Afghanistan’s intelligence agency has arrested five agents of Pakistan’s spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in northeastern Afghanistan.
Caught on the wrong side of the border, were they...
Security officials in Badakhshan province say the arrested ISI agents include two men and three women who had covered themselves as health workers in Baharak and Kisham districts. Public Health Directorate of Badakhshan province says the arrested suspects do not have any documents to indicate that they are doctors or have received medical training.
Ask them how they'd treat blunt force trauma...
Earlier, residents of Wardooj District of Badakhshan province complained that a number of Pakistani generals have entered into their district and met Taliban commanders.
Badakhshan was comparatively a peaceful province of Afghanistan but it has been witnessing its worst security since last year.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/08/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
How did they determine that they were ISI? Were they carrying ISI secret decoder rings?
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
02/08/2016 10:50 Comments ||
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Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) Sunday expressed optimism over the outcome of the third Quadrilateral Group Meeting between senior officials from Afghanistan-Pakistan-US-China in Islamabad, and hoped for a date to be set within three weeks for direct peace negotiations with the insurgent Taliban.
Because that was the key ingredient missing here, a roadmap...
According to MOFA officials, in the meeting, the Afghan and Pakistani officials have committed to talk with force with the groups which do not endorse a peaceful settlement - a move which has been widely welcomed by the US and Chinese officials.
"An agreement was also made that the four member countries of the QCG will continue their efforts for setting out a date for direct negotiations between the authorized representatives of the government of Afghanistan and the Taliban group. The date can be finalized by the end of February 2016," Ahmad Shekib Mustaghni, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
"As far as the issue of the groups which do not endorse peace talks is concerned, Afghanistan and Pakistan have committed and agreed to deal with them with all available resources and continue their strong struggle against them," he said.
It seems that Washington and Beijing have been pushing Islamabad to cooperate with Afghanistan at brokering groundbreaking peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban aimed at curbing violence and restoring peace and stability in the war hit nation.
This comes at a time that former president Hamid Karzai in an interview with Fars News Agency stressed the need for a role by Russia, Iran and India in the peace process of Afghanistan.
"My dear brother Taliban stop your wrongdoing and avoid harming your country and the people, return to your country and support peace in your motherland," Karzai said.
As hopes for the initiation of purposeful peace talks with the Taliban gather momentum, the insurgents continue their violent acts across the nation aimed at proving its strong existence and to score points in the talks.
"Negotiations will not yield an outcome unless there is a ceasefire, direct negotiations and replacing the military strategy with a political strategy. The analysis doesn't accept whether this team belongs to Akhter Mansour or Mullah Rasoul," a member of the high peace council Mohammad Amin Weqad said.
Afghanistan meanwhile hopes that the efforts lead to an outcome before the start of the so-called war season. The fourth round of the QCG is scheduled in the Afghan capital Kabul on 19 February.
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02/08/2016 00:00 ||
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The United Nations Mine Action Center for Afghanistan UNMACA has raised deep concerns over a surge in civilian casualties caused by landmine explosions in Afghanistan, calling on the warring sides to ensure the safety of civilians. According to UNMACA, up to 500,000 square kilometers of land is covered with landmines and other explosive devices which are causing serious threats to the lives of the people.
The statistics revealed by UNMACA shows that on average every month up to 100 people are killed or wounded as a result of landmine explosions and explosions caused by explosive materials.
"Overall we registered at least 100 people who are killed or wounded every month," Mohammad Wakil, deputy head of UNMACA said.
"In 2015, at least 47 of our personnel were killed or wounded. Ten of them killed and 37 others were wounded," he added.
He said that landmines and other explosive devices still threaten the lives of people in 33 provinces.
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02/08/2016 00:00 ||
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[WASHINGTONPOST] The Serbian pilot who landed a jetliner in Somalia with a three-foot hole in its fuselage said Sunday that he never doubted it was caused by a bomb and described the security surrounding the airplane at Aden Adde International Airport in Mogadishu as "zero."
A jacket wallah is suspected to have set off the explosive inside the plane, Somali officials said Saturday. The blast sucked a male passenger out of the plane and forced the aircraft to make an emergency landing Tuesday in Somalia's capital, they said.
The kaboom happened about 15 minutes after the plane, with 74 passengers on board, took off from the airport and was at 11,000 feet ascending toward 30,000 feet.
"If we were higher, the whole plane could have disintegrated after the kaboom," said the pilot, Vlatko Vodopivec.
At a higher altitude, the hole in the fuselage might have caused more severe structural damage, he said.
Because the plane was at a lower altitude, he was able to land it safely, Vodopivec said. "The plane acted normally, and we virtually returned normally. Engines and hydraulics worked normally."
A front man for the Somali government said that closed-circuit footage at the Mogadishu airport shows two men handing what looks like a laptop computer to the suspected suicide bomber after he passed through the security checkpoint.
Spokesman Abdisalam Atto said that at least one of the men delivering the computer was an airport employee and that 20 people, including airport employees, have been locked away Book 'im, Mahmoud! It is believed the laptop-like device was the bomb that caused the kaboom.
The kaboom killed one passenger, Abdullahi Abdisalam Borle, according to Somali officials who did not give more details. A man's body was found in the town of Balad, about 18 miles north of Mogadishu, according to police officials, who said he might have been blown from the plane.
Borle is suspected to have been the suicide bomber, the News Agency that Dare Not be Named was told by a senior Somali civil aviation official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/08/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
"If we were higher, the whole plane could have disintegrated after the kaboom," said the pilot, Vlatko Vodopivec.
Jacket wallahs everywhere thank you for the feedback.
#2
Either normal air, plane turbulence set it off, or in alternate the Bomber(s) failed their math quiz + miscalcalated the required bomb/explosive yield???
Police have arrested 18 foreigners in Maua town in Meru County on Saturday as they were boarding a Nairobi-bound matatu.
A 'matatu' is a minibus. How you do get 18 Somalis into a minibus? Ask the 18 already in the minibus to move over...
Officers said the foreigners, suspected to be Somalia nationals, had travelled from Dadaab in a lorry. The migrants are being held at Maua Police Station for further questioning together with the person who was facilitating their transportation.
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02/08/2016 00:00 ||
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A suspected suicide bomber who blew a hole in the fuselage of a Daallo Airlines plane last week and forced it to make an emergency landing in Mogadishu was meant to be on a Turkish Airlines flight, the Daallo chief executive said on Monday.
The bomber was sucked out of the plane through the one-metre wide hole when the blast ripped open the pressurised cabin in mid-air, officials said. The pilot landed the plane in the Somali capital, from where it had taken off.
No group has so far taken responsibility for the attack but a U.S. government source last week said the United States suspects Islamist militant group al Shabaab, which is aligned to al Qaeda, was responsible for the blast.
Mohamed Yassin, Daallo Airlines chief executive, said most of the passengers who were on the bombed flight were scheduled to fly with Turkish Airlines, but were ferried to Djibouti by one of his planes after the Turkish carrier cancelled its flight, citing bad weather.
"That particular passenger (who was behind the blast) boarded the aircraft on a Turkish Airlines boarding pass and was on the list for the Turkish Airlines manifest," Yassin told Reuters by telephone from Dubai.
Yassin said Daallo picked up the 70 stranded Turkish Airlines passengers to fly them to Djibouti, including the suicide bomber. In total, the flight had 74 passengers.
Turkish Airlines did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Somalia, mired in conflict since civil war broke out in 1991, has few air links outside East Africa. In 2012, Turkish Airlines became the first major international commercial airline to fly out of Somalia in more than two decades.
Mogadishu's heavily guarded airport, which is often compared to the Green Zone in Baghdad, has several safety perimeter fences and checkpoints. It houses a large U.N. compound along with several other Western embassies.
Somali officials said an investigation had been launched and arrests made, including airport workers.
CCTV footage released by the Somali National Intelligence Agency (NISA) appears to show two airport workers inside the terminal handing the suicide bomber a lap top stuffed with explosives, according to the government spokesman.
"Some of the people that we have arrested are co-operating," spokesman Abdisalam Aato told Reuters. He said security at the airport has been stepped up and that the government was seeking new technologies to improve screenings.
Al Shabaab, which wants to topple the government and impose a harsh version of Islamic law, has targeted the airport in the past. It has also attacked the Turkish embassy in Mogadishu.
Yassin said Daallo has been reassured by Somali officials that security was being improved, and will keep flying to Somalia. We have been there for 25 years," he said. "Our efforts to keep Somalia linked to the rest of the world will continue." Improve security? By having you promise you'll behave on the plane or something similarly draconian?
After Egypt President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi apologised for not finishing the reconstruction work of Christian properties damaged in the aftermath of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi’s ouster in 2013, the engineering unit of the Armed Forces immediately started cooperating with Coptic authorities to wrap up the pending renovations, religious Coptic figures said.
While visiting Cairo's St. Mark Cathedral on Christmas Eve, El-Sisi apologised to the country's Christians over the delay in the completion of renovations, which he says will be done by the end of 2016.
The churches undergoing renovation were attacked in August 2013 on the day of the dispersals of pro-Morsi sit-ins in Cairo, with the ensuing hours seeing sectarian attacks against Christians in Upper Egypt, where the Coptic population is relatively large. El-Sisi, who was defence minister at the time, immediately announced that the Armed Forces would pay the costs of renovating and rebuilding all churches damaged in the attacks, which lasted over 12 hours.
In October 2013, the Egyptian Family House called for an initiative to renovate the damaged houses of worship and opened a bank account to receive donations. The Family House is an authority launched by Egypt's Al-Azhar – the country's highest Muslim Sunni authority – and all Egyptian churches immediately after the deadly 2011 bombing of the Two Saints Church in Alexandria, one of the most infamous attacks on churches in the country's modern history. The Family House's mission is to unite Muslim and Christian Egyptians to ease sectarian strife.
Safwat El-Bayadi, the former head of Egypt's Evangelical Church and a member of the Family House, told Ahram Online that "unfortunately, we only received EGP 9 million and $8,000 since the initiative started, which is a very small amount of money in relation to the damages."
Restoration work sponsored by the Armed Forces will cost some EGP 200 million ($25.5 million).
"I appreciate so much the president's promise to continue the restoration process this year," said Bishop Macarius of Minya in a phone call with Ahram Online.
"14 August 2013 marks the worst attacks in the Church's modern history, as all Christian lives were threatened," Macarius added. "They lost their properties in seconds, but thank God despite all the sectarian incidents and discrimination, Christianity in Egypt not only remains, but flourishes."
Although Christians only make up roughly 10 percent of the Egypt’s 90 million people, many Islamists blamed Copts for the massive, nationwide protests that preceded Morsi’s ouster on 3 July 2013.
The attacks following the dispersal of two pro-Morsi sit-ins targeted churches and Christian religious institutions, as well as Coptic-owned properties including six Christian schools, 60 houses, 85 shops, three hotels and 80 vehicles. A number of Christians were also killed in the attacks.
According to a report issued by Coptic rights group Maspero Youth Union (MYU), supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, the group from which Morsi hails, destroyed and set fire to around 65 Churches. Some these churches, according to the report, dated as far back as the fourth century.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/08/2016 00:00 ||
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The U.N. Security Council decided to hold an emergency meeting on Sunday to discuss North Korea's long-range rocket launch, officials said.
Pudgy's quivering in his Guccis...
The meeting was scheduled after South Korea's mission to the U.N. sent a letter requesting an emergency meeting to the council president, Venezuela's U.N. Ambassador Rafael Dario Ramirez Carreno, officials said. The United States and Japan also requested an emergency meeting, they said.
Following the North's Jan. 6 nuclear test, the 15-member council also held an emergency meeting and strongly condemned the test.
Worked well, didn't it. Quite the deterrent...
The North fired the rocket from its northwest Dongchang-ri launch site at 9:30 a.m. (Korean time), one month after its fourth nuclear test, sending the already-high tensions on the Korean Peninsula soaring higher. The launch, which is banned under U.N. resolutions,
Banned? And they did it anyway? They defied the U.N.? How could that happen...
came as the U.N. Security Council has been working on a new resolution imposing sanctions on Pyongyang for the nuclear test and is sure to spark stronger calls to punish the communist nation.
North Korea says its rocket launches are aimed at putting satellites into orbit, claiming it has the right to the peaceful use of space. But Pyongyang is banned from such launches under U.N. Security Council resolutions as it has been correctly accused of using them as a cover for testing intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/08/2016 00:00 ||
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South Korea and the United States have agreed to begin negotiations for the deployment of an advanced American air defense system on South Korean soil, officials said Sunday, despite opposition from China and Russia.
Allow your client state to fire off long-range missiles and this is the response, China...
The announcement on the controversial defense system, Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, was given just hours after North Korea launched a long-range missile as part of the continual push of its intercontinental ballistic missile tests.
"The U.S. and South Korea have decided to start official discussion on the possibility of U.S. Forces Korea's deployment of THAAD as part of measures to upgrade the South Korea-U.S. alliance's missile defense posture against North Korea's advancing threats," Yoo Jeh-seung, deputy minister for policy, said in a joint briefing with Lt. Gen. Thomas Vandal, the commander of USFK's Eighth Army.
Vandal said the decision was made upon USFK Commander Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti's recommendation, adding that "it is time to move forward on the issue."
Ted Cruz, in the Saturday debate, noted that a Nork 'satellite' with a nuclear warhead would make a dandy EMP. As usual, we're doing nothing about it.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/08/2016 00:00 ||
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I think deploying (launching) MIRVs might be more effective.
#5
The US Navy has MIRV but has a putz disregarding its use. I think the ROK should be interested in their own future, not one relying upon someone elected as "American Idol" in Washington.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
02/08/2016 13:53 Comments ||
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#7
"Less than a year and then a new CNC" > FYI #6 a good number of Guam Locals + Netters still have doubts about that one, i.e. something(s) bad will occur which will cause the Bammer + Congress to PCorrectly unilaterally suspend the Constitution + Habeas Corpus + lead to a Bammer 3rd [4th, etc] POTUS Term???
As perhaps best illustrated this week by 2016 Dem POTUS Candidate BERNIE SANDERS's proclamation that his election as POTUS will signal or herald a new, decisive "Political Revolution" in America, THE OWG GLOBALISTS + ALIGNED MARXISTS-COMMIES-SOCIALISTS HAVE GIVEN THE US UNTIL YEAR 2025 TO BE FORMALLY SUBORNED UNDER OWG + GLOBAL SOCIALIST ORDER - IFF NOT, THEY RESERVE THEIR RIGHT TO USE "ANY MEANS NECESSARY" TO ACHIEVE SAME INCLUD BUT NOT LIMITED TO DE FACTO ARMED/VIOLENT DOMESTIC MILITANCY + REVOLUTION, ETC.
Perhaps its Dubya + Jeb Brother NEIL BUSH that should've run for POTUS this year - LEST WE FERGIT, NEIL IS THE BUSH RELATION THAT IS ALLEGEDLY OR REPOR A DE FACTO REGISTERED MEMBER OF BOTH THE US + INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST + COMMUNIST PARTIES.
As things will likely get worse before they get better, I suspect any continuation of US-World woes will Post-Sanders lead to a Hardline, Not-Yet-Full-Stalinist-Marxist-Leninist Commie(s) openly running for POTUS after 2020.
* REUTERS > NORTH KOREA ROCKET LAUNCH MAY SPUR BUILDUP OF US MISSLE DEFENSE SYSTEMS IN ASIA.
Lest we fergit, US-led GMD-TMD "SHARING" WID REGIONAL ALLIES IN EAST ASIA BY 2018 OR ASAP AFTER.
* HERITAGE FOUNDATION > DAILY SIGNAL: NORTH KOREA MISSLE LAUNCH SHOWS [NoKor] COULD TARGET US HOMELAND [CONUS, + Guam-CNMI, Hawaii, Alaska], NORTH KORE EXTENDS MISSLE RANGE TO COVER CONTINENTAL US.
* WORLD NEWS > [Star-N-Stripes] GAME-CHANGING US MISSLES [ABM-BMD = THAAD] MAY ALTER NORTH ASIAN GEOPOLITICS.
Perhaps, IMO, as Pudgy = NOKOR's KJU may had ulteriorily intended.
Again, NOKOR desires to formally reunify wid SOKOR ASAP AMAP ALAP, but China = CCP/CPC in Beijing is highly unlikely to agree to such unless China first gets back de facto sovereign control of TAIWAN.
Pudgy knows that China will take over NOKOR in case of wartime or econ collapse - as China is already overwhelmingly NOKOR's main = one-n-only real trading partner, widout regular or routine trade wid the US-Allies/West NOKOR faces so-called "CREEPING SINO-IZATION/SINIZATION"
= TAKEOVER BY CHINA ANYWAY.
TO SAVE HIS COUNTRY FROM CHINESE TAKEOVER FOR ANY REASON, I HAVE NO DOUBTS THAT PUDGY = KJU WILL FIND A WAY TO UNILATERALLY OR ASYMETRICALLY START A MAJOR US-CHINA WAR IN NE ASIA ANDOR EAST ASIA + INDUCE US-LED MIL INVASION OF NOKOR. IMO PUDGY + REGIME INTENDS FOR NOKOR TO DESTROY ITSELF RATHER THAN SEE CHINA = BEIJING TAKEOVER ANOTHER PIECE OF THE ANCIENT KOREAN HOMELAND.
* RELATED SAME > [Zee News] CHINA'S OPPOSITION TO US MISSLE SHIELD MAY AFFECT HANDLING OF NORTH KOREA.
* DAILY BEAST > NORTH KOREAN NUKE-CAPABLE MISSLE COULD HIT US AND BE SOLD TO IRAN.
The "Franchise" venture is successful???
As per the MSM-Net, since Iranian scientists, along wid Pakistani + Chinese, etal. repor are among those whom helped NOKOR dev its successful LR Rocket, I suspect IRAN ALREADY HAS THE TECH.
'TIS ONLY A QUESTION AS TO "WHEN" IRAN'S GOVT. WILL PUBLICLY ADMIT TO IT.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said he would not meet with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi unless the death sentences of ousted President Mohammad Morsi and other Muslim Brotherhood members are revised and lifted, Turkish media reports said.
Answering a question from reporters on any development in relationships between Egypt and Turkey, Erdoğan said his stance on the issue was clear. Saying that ministers could hold meetings with their Egyptian counterparts, Erdoğan stated that he, however, would not welcome the Turkish prime minister having meetings with Egyptian officials.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/08/2016 00:00 ||
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No doubt President el-Sisi is not devastated. The more so as he clearly sees himself as analogous to those generations of Turkish generals who prevented the civilians from sliding back into a religious morass, and so must be displeased with the treatment of the current generation, ordered into jails and courtrooms.
In one of his strongest remarks to date, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has lambasted the US after a senior official's visit last week to the northern Syrian town of Kobani, which is under the control of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), and called on Washington to choose either Turkey or "terrorists in Kobani" as a partner.
Boy howdy, there's a tough call...
Erdoğan directed severe criticism at the visit to the town by Brett McGurk, US President Barack Obama's special envoy for the anti-Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) coalition. The visit came at a time where Geneva peace talks were taking place, and the Turkish president declared that the US should make a choice between the PYD and Turkey.
Erdoğan has called on the US and the European Union to list the major Syrian Kurdish political party and its armed wing as terrorist organizations over their affiliation with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is fighting against the Turkish state and which is regarded as a terrorist group by Washington and Brussels.
"You accept the PKK as a terrorist organization? Then why don't you list the PYD and [People's Protection Units] YPG as terrorist organizations, too?"
This is not the first time Erdoğan has made such a call. His and other senior Turkish leaders' calls reflect a split between Ankara and its allies over how to treat the Syrian Kurdish party and its armed faction.
The Kurdish militia the YPG has been a reliable ally in the fight against ISIL on the ground and has benefited from the US arms supply on several occasions.
While the US and EU share Turkey's view toward the PKK and sees it as a terrorist organization, they differ in their views regarding the PYD and YPG.
During his visit, McGurk met with senior PYD and YPG officials and pledged further support for Syrian Kurds. He also visited a cemetery and paid his respects to YPG fighters killed during a months-long battle with ISIL in Kobani. It was the first time a top US official has visited the YPG-controlled town, reflecting the type of relationship the US and the PYD enjoy. The US airdropped weapons and munitions during the siege of Kobani.
"We discovered advanced Russian, US and European weapons in PKK cells during military operations in southeastern Turkey. Where do these weapons come from?" the Turkish president asked, revealing Turkey's growing anxiety that some of the weapons provided by the US and EU to the YPG end up in PKK hands.
"The PKK is a terrorist organization and the YPG is too. The PYD is what the PKK is. [US Vice President] Joe Biden came with an official. A national security official [Obama's envoy]. He visits Kobani at the time of the Geneva talks and is awarded a plaque by a so-called YPG general. How can we trust [you]?" Erdoğan said, expressing his dismay over McGurk's visit.
McGurk was given a plaque by YPG official Polat Can, a former PKK member. It sparked a harsh reaction from Ankara as Erdoğan called on the US to choose, saying, “Am I your ally or are the ‘terrorists' in Kobani?”
Erdoğan also repeated his criticism of Russian air strikes in Syria. The Turkish president said on Friday that Russia must be held accountable for the people it has killed in Syria, arguing that Moscow and Damascus were together responsible for 400,000 deaths there.
Erdoğan also dismissed a Russian statement that Turkey was preparing for an incursion in Syria, saying he is “laughing” at the claim. Ankara has dismissed this as propaganda intended to conceal Russia's own "crimes."
Erdoğan said Russia was engaged in an invasion of Syria and accused it of trying to set up a "boutique state" for its longtime ally President Bashar al-Assad.
"Russia must be held accountable for the people it has killed within Syria's borders," the Doğan news agency quoted him as saying. "By cooperating with the regime, the number of people they have killed has reached 400,000."
His comments are likely to further anger Moscow. Relations between Turkey, a NATO member, and Russia hit their worst low in recent memory last November after Turkey shot down a Russian warplane Ankara said had violated Turkish airspace from Syria.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/08/2016 00:00 ||
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Really like you fucking stood with the US when you refused to let the 4th ID cross into Iraq?
Turkish police raided three factories in the western province of Izmir producing unlicensed and faulty dinghies sold to refugees trying to sail to Greek Islands, state-run Anadolu news agency reported on Saturday.
Some 49 faulty dinghies were seized in the operation, the agency said. Video released by police showed the interior of a factory where poor-quality boats were produced. Mattresses were also seen stacked against the wall for use in the boats.
So the factory hadn't seen an OSHA inspector in quite a while...
The number of refugees braving the seas seeking sanctuary in Europe dipped towards the end of last year coinciding with colder weather, but the total figure still reached one million in 2015, nearly five times more than in the previous year.
In a deal struck at the end of November, Turkey promised to help prevent refugees from heading to Europe in return for cash, visas and renewed talks on joining the EU.
Turkey is host to 2.5 million Syrians and has spent around $8.5 billion on feeding and housing them since the start of the civil war nearly five years ago, but it has been criticized for lacking a longer term integration strategy to give Syrians a future there.
In Izmir, a cemetery has been established for unidentified refugees who have drowned at sea as they try to make the dangerous journey. Izmir's rundown Basmane neighborhood hosts thousands of Syrians who work in temporary jobs and buy cheap life jackets and buoys as they wait for the right time to sail to Greek islands.
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02/08/2016 00:00 ||
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Erbil, Kurdistan -- Like many morning radio personalities, Noor Matti pokes fun at people in the headlines. But unlike the Detroit disc jockeys he grew up listening to, he knows his on-air antics could get him killed.
Matti, a Chaldean, often uses his time on the air to needle Islamic extremists ‐ a dangerous proposition since his station is in Iraq, less than 50 miles from Mosul, the capital of the Islamic State group, often referred to as IS or ISIS.
"Music is a big middle finger to ISIS," said Matti, who hosts "The Breakfast Club," a Detroit-themed show that airs from 8-10 a.m.
"With music, you can talk about love, or whatever else is on your mind, and you can do it free of being threatened. And ISIS hates that. When ISIS invaded Mosul (in June 2014), they took all the musical instruments into the city center and burned them. Every piano; every guitar; every drum set. Every CD.
"That, of course, is the core of their principle: believing people don't have the right to express themselves. The Islamic State expresses everything for you."
"Our signal reaches them. They hear us. I wouldn't say I'm scared, although I know the threat is there. I know someone is probably planning to come get me. I don't think about it. If something's going to happen, it's going to happen."
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 ||
02/08/2016 00:00 ||
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Hundreds of Labor Party activists voted Sunday to endorse party leader Isaac Herzog's plan to separate from the Palestinians at a convention at the Tel Aviv Fairgrounds.
The plan passed with little opposition at the event, in which Herzog was welcomed warmly and not heckled, as he was at a party event in Holon last week.
"The two-state vision did not die, but it will not happen tomorrow," Herzog told the crowd. "What can be achieved today is security for the citizens of Israel and separation between us and the Palestinians, with actions, not mere words."
A senior official in the United Arab Emirates says the Persian Gulf state is ready to send troops to Syria to join a US-led campaign allegedly fighting Takfiri Daesh group. Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said at a press conference in Abu Dhabi that "this has been our position throughout" as the UAE has been “frustrated at the slow pace .... of confronting Daesh."
"We are not talking about thousands of troops but we are talking about troops on the ground that will lead the way ... that will support ... and I think our position remains the same and we will have to see how this progresses," he said, noting that the “US leadership” of the campaign is the UAE’s prerequisite.
The announcement came after Saudi Arabia said on February 4 that it was ready to participate in any ground operations in Syria if the US-led coalition decides to start such operations. US State Department spokesman John Kirby welcomed the Saudi decision.
Syrian Foreign Ministry Walid al-Muallem has said that any “ground intervention on Syrian territory without government authorization would amount to an aggression that must be resisted.”
He has also warned that potential aggressors would return home in a “wooden coffin.”
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/08/2016 00:00 ||
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Both the UAE + KSA have now repor offered to send SPECOP units into Syria, as opposed to sending in massive ground or conventional forces in general or all-out mil intervention.
The US is giving the KSA kudos for their new SPECOPS offer, + likely will do same to the UAE.
[WASHINGTONPOST] A member of a British cohort within 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.... that oversaw the brutal detention and beheading of Western hostages in Syria has been identified as Alexanda Kotey, a 32-year-old convert to Islam who grew up in West London.
Kotey is the second holy warrior among the group of Islamic State jailers to be named following the unmasking last year by The Washington Post of "Jihadi John" as Mohammed Emwazi -- the infamous masked man, also a West Londoner, who beheaded American, British and Japanese hostages on video as he taunted Western leaders.
Emwazi, 27, was killed in a drone strike in November in Raqqa, the Islamic State's de facto capital in Syria, along with another unidentified man. It is unclear whether that second man was also one of the four guards who watched over and tortured Western hostages and were nicknamed the "Beatles" by their prisoners because of their English accents.
Kotey, of Ghanaian and Greek Cypriot background, was identified through a joint Post and BuzzFeed News investigation. His name was confirmed by a U.S. intelligence official and other people familiar with British nationals in Syria, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.
Kotey’s family in London declined to comment, as did British security officials.
It’s not clear whether Kotey was the guard known as “Ringo” or “George.” A fourth, Paul, played a smaller role in the group and did not appear until later in the detention of some of those held by the Islamic State. Kotey’s current whereabouts are unknown.
European hostages who were released after their governments paid ransom said the four Britons always wore masks in their presence. Of all the guards, the Britons were the cruelest, former hostages said, subjecting the prisoners to regular beatings, waterboarding and mock executions.
A Danish hostage, Daniel Rye, who was released in June 2014, recounted in a memoir how Ringo viciously kicked him 25 times in his ribs on his 25th birthday. His captors said it was a gift. George, according to Rye, was the most violent and unpredictable and also dominated the group of jailers.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/08/2016 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.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) Sunday expressed optimism over the outcome of the third Quadrilateral Group Meeting between senior officials from Afghanistan-Pakistan-US-China in Islamabad, and hoped for a date to be set within three weeks for direct peace negotiations with the insurgent Taliban.
The United Nations Mine Action Center for Afghanistan UNMACA has raised deep concerns over a surge in civilian casualties caused by landmine explosions in Afghanistan, calling on the warring sides to ensure the safety of civilians. According to UNMACA, up to 500,000 square kilometers of land is covered with landmines and other explosive devices which are causing serious threats to the lives of the people.
A suspected suicide bomber who blew a hole in the fuselage of a Daallo Airlines plane last week and forced it to make an emergency landing in Mogadishu was meant to be on a Turkish Airlines flight, the Daallo chief executive said on Monday.
Turkish police raided three factories in the western province of Izmir producing unlicensed and faulty dinghies sold to refugees trying to sail to Greek Islands, state-run Anadolu news agency reported on Saturday.
