Stressing the importance of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia to that country’s political process, the Security Council today extended the mandate of UNSOM’s work until 31 March 2017.
The 15 members of the Council unanimously adopted an extension of UNSOM’s work, underscoring the provision of UN good offices to support the Federal Government’s peace and reconciliation process, including preparation for an inclusive, free, fair and transparent electoral process in 2016 and universal elections by 2020.
Last month, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman and Secretary-General’s Special Representative in Somalia Michael Keating, met with President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and the speaker of the Federal Parliament Mohamed Sheikh Osman Jawari in the Somali capital of Mogadishu. Mr. Feltman reiterated the UN’s support to the Somali people for agreeing on an electoral process for this year.
In its resolution, the Council encourages UNSOM to enhance its interaction with Somali civil society, including women, youth, business and religious leaders to ensure that different points of view are incorporated in the political process.
UNSOM is also asked to conduct a review of the UN presence in Somalia after the elections, to ensure that the UN is properly configured to support the next phase of state-building in the Horn of Africa nation and to present options and recommendations to the Council by the end of January 2017.
Included in today’s resolution is strong condemnation of recent terrorist attacks by the group Al-Shabaab, and support for a comprehensive approach to reduce the group’s threat in accordance with international human rights law, international refugee law and international humanitarian law.
The Council also paid tribute to the bravery and sacrifices made by the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and the Somali National Army personnel fighting against Al-Shabaab.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/26/2016 00:30 ||
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TRIPOLI: Authorities in control of Libya’s capital on Friday declared a “maximum state of emergency” after a UN-backed unity government that they reject said its members would head to Tripoli to begin work.
The head of the Tripoli authorities Khalifa Ghweil called on his Interior and Defense Ministries and allied armed groups to “take all security measures necessary to preserve the country’s stability by increasing patrols and security checks,” a statement on his administration’s website said.
But streets were calm on Friday morning, an AFP photographer said, with police cars deployed at their usual positions around the city, but no signs of extra security measures.
Libya has had two rival administrations since mid-2014 when an armed alliance overran the capital, setting up its own authority and causing the government backed by the internationally recognized parliament to flee east.
The United Nations has been pushing for the two sides to cede power to a unity government under a power-sharing deal announced in December, but both have rejected the new authority headed by prime minister-designate Fayez Al-Sarraj.
[NEWS24.NG] Reactions have started trailing the video by the leader of terrorist sect Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... , Abubakar Shekau asking his supporters to embrace peace and stop the fighting.
While some are casting doubts over the authenticity of the call to surrender by the leader, others seem to believe the video, adding that the recent moves of President Muhammadu Buhari seeking coalition with other Islamic nations may be yielding fruits.
Some parties believe is just a ploy by the terrorist to relax the military onslaught against them. They said it is only when Boko Haram wants to carry out mass attacks later that they come out with such videos, just to distract Nigerians.
Some even connected the 'surrender' to President Muhammadu Buhari's ascension to power. They believe the president is a huge sponsor of the terror group. So in order to give credit to him, the bandidosbully boyz decided to surrender just to make it look as if he defeated terrorism during his reign as president.
Some are asking the question that if truly the bandidosbully boyz are throwing in the towel and ensuing for peace, how come the Chibok school girls captured over a year ago have not been released.
In the video, released online, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau could be seen advising his followers to "surrender to save themselves".
Although the footage appears to show a defeated Shekau surrendering power, contrary opinions have emerged from analysts who have reviewed the video.
Analysts believe that Shekau is not relinquishing power but instead using the video to let his followers know that he is alive, contrary to several media reports.
[NEWS24.NG] Emerging reports had earlier suggested that jihadist sect Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... had surrendered following the discovery of video footage from the group, but a contrary opinion has surfaced.
Although the footage appears to show a defeated Shekau surrendering power, contrary opinions have emerged from analysts who have reviewed the video.
According to a Naij report, analysts believe that Shekau is not relinquishing power but instead using the video to let his followers know that he is alive, contrary to several media reports.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2016 00:00 ||
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[NEWS.YAHOO] Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... leader Abubakar Shekau appeared on video for the first time in more than a year on Thursday, rejecting rumours about his death but appearing to signal his time in charge of the Nigerian jihadist group may be coming to an end.
In a message that contained none of the defiant bluster, taunts and denunciation of politicians of previous videos and will likely be interpreted as an admission of defeat, the dejected-looking Shekau declared in the Hausa language: "For me the end has come".
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2016 00:00 ||
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Yemen's Ansarullah movement leader, Sayyed Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, says Saudi Arabia is committing genocide against the Yemeni people as it continues with its deadly aggression against the impoverished nation.
Sayyed Houthi asserted that the Saudi-led aggression on Yemen targets all the axis of resistance, hailing Hezbollah and his leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah for supporting the Yemenis against the terrorist war launched against them.
The Saudi forces and its mercenaries have come to Yemen to wipe out a generation, Sayyed Houthi said during a televised address on Friday, adding that they want to raze Yemen to the ground.
He said the Saudi regime has committed numerous crimes against the Yemenis.
The Saudi regime knows no limit in its massacre of women and children, he said, adding, however, that the Saudis are neglectful of the Yemeni popular will.
Sayyed Houthi said the US and UK are helping Saudi Arabia in the aggression against Yemen.
This Saudi regime has neither respected the concept of neighborliness nor Islam, he added.
The Ansarullah leader said the Al Saud regime and its mercenaries fighting in Yemen are under the sway of the Saudi-Israeli-US axis.
Sayyed Houhti further slammed the silence of the UN Security Council regarding the Saudi aggression, saying the body is providing security only for arrogant powers, saying the UN charters have not been drawn up for the oppressed and only serve bullying and dictatorial regimes.
It is shameful to remain silent vis-à-vis such crimes, the Ansarullah leader said, adding, however, that some countries have openly taken the side of the Yemeni people and provided any assistance they could to the nation.
The resistance shown by the Yemenis shows the legitimacy of the demands of the Yemeni people, Sayyed Houthi said.
Yemeni President, Abdrabbou Mansour Hadi, has announced that the Houthi rebel group has approved implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 2216.
In an extraordinary meeting with the ambassadors of the 18-member transit process sponsoring countries to Yemen, Hadi said that the UN special envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, has informed him that the Houthi rebels have agreed to carry out the Resolution.
The state-run Yemeni News Agency also said that President Hadi briefed the ambassadors on the political scenario and the latest developments on the ground in Yemen.
He reiterated the importance of the Houthis implementation of the confidence-building measures, including the release of prisoners of war and reinstating the usurped state facilities, in addition to implementing the other provisions of Resolution 2216, resuming the political process as per the outcome of the national dialogue based on the GCC initiative and its executive mechanism and UN relevant Security Council resolutions.
He also briefed them on the military advances of the Yemeni armed forces and popular resistance on the ground.
The ambassadors confirmed their respective countries' support for the Yemeni President and his efforts to salvage his country from its current situation.
[Dhaka Tribune] Parul Rani, 60, Lakshmi Rani, 50, and Rupa Rani, 22, live in Charpata village under the Rupsha Dakkhin Union of Chandpur’s Faridganj upazila. Like other women in the locality, they did not exercise their franchise in Tuesday’s Union Gay Pareehad polls.
There are about 9,000 women voters in the union who have been staying away from polls following a fatwa by a pir.
Locals said an Indian pir moved in there just after independence. Soon, an epidemic broke out during a local election. The pir issued a fatwa ordering women not to go out of house without properly covering themselves.
Since then, women of all religion have stayed away from voting despite joining men in other social spheres.
When asked why she did not vote, Lakshmi Rani said: "We do not go to polling stations as the Jainpur Huzur [the pir] said women of Union no 16 would not need to vote."
Parul Rani told the Bangla Tribune: "I have never cast vote as no woman from the area goes to polling centres. But the new generation wants to exercise its franchise."
Rupa Rani told the Dhaka Tribune that a Muslim holy man had asked them not to vote. "That is why I did not vote. But none from the government approached us."
Primary school teacher Emily Begum rued the situation. "We cannot vote even though we want to, as our mothers and grandmothers stayed away from polls," she said.
Faridganj Majidia Kamil Madrasa Principal AKM Mahbubur Rahman said women had every right to vote. UP chairman Billal Khan said many women stayed away from voting believing in a superstition while many were victims of dirty political practices.
Faridganj Upazila Nirbahi Officer Joynal Abedin said he had been raising awareness for a long time. "Women said they would go to vote but did not show up on the election day. The people are very religious. They stay away from polls to abide by an order of a pir."
District Election Officer Ataur Rahman said 14 unions in Faridganj would go to polls in the third phase. "Women voters in Rupsha Union had been uninterested. The EC has told the returning officer and upazila election officer to bring women voters to polling stations with help from local imams."
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03/26/2016 00:00 ||
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[AlAhram] Belgium's federal prosecutor confirmed Friday that Najim Laachraoui was one of the two jacket wallahs who struck Brussels airport this week in a series of attacks which left 31 people dead.
The prosecutor also linked Laachraoui to November's Gay Paree carnage in which 130 people died, saying his DNA was found on a boom jacket and a piece of cloth discovered at the Bataclan concert hall where 90 people were killed.
Police also found his DNA on a bomb at the Stade de La Belle France, a statement said.
CCTV footage showed three bombers at Brussels airport on Tuesday, with Laachraoui and Ibrahim El Bakraoui now being named as the two who blew themselves up there.
A third man on the right of the CCTV frame, wearing a light coloured coat and a hat, expeditiously departed at a goodly pace, apparently after his bomb, said to be the largest of the three, failed to detonate.
The police have launched a massive search for this third man.
The prosecutor's office also confirmed that Laachraoui had previously used the false identity of Soufiane Kayal.
Key Gay Paree attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam went to the Hungarian capital Budapest in September and on his return was stopped by police on the Austrian border with two men -- Soufiane Kayal, as he was then known, and Samir Bouzid.
Abdeslam was tossed in the slammer ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... in central Brussels last Friday.
Laachraoui, 24, went to Syria in early 2013.
He was a good student with an immaculate disciplinary record at a Brussels Catholic school, and friends and family remember a bright easy-going kid who liked to play frisbee and football.
"I don't understand how anyone can be brainwashed so quickly," Brice Vanhee, a college friend from his first year electro-mechanical engineering course in 2012, said on Facebook.
"How can you switch sides and blow yourself up when you used to play frisbee tournaments every weekend? I don't get it!"
A picture on Vanhee's page shows a group of eight students including Laachraoui smiling at the camera.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/26/2016 00:00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] Turkish villagers had grown used to hearing the smugglers arrive in the dead of night, speeding through the narrow streets in minibuses packed with Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans headed for the rocky coves nearby.
"Before the EU agreement there were hundreds of refugees crossing the sea here," said 50-year-old fisherman Hasan Balci as he played cards in a cafe.
#1
MONEY QUOTE: "But the bottom line is that this business is called people smuggling, and it will never stop. It will slow down but it will never stop."
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/26/2016 11:26 Comments ||
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#2
"But the bottom line is that this business is called people smuggling The Flesh Trade, and it will never stop. It will slow down but it will never stop."
[Daily Excelsior] In a new twist, Pak-American terrorist David Coleman Headley today testified before an anti-terror court that the then Pakistain Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ... Pakistain's former prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics could be awe-inspiring ... had visited his house few weeks after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks in 2008 to condole the death of his father.
Deposing before the court for the cross-examination on the third day, Headley also said he had nurtured a "hatred feeling" towards India since childhood after his school was bombed in 1971 during the Indo-Pak war.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2016 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Powerful Iraqi Shiite Muslim leader Moqtada Tater al-Sadr ... the Iranian catspaw holy man who was 22 years old in 2003 and was nearing 40 in 2010. He spends most of his time in Iran, safely out of the line of fire, where he's learning to be an ayatollah... warned political party leaders on Friday they would face street protests if they obstruct a government overhaul planned by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to fight corruption.
Sadr also called on Abadi to announce a new cabinet lineup by Saturday that would see current ministers replaced by technocrats with no party affiliation to tackle systemic political patronage that has abetted bribery and embezzlement.
The influential holy man spoke in a Friday sermon delivered by a representative to tens of thousands of faithful outside the gates of Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone that houses government offices, parliament and embassies.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2016 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Pakistain and Iran agreed on Friday to enhance economic ties and open two more border crossings to increase trade, the government said.
Iranian President Hassan Rowhani, who arrived on a two-day state visit to Pakistain, met with Pak Prime Minister 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... and held talks on matters of mutual interest, Islamabad said in a statement.
"Our trade and economic ties have suffered due to sanctions. We have agreed to strengthen our bilateral ties in diverse areas of trade, economy and energy," the statement quoted Sharif as saying.
After the talks, Sharif and Rowhani witnessed the signing of six agreements related to rade and economy including a "Five Year Strategic Trade Cooperation Plan."
Sharif said both countries also decided to open two additional crossing points along their border to encourage trade.
Rowhani, according to the Pak statement, said the two sides discussed ways to explore new opportunities for cooperation in the energy sector, including the export of electricity from Iran to Pakistain.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2016 00:00 ||
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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.
[NEWS.YAHOO] 
[Daily Excelsior] In a new twist, Pak-American terrorist David Coleman Headley today testified before an anti-terror court that the then Pakistain Prime Minister 
Moqtada 
