[Al Jazeera] Egypt's parliament has voted to ratify a 2016 agreement under which Cairo would transfer two Red Sea islands to 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... Wednesday's vote, during which those politicians in favour of the accord were asked to stand up in the house, came shortly after the 596-seat chamber opened a debate on the pact earlier in the day.
The debate followed festivities the previous night between police and opponents of the deal in downtown Cairo that saw coppers kick, punch and use sticks to beat several dozen protesters.
The outcome of the vote was a foregone conclusion since parliament is packed with supporters of the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
The government insists the islands of Tiran and Sanafir at the mouth of the Gulf of Aqaba were always Saudi but were placed under Egypt's protection amid Arab-Israeli tensions in the 1950s.
Critics have linked the islands' transfer to the billions of dollars in Saudi aid given to Sisi's government, saying it amounts to a sell-off of sovereign territory.
The island of Tiran, a popular destination for Red Sea divers, controls a narrow shipping lane that leads to and from the ports of Eilat and Aqaba, in Israel and Jordan respectively.
Egypt's unilateral closure of that lane was among the main reasons behind the outbreak of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, in which Egypt lost the entire Sinai Peninsula.
The agreement to hand over the islands was announced during the April 2016 visit to Cairo by the Saudi king, leading to the largest anti-government protests since Sisi took office in 2014. Hundreds of demonstrators and activists were tossed in the clink Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! , with most later released.
A court ruled against the islands' transfer in January, but politicians who support the deal say parliament has the right to ratify international agreements.
"There is nothing in the agreement that violates the constitution," Kamal Amer, chairman of the defence committee, told the house on Wednesday.
"It is designed to realise and perpetuate the mutual interests of the two nations and it also came in response to Saudi requests [to take back the islands] made in 1984, 1989 and 1990."
"The demarcation of the border between Saudi Arabia and Egypt confirmed that the islands are on the side of that brotherly nation, but we are confident that they [the islands] will always be used to serve national Egyptian and Arab security," Amer added.
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[Libya Herald] The list of individuals and organizations disputing their inclusion on the House of Representatives (HoR) "terrorist" list continues to grow. The latest is former deputy premier Awad al-Barasi who has said he is "astonished" to find his name on the document. He has announced that he was consulting his lawyers.
Barasi was a deputy to Ali Zeidan but resigned in August 2013 accusing the then primer minister of ineffectiveness. At the time he was a member of the Justice and Construction Party (J&C), the political arm of the Libyan Moslem Brüderbund. However, a person who gets all wrapped up in himself makes a mighty small package... he told the Libya Herald this March that he had quit politics and in 2015 severed his links with the J&C. Instead, he said, he was concentrating on his role as head of the Libya Peace Initiative which he said began this February and is seeking to bring all parties together and promote national reconciliation.
Barasi questioned why, at a time when he was embarked upon this effort, he should be branded a terrorist. He denounced and condemned the HoR and said he would hold it legally and morally responsible. He said his legal team had begun to file law suits in Libyan courts, both against the head of the HoR’s defence committee which drew up the the "terrorist" list and the media that had disseminated it.
He said many press and media outlets had published the list in a "defamatory manner without investigation". In his view, this "politicisation" contradicted the basic press and media principles which obliged journalists to verify facts before publishing them.
Three days ago the J&C party also described the HoR’s terrorist claims as defamatory.
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[Libya Herald] Following the reported release of Saif al-Islam Qadaffy earlier this week, the chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) has called for his immediate arrest.
Fatou Bensouda said Libya was "obliged" to surrender Saif to the ICC regardless of the supposed amnesty law enacted by the House of Representatives under which he was suuposedly freed.
"Helping a runaway to escape justice must not be tolerated, and Mr Qadaffy must be surrendered to the custody of the court," she said.
Saif al-Islam is wanted by the ICC on charges of war crimes committed during the 2011 revolution.
Bensouda also reiterated her demand for the surrender of al-Tuhamy Mohammed Khaled, the head of the former regime’s internal security, for crimes committed during the 2011 revolution. He became the fourth Qadaffy-era person wanted by the ICC,
Both men are subject to an INTERPOL Red Notice ‐ being a request to find and arrest an individual pending extradition.
"It is imperative for both suspects to be apprehended and immediately surrendered to the custody of the ICC so that their guilt or innocence can be established," Bensouda said.
Arrest warrants naming other top Qadaffy regime officials are expected to be announced by the court soon.
For his part, 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... ’s chief prosecutor has pointed out that Saif remains sentenced to death in absentia after his Hadba trial in July 2015.
Mystery surrounds Saif’s whereabouts. Ajmi al-Atiri, head of Zintan’s Abubakr al-Siddiq brigade which captured him six years ago and then held him, announced on Sunday that he had been freed. But there has been no sign of him anywhere, although there are reports that he is alternatively in Obari with General Ali Kana, in the Washefana district, in Bani Walid or even still in Zintan.
Meanwhile sources say that Algeria has refused to allow him entry on the basis that it does not want to become entangled in a dispute with the ICC.
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[Libya Herald] A UN report has concluded that ’’a variety of sources of funding are available to (Libyan) gangs’’, assessing that there are ’’four important sources of funding: fuel smuggling, trafficking in persons, interference with institutions and the local arms trade. Previous findings on income from other criminal activities and State financing remain relevant’’, the report said.
The report names Zawia’s coasties as active participants in fuel smuggling and names a Zawia militia and its leaders. It also names people smugglers and details the involvement of sophisticated international cross-border smuggling and finance rings in the smuggling process.
With regards to arms smuggling the report says weapons materiel offered includes heavier and more sophisticated systems. It gives the example of a functioning Milan anti-tank system including four missiles being available for US$ 9,000. In some cases, it adds, fighters and arms are on offer together as a package.
It concludes that smuggling occurs virtually uncontested because of the lack of reliable security forces.
The conclusions were made by the 299-page UN Libya Experts Panel report 2017 released in the first week of June.
In its assessment of fuel smuggling by sea as a source of income for Libyan militias, the report stated that ’’the National Oil Corporation decided to work actively against fuel smuggling. Brega Petroleum, a subsidiary of the Corporation, established an "Oil and Oil Derivatives Oversight Committee" to investigate the problem. Its findings led the Corporation to take action against some companies and individuals in early 2017’’.
’’In fact, the Corporation has accused the Petroleum Facilities Guard in the refinery in Zawiya of participating in fuel smuggling operations. The Panel continues to observe vessels showing suspicious navigational patterns in the vicinity of the coastal town of Zuwara. Individuals and companies mentioned in previous reports are still. In 2016, the Libyan coastguard impounded several ships in the same area in incidents related to fuel smuggling’’.
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[Al Jazeera] In mid-May the gang the Popular Front for the Renaissance of Central African Republic (FPRC) marched into the town of Bria in the Central African Republic (CAR). Tens of thousands of, mostly Christian, civilians were displaced as the group faced off with anti-balaka fighters in the town, located some 600km northeast of the capital, Bangui. Around 85 percent of the town's residents fled.
At least 60 people were killed in Bria, as the FPRC rebels, a faction of the Seleka ...a 'mainly' Moslem rebel force in the Central African Republic that overthrew the govt, imposed a regime of rapine and looting on the country's non-Moslem population, and was then tossed by France. They still exist, getting funding and weapons from somewhere or other, licking their wounds, complaining about the oppression of Moslems, and occasionally raping and looting someone... , a Moslem-led coalition that toppled then President Francois Bozize in a coup in 2013, targeted the mainly Christian anti-balaka fighters and anyone they considered to be associated with the group.
Thousands of people - both Moslem and Christian - have been killed in the country and almost a million displaced since the coup.
Christians and Moslems have been pitted against each other, although most analysts agree that the conflict is actually about taxation and who has control of the country's mineral resources.
But the religious dimension to the gangs and the violence they have wrought has nurtured animosity between the communities and made them increasingly isolated from one another.
In Bria, the IDP camps are mainly inhabited by Christians, while those residents who remain in the town are largely Moslem.
The two communities steer clear of each other, fearing reprisal attacks. The United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says there are daily incidents between Christians and Moslems in the town - which remains tense, economically dysfunctional and in a state of limbo.
A month after the FPRC forces entered, some 41,000 people continue to live in squalid conditions in IDP camps around the town. In the PK3 camp, located 3km outside the town centre, around 26,000 people, mostly women and kiddies, live in shelters made of pieces of wood sourced from the surrounding forests and plastic sheets provided by UN agencies.
Sporadic violence has broken out in several areas of central and eastern CAR over the past month. Hundreds have been killed. There are currently more than 500,000 IDPs across the country.
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[Al Jazeera] Washington and Doha have signed an agreement for the purchase of F-15 fighter jets with an initial cost of $12bn, as US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... 's administration attempts to navigate an ongoing diplomatic crisis in the Gulf.
The aircraft purchase was completed by Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates... i Minister of Defence Khalid Al Attiyah and his US counterpart Jim Mattis in Washington DC on Wednesday, according to Qatar News Agency (QNA).
Attiyah said the agreement underscores the "longstanding commitment of the state of Qatar in jointly working with our friends and allies in the United States in advancing our military cooperation for closer strategic collaboration in our fight to counter violent extremism and promote peace and stability in our region and beyond".
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#1
This is different from the Saudis' long-term support of terrorism? *Shrug* They could have bought Rafales, Gripins, or MiG's instead...
[AnNahar] Detainees at a controversial Australian asylum-seeker camp in Papua New Guinea won Aus$70 million ($53 million) in compensation on Wednesday after alleging they suffered physical and psychological harm.
The settlement, to be shared by 1,905 people held on Manus Island since 2012, averted a public trial against the government and security providers Transfield and G4S.
A class action sought damages for alleged suffering due to harsh conditions in which detainees were held.
It also called for a payout for false imprisonment after the Papua New Guinea Supreme Court ruled last year that holding asylum-seekers on Manus Island was unconstitutional and illegal.
Lawyers Slater and Gordon said they believed it was the largest human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. class action settlement in Australian history, with the defendants also agreeing to pay costs of more than Aus$20 million.
[IsraelTimes] Suspects accused of planning IS-inspired attacks against visiting Israel team, fans during 2016 World Cup qualifier in Albania.
Kosovo charged four men Wednesday with plotting terror attacks against Israeli soccer players and fans during a World Cup qualifier in Albania last year, which had to be moved for security reasons.
The men were among about 20 detained in a series of arrests in Kosovo and neighboring Albania and Macedonia ahead of the game in November, which was originally due to take place in the northern town of Shkodra.
The four are accused of planning to "carry out a terrorist attack against footballers and fans from Israel who were coming to Albania for the match in November," Kosovo’s prosecution office said in a blurb.
It said they further aimed to "destabilize and destroy the fundamental political, constitutional, economic and social structures of Balkan states and then create their own Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... The match eventually took place in Elbasan, about 45 kilometers (28 miles) from the Albanian capital Tirana, under a massive security presence.
The prosecutors said two other suspects were charged with plotting terrorist attacks against local and international officials in Kosovo, while another was charged over fighting with jihadists in the Middle East.
Another pair were charged with collecting weapons and illegally producing an explosive.
Kosovo, a predominantly ethnic Albanian and Moslem country, has been confronted with more than 300 of its citizens waging jihad in Syria and Iraq. It has subsequently strengthened legislation and attempted to root out radical Islamist networks.
The nine men were allegedly receiving instructions from Lavdrim Muhaxheri, an IS commander believed killed in Syria.
According to Reuters:
One of the defendants had kept in his basement 283 grams of self-made triacetone triperoxide (TATP) explosives. The same explosive was used in attacks in Paris and Brussels and was found in a series of foiled bombings in Europe since 2007.
Another defendant had produced half a kilo of explosives at his house from ammonium nitrate and fuel oil (ANFO), it said.
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[AnNahar] Finland's intelligence and security agency Supo on Wednesday raised the country's terror threat level by a notch, seeing an increased risk of an attack committed by the so-called Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (IS).
The threat level was raised from "low" to "elevated," the second notch on a new four-tier scale just introduced, Supo said in a statement.
"Supo has become aware of more serious terrorism-related projects and plans in Finland. Foreign terrorist fighters (who have) left from Finland have gained significant positions within IS in particular and have an extensive network of relations in the organization," it said in its new assessment.
The agency said it was keeping a particularly close eye on around 350 individuals, an increase of 80 percent since 2012.
"Finland's profile within the radical Islamist propaganda has become stronger. Finland is considered as a Western country and a part of the anti-IS coalition, and propaganda is produced in the Finnish language and directed against Finland. The propaganda incites attacks in Finland," it wrote.
Supo's two higher threat levels are "high" and "severe."
Contrary to its two Nordic neighbors, Norway and Sweden, Finland has never experienced a terrorist attack on its soil.
[217.218.67.231] A Turkish court has sentenced a prominent politician from the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) to 25 years in jail for his role in leaking secret documents to a newspaper showing the country's National Intelligence Organization (MIT) shipped weapons to foreign-backed Takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed... bully boyz in Syria.
On Wednesday, Istanbul’s 14th Heavy Penal Court handed down the sentence to CHP Deputy Chariman Enis Berberoglu for releasing secret documents with the purpose of political or military espionage.
Berberoglu was jugged ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... in the courthouse after the hearing. He will remain under arrest while waiting for the appeal process to conclude.
CHP front man Engin Altay sharply condemned the decision, saying he saw the verdict as an attempt by President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... 's government to intimidate the opposition.
"This decision is intimidation to the opposition. This decision is intimidation to all who are displeased with the Justice and Development Party (AKP)," Altay told news hounds outside the Caglayan Justice Palace in Istanbul.
He said the decision was a sign that the judiciary in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... was under the command of government executive organs.
Back in May 2015, Cumhuriyet daily posted on its website footage showing Turkish security forces in early 2014 intercepting a convoy of trucks carrying arms for the bully boyz in Syria.
The paper said the trucks were carrying some 1,000 mortar shells, hundreds of grenade launchers and more than 80,000 rounds of ammunition for light and heavy weapons.
Yes, it would be a crime to show Turkish government employees delivering weapons to ISIS, when said government has been loudly proclaiming its enmity of ISIS.
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[AlAhram] Thousands of Syrian refugees are returning home for a visit during the Moslem holy month of Ramadan, after The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... temporarily opened two border crossings with its war-torn neighbor.
For some of the younger ones travelling back, the visit means seeing some of their relatives, even siblings, for the very first time. Ankara says those who go back can return with their papers and a special "religious holiday permission."
Turkey has taken in more than 3 million Syrian refugees who arrived by way of legal or illegal crossings since the start of their country's civil war more than six years ago.
The official border crossings were shut in 2015 -- barring exceptions such as serious injuries -- to prevent a spillover of the conflict and stem the flood of refugees. Ankara has also been building a wall along the boundary to curb cross-border movement of fighters.
Many Syrians welcomed the opportunity to go back, even briefly.
"If the situation is calm there I want to open up a business and return," the 37-year-old refugee said. "I want to continue my life there."
Twenty-one-year-old Ismail Hadidi Jafar was waiting to cross into Syria from the Oncupinar gate in the southern province of Kilis on Tuesday, to visit his parents and family in Aleppo. He left two years ago and hadn't gone back since
"I have a young sibling whom I've never met," Jafar told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named, preparing to cross over.
As he waited, the crowds swelled and hundreds of refugees had to stand in the scorching sun to be individually processed by police and migration officials for the crossing. Seeing the lines, some abandoned plans to visit, but excitement remained high.
Turkey's official Anadolu news agency said that since June 1 when the crossing of Cilvegozu in Hatay province opened, some 30,000 Syrians have left to visit their homes. Oncupinar opened for the first time on Tuesday for the Ramadan visits.
The two crossings will remain open for departures to Syria until June 23. Returns will be allowed through Oncupinar until July 14 and Cilvegozu until Sep. 30 but Turkish authorities reserve the right to amend these dates.
Mohammed Izzo, 28, who also hails from Aleppo province in northern Syria, said he's been longing to see his family.
"The area we were in was under ISIS control," he said using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group. "I didn't go visit after ISIS left so I'm going now."
Izzo said he will return to Turkey after Eid al-Fitr, the religious holiday that marks the end of Ramadan.
Mohammed Dede, a father of three, said he's thinking about leaving Turkey for good. He is headed first to Jarablus, a town on the Syrian side of the border that was taken from IS by Turkey-backed fighters in August.
"If the situation is calm there I want to open up a business and return," the 37-year-old refugee said. "I want to continue my life there."
[Breitbart] WASHINGTON, DC -- Political Islam, focused on establishing an unfree society ruled by strict sharia law, is "fundamentally incompatible" with the U.S. Constitution and the overall "foundation of the American way of life," declared Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an expert at the Hoover Institution think tank, during a Senate panel hearing.
Meanwhile, Michael Leiter, the former director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, argued that sharia law is compatible with the American Constitution.
Seriously?
"Muslim’s honoring of Sharia is not inherently in tangent with living in constitutional democracies anymore than it would be for Christians or Jews who also seek to honor their religious traditions while still complying with civil authority," testified Leiter.
Except that Sharia law claims primacy over non-Muslim law, and primacy of Muslims over non-Muslims, requiring action and support of action from Muslims to achieve it. Christian and Jewish tradition require loyalty to the nation and rendering unto Caeser -- a big difference.
The Somali-born Dutch-American Ali -- an honor violence victim, a strong advocate against female genital mutilation (FGM), and author -- strongly disagreed.
#2
Michael Leiter, the former director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center
Nicholas "Nick" Rasmussen was sworn in as the Director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) on December 18, 2014, upon his confirmation by the United States Senate. He previously served as NCTC’s Deputy Director since June of 2012.
[DAWN] Tampering with the records by the government institutions only added to the crimes of the rulers and now they won’t escape the law, said Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... emir Senator Sirajul Haq ...current head of the Pak Jamaat-e-Islami. Siraj was born in 1962 and entered politics shortly after that... on Tuesday.
In a statement, he said concealing or changing the record was a serious matter and an attempt to obstruct the entire process of accountability and all this was tantamount to the murder of justice. If rulers had any material in their defence, they would have presented it before the Supreme Court, he added.
Mr Haq said the government wanted to make the joint investigation team (JIT) controversial to escape accountability. However, Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried... he said, if the accountability of the rulers was not done now, it won’t be possible in the future as well.
The JI chief said the nation wanted elimination of corruption whereas the ministers and the ruling party leaders were trying to make the JIT controversial and giving threats to the institutions to achieve their goals.
He said the JI wanted the accountability of all the corrupt people after the rulers and it had been demanding that all those involved in the Panama leaks, Dubai leaks and those getting bank loans written off be brought to accountability. He said there was no sacred cow in the society and none of the plunderers should be spared.
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[DAWN] The family of Aitzaz Hasan, a schoolboy who sacrificed his own life to save hundreds of his classmates by tackling a jacket wallah in 2014, has sought protection from the authorities after receiving threats from the Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... On April 3 this year, the family received a threat letter from the outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP), who wrote that Aitzaz was neither a martyr nor a hero and the media should stop presenting him as a national icon, the dear departed's brother Mujtaba Hasan Bangash told DawnNews.
In the letter, the turbans also warned Mujtaba against visiting government offices and talking to media personnel or "he will be responsible for [any] loss".
According to Mujtaba, whose family lives in the Ibrahimzai area of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... 's Hangu district ... Hangu is famous for its greenery, hills, beauty and water. Most of the people of this area are Bangash & Orakzai Pashtuns. Part of the Bangash are Shia. The Orakzai and the Sunni Bangash are determined to kill them... , he wrote letters to Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan ...Currently the Interior Minister of Pakistain. He is the senior leader of the Pak Moslem League (N) and a close aide to Nawaz Uncle Fester Sharif. He is noted for his vocal anti-American railing in the National Assembly. However (comma) Khan told the U.S. ambassador that he was in fact pro-American but he and the PML-N would have to be critical of US actions in order to remain publicly credible. Khan cited his wife and children's US citizenship as proof, which means he's lying to one side or the other and probably both. He wears a wig, but you probably guessed that. since hair doesn't grow naturally in that shape or texture... , inspector general Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, IG Frontier Constabulary (FC) and Commander Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. Corps Lt-Gen Nazir Ahmed Butt and asked for protection in the wake of Taliban threats.
The authorities have yet to respond to his requests and provide security to the family, Mujtaba said.
Just after receiving the threat letter on April 3, Mujtaba had lodged a First Information Report in Hangu Police Station.
Mujtaba also expressed concern ...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended... at the state of security of the school where his brother laid down his life in January 2014 and saved hundreds of other school children.
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[Al Jazeera] Egypt has reportedly offered to provide electricity to Gazoo to relieve part of its humanitarian crisis in return for Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", agreeing to several security measures.
The Hamas delegation, headed by the movement’s new Prime Minister Yahya Sinwar, returned to the Gazoo Strip on Monday after nine days of what they said was constructive meetings with Cairo officials.
Egypt agreed to fund Gazoo’s sole power plant, after it was shut down in April as a result of heavy taxes levied by the Paleostinian Authority on diesel fuel. In return, Hamas would tighten its security on the Rafah border.
According to Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahhar, the movement had asked to meet with their Egyptian counterparts before the GCC crisis began.
"We agreed, and this is as much to our benefit as it is to theirs, to separate our borders to prevent the smuggling of drugs and weapons," Zahhar said.
An amusingly different take on the situation than was reported by The Times of Israel yesterday. No mention of the 17 terrorists Cairo demanded Hamas turn over, for instance, or that when Egypt's power lines are working at full capacity they can only provide 6.25% of Gaza's requirements.
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Simply dreadful. But then the Gazans voted for them fair and square, and as Mencken said, "Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard."
[Al Jazeera] The United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... has warned that longer power cuts threaten a "total collapse" of basic services in Gazoo, with residents in the beseiged Paleostinian territory being held hostage to political infighting.
Gazooks currently receive three to four hours of mains electricity a day, delivered from the territory's own power station and others in Israel and Egypt.
Not Egypt. They've been having problems.
Israel decided on Sunday to reduce the amount of electricity it supplies to Gazoo by between 45 and 60 minutes a day after Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... cut electricity funding by his West Bank-based Paleostinian Authority.
The move was widely seen as an attempt by Abbas to step up pressure on the rival Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, movement, which runs Gazoo.
The UN humanitarian coordinator for the occupied territories, Robert Piper, warned the additional power cuts would have a disastrous effect.
"A further increase in the length of blackouts is likely to lead to a total collapse of basic services, including critical functions in the health, water and sanitation sectors," Piper said in a statement.
"The people in Gazoo should not be held hostage to this long-standing internal Paleostinian dispute," he said.
Israeli and global NGOs, including Amnesia Amnesty International, joined the world body in condemning the longer hours of blackout.
A joint statement of 16 groups, among them Israel's B'Tselem, Peace Now and Rabbis for Human Rights, said they have asked Israel's attorney general to intervene.
They said further cuts would contravene a 2008 Israeli supreme court ruling that years of Israeli control over the strip had created near-total dependence on power supply from Israel and it must therefore continue to provide sufficient electricity to meet humanitarian needs.
When they don't pay their bills?
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#1
Not my problem. You use your money for bombs. Besides, you posers act like you want a state but you are nothing but a bunch of terrors. Get the hell out of Israel. Nothing here belongs to you. At all.
[Ynet] In unusually powerful statement by Palestinian Authority to mark the 10th anniversary of the Gaza coup, the PA says Hamas has created 'the second Nakba that has befallen our people ... Hamas has turned Gaza into an intolerable hell.
ISIS uses human shields. According to the Geneva Conventions, which of course they've not signed, this makes them responsible for the harm that comes to the civilians they hide behind.
[Al Jazeera] Intensified coalition air strikes supporting an assault by US-backed rebel forces on Raqqa, Syria, are causing a "staggering loss of civilian life", United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... war crimes Sherlocks have said.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a group of Kurdish and Arab militias supported by a US-led coalition, began attacking Raqqa a week ago to take it from the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS, also known as ISIS).
Paulo Pinheiro, chairman of the UN Commission of Inquiry, told the Human Rights Council on Wednesday that the increased attacks have resulted "not only in staggering loss of civilian life", but have also "led to 160,000 civilians fleeing their homes".
Pinheiro did not provide a figure for civilian casualties in Raqqa, where rival forces are racing to capture ground from ISIS.
The SDF, supported by heavy coalition air strikes, have taken territory to the west, east and north of the city.
The Syrian army is also advancing on the desert area west of the city.
Residents, as well as the campaign group Raqqa is Being Silently Slaughtered and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor, also say air strikes have killed significant numbers of civilians.
Pinheiro said that if the international coalition's offensive was successful, it could liberate Raqqa's civilian population, including Yazidi women and girls, "whom the group has kept sexually enslaved for almost three years as part of an ongoing and unaddressed genocide".
But it must not be at the expense of civilians who unwillingly find themselves in areas where ISIS is present, he cautioned.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/15/2017 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] When Leefa set out from Indonesia for the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group's Syrian stronghold of Raqa, she says she thought she was headed to an earthly paradise for the faithful. She and her family imagined being surrounded by true believers and expected free healthcare and jobs paying salaries they could only dream of in Indonesia, the world's most populous Moslem-majority country.
But now, as IS battles to defend its onetime bastion, Leefa and 15 other Indonesians are among thousands who have fled Raqa in northern Syria. They are sheltering at a camp for the displaced in Ain Issa, 50 kilometers (around 30 miles) north of Raqa, waiting to learn their fates as the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) advance inside the jihadist bastion.
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Posted by: trailing wife ||
06/15/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
Summary execution for all ISIS members. They knew ISIS was murdering or raping and enslaving innocent people. Show them no mercy.
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.
[Libya Herald] Following the reported release of Saif al-Islam Qadaffy earlier this week, the chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) has called for his immediate arrest.
[Al Jazeera] In mid-May the 
[Breitbart] WASHINGTON, DC -- Political Islam, focused on establishing an unfree society ruled by strict sharia law, is "fundamentally incompatible" with the U.S. Constitution and the overall "foundation of the American way of life," declared Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an expert at the Hoover Institution think tank, during a Senate panel hearing.
[DAWN] Tampering with the records by the government institutions only added to the crimes of the rulers and now they won’t escape the law, said 
Currently the Interior Minister of Pakistain. He is the senior leader of the Pak Moslem League (N) and a close aide to Nawaz 
