have killed at least 250 people since Saturday, including 73 children.
Clashes in part of the jail and on its perimeter resumed between government forces and fighters of Ahrar Al-Sham Brigade and Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra front, the Britannia-based watchdog said.
The 46 dead over two days were 20 soldiers, 21 rebels and five prisoners.
Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP Thursday that the rebel assault began with a suicide kaboom by an Al-Nusra fighter at the prison's main entrance, opening the way to an assault on the facility.
He said the fighters had taken control of 80 percent of the jail and freed hundreds of prisoners.
Ahrar al-Sham said opposition fighters had taken full control of the prison, as did the Aleppo Media Center, a citizen-journalist outlet.
But state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
said soldiers and security forces had thwarted the attack.
For months, rebels have launched attacks on the prison, which reportedly holds some 3,000 detainees, including Islamists, activists and minors. But they have always failed to seize full control.
Conditions inside are said to be dire, with the Observatory reporting outbreaks of tuberculosis and other diseases.
The conditions prompted the government to announce in December the release of 366 prisoners for "humanitarian reasons".
In addition to the attacks on Aleppo, the Observatory said army helicopters were also dropping barrel bombs in parts of Idlib, Hama and Daraya provinces.
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[An Nahar] Beirut Police has decided to set up temporary checkpoints across the city in a bid to reassure citizens over their security in the wake of the latest wave of deadly bombings.
"The command of Beirut Police has decided -- in coordination with acting Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Basbous and as part of executing the resolutions of the command's council -- to set up roving checkpoints within the capital," the National News Agency reported.
"Units from the Beirut Investigation Department, its emergency squad, the Intelligence Bureau and the Judicial Police will be present on the ground to search vehicles and inspect their ownership documents -- especially suspicious cars -- in order to preserve security and reassure citizens," NNA said.
In this regard, a temporary checkpoint was set up in the Beirut district of Hamra.
"Citizens and owners of shops and private businesses lauded the step, although it caused a traffic jam," NNA said.
Since July 2013, ten kabooms have rocked Leb, six of them involving jacket wallahs.
The attacks have been claimed by various jihadist groups, some of them linked to organizations fighting across the border in Syria, including al-Nusra Front in Leb, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades ... Leb's current al-Qaeda affiliate, named after a guy whose car the current head of al-Qaeda had boomed... and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ... the current version of al-Qaeda in Iraq, just as blood-thirsty and well-beloved as the original... (ISIL).
The groups say they are targeting Hizbullah for fighting in Syria alongside the regime.
The heart of Beirut was rocked by a boom-mobileing that killed former minister Mohammed Shatah and seven other people on December 27.
And while most of the kabooms targeted areas considered sympathetic to Hizbullah in the Bekaa and Beirut's southern suburbs, the northern city of Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... was also hit by deadly bombings in August 2013.
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[An Nahar] The "Free Sunni Baalbek Brigade" announced on Friday killing an Iranian military trainer in the Bekaa region.
"We claim responsibility for a heroic operation that targeted a top Iranian military trainer on Thursday at a drill camp," the brigade said on its Twitter account, noting that the operation's name is "in the heart of the enemy."
It added: "The attack was carried out at a Hizbullah controlled site in the Hermel plains (in the Bekaa)."
The operation created an atmosphere of panic and confusion among party members, the statement remarked.
"Hizbullah is trying to conceal what had happened."
The group called on the party's supporters to end the siege of "the innocent people of Arsal (town in the Bekaa)".
It also warned of attacks and strikes against Hizbullah supporters in the Bekaa and around Leb.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Senate, Odius Sepulcher called for war against the Visigoths... Mufti of Baalbek Bakr al-Rifai denied later on Friday the brigade's claims, adding that the group "does not exist."
The "Free Sunni Baalbek Brigade" has no known ties with any Lebanese or Syrian group, and it had claimed before responsibility for killing Hizbullah military commander Hassan Hollo al-Laqqis.
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[BBC.CO.UK] Emergency officials have evacuated 83 civilians from the city of Homs in Syria, according to the United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone...
Buses were able to enter the rebel-held Old City after both sides agreed to a three-day pause in the fighting.
Up to 3,000 civilians are thought to be trapped in Homs.
The UN-negotiated ceasefire between Syrian forces and rebels should also allow food and medical aid to reach Homs on Saturday.
Farhan Haq, front man for UN Secretary General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... , said the people able to leave were children, women and the elderly.
'Malnourished'
They were "delivered to places of their choice, escorted by United Nations and Syrian Arab Red Islamic Thingy staff", he said.
A spokeswoman for the World Food Programme told Rooters that many of those evacuated appeared malnourished.
"They were living on leaves and grass and olives and whatever they could find," said Elisabeth Byrs.
The first busload of 12 elderly men and women were taken to the premises of the governor of Homs.
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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.
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.
The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) condemns the assault, torture, mistreatment and overnight detention of broadcast journalist Ali Ilyas Abdullahi by security forces in Baidoa, in southwest Somalia.
By Chris Covert
[DAWN] The United States on Thursday designated Malik Ishaq, the chief of proscribed 
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
