[Iran Press TV Latest] Election workers in Afghanistan have begun recounting ballots of the disputed votes in the August presidential election. A commission backed by the United Nations called for a partial recount of the votes from about 10 percent of the disputed polling stations.
The move is expected to end weeks of political tension caused by allegations of fraud. Last month's results showed the incumbent president, Hamid Karzai, as the winner with 54.6 percent of the votes.
The coming to power of an effective government in Kabul is considered central to tackling the growing violence.
There are now around 100,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan but the Taliban have been stepping up their attacks since they were driven from power in 2001.
In the latest string of violent attacks on Saturday, eight US troops were killed when their outpost in Nuristan province came under Taliban fire.
Following the deadly attack, US and Afghan forces sealed off an area where the assailants responsible for the incident were believed to be hiding, Afghan officials said Monday.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/06/2009 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir on Monday invited the country's opposition for talks aimed at avoiding clashes in next year's general election, a week after they threatened to boycott it.
"We wish to have general elections without violence. I invite all the parties to a dialogue... in order to reach a positive climate to hold elections," Bashir told parliament.
Africa's largest country is to hold presidential, parliamentary and local elections in April 2010, its first general election since 1986.
After Bashir's coup in 1989, subsequent votes were slammed as a sham by the country's opposition.
Southern former rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), who now share a unity government with Bashir's National Congress Party, joined other opposition parties last week in threatening to boycott elections if the laws guaranteeing basic freedoms are not passed by Nov. 30.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/06/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Make sure it's outside in the middle of a large, mowed field, and bring your own food and drink.
[Bangla Daily Star] Criminal Investigation Department (CID) took two members of Lashkar-e-Taiba of India on a three-day remand in connection with the blast at a rally of Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) in 2001.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Golam Rabbani yesterday passed the remand order after CID produced Mufti Obaidullah and Mansur Ali before the court seeking ten days' remand.
Earlier, they were shown arrested in the case as the CID found their involvement in the incident.
In the forwarding report, CID Inspector Mrinal Kanti Saha, also the investigation officer (IO) of the case, said he gathered information from Harkatul Jihad (Huji) chief Mufti Abdul Hannan that the two militants were directly involved with the incident.
So, they need to be remanded to find out vital clues about the blast, the IO said.
Defending himself Mufti Obaidullah told the court that he along with his family members left his motherland India nine years back due to torture by Hindus.
He was not involved with militant activities. Moreover, he is a teacher of a Quami Madrasah. So, he prayed for cancelling his remand.
On the other hand, Mansur Ali did not say anything about the remand prayer sought by the IO of the case.
Mufti Hannan, BNP leader Ariful Islam, also a ward councillor of Dhaka City Corporation and several other Huji members were shown arrested in the case and taken on remand to identify those responsible for the offences.
On January 21, 2001, five people were killed and 50 others injured in the bomb blasts at a rally of CPB.
Following the attack, CPB President Monjurul Ahsan Khan filed a bomb blast case with Motijheel Police Station, saying a group of anti-state conspirators made the attack.
The police arrested 12 people at that time, but the CID submitted the final report on December 17, 2003, as correct, impartial and reliable pieces of evidence were not found to prove the charges against the arrestees.
In the report, the IO said he would press charges if sufficient evidence was found against the arrestees.
The IO submitted a petition with the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court for reinvestigation into the case on January 27, 2005 and the court directed him for fresh probe into the case after two days.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/06/2009 00:00 ||
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North Korea has received the equivalent of about $2.2 billion under deals aimed at persuading the isolated nation to dismantle its nuclear facilities, a South Korean lawmaker said Monday, in what his office says is the first accounting of the cost of the failed strategy.
...
But before that, the equivalent of nearly $2 billion flowed into North Korea, ruling Grand National Party lawmaker Kwon Young-se said in a statement. South Korea spent $1.15 billion, Japan $410 million and the EU $18 million on the reactors. Meanwhile, the U.S. sent $400 million worth of fuel oil to the North.
In 2007, however, China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the U.S. tried again, promising the North 1 million tons of fuel oil and other concessions in return for disablement. So far, 745,000 tons of oil estimated to be worth $310 million have been shipped to the North under the new deal, the statement said.
In addition to the money it was given in the disarmament-for-aid deals, the North has also received nearly 4 trillion won ($3.4 billion) of food, fertilizer and other humanitarian aid from the U.S., South Korea and international organizations over the past 10 years, Kwon's office said.
Posted by: ed ||
10/06/2009 11:38 ||
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In this case its the towering IDIOTS of SKOR, USA, Japan, and China who keep doing the same thing and expecting different results who are the INSANE ones.
The NOKs, you have to admin, are pretty smart about leading the fools on.
North Korea is thought to have 13 types of viruses and germs which can be used in biological weapons, as well as up to 5,000 tons of chemical weapons, South Korea's defence ministry said Monday.
In a report to parliament, the ministry said the communist North has one of the world's largest stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons. The list of diseases that could be caused by the biological weapons includes cholera, yellow fever, smallpox, eruptive typhus, typhoid fever and dysentery, it said. The ministry estimated its neighbour's stockpile of chemical weapons at between 2,500 to 5,000 tons.
The assertions that the North has chemical and biological weapons, in addition to its nuclear and conventional weaponry, are not new. But Monday's report gave more details of the alleged biological arsenal. The International Crisis Group said in a report in June that Pyongyang's nuclear capabilities are the greatest threat, but it also has a large chemical weapons stockpile and a suspected biological weapons programme.
The chemical weapons could be deliverable by artillery or missile to cause massive civilian casualties in South Korea, the Brussels-based think-tank said. The stockpile includes between 2,500-5,000 tons of mustard gas, phosgene, blood agents, sarin, tabun and persistent nerve agents and can be delivered by long-range artillery, missiles, aircraft and naval vessels, it said.
Nuclear sites: The South Korean defence minister said his country knows of about 100 sites linked to North Korea's nuclear programme and has the capacity to strike them if an attack from the North is imminent, the defence minister said Monday. "There are about 100 sites related to the nuclear" programme, Kim Tae-Young told legislators during a parliamentary audit of his ministry's work. "We have a complete list of them," Yonhap news agency quoted him as saying.
Kim expressed confidence his forces could hit any of them "if it is absolutely clear a North Korean offensive is imminent." Similar comments by Kim last month drew criticism from the North's official cabinet newspaper Minju Josun.
South Korea seized and searched containers shipped by North Korea on a Panama-registered freighter last month but found no suspicious cargo, reports said on Monday. Security authorities on September 22 launched a joint inspection of the ship, which was docked in the southern port of Busan after arriving from China, Yonhap news agency said. The communist North and capitalist South have remained technically at war since their 1950-53 conflict ended only in an armistice and not a peace treaty. The North has conducted two atomic weapons tests since 2006.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/06/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
If they have smallpox the Russians gave it to them.
Russia was allowed to keep smallpox after its eradication in the wild.
Seoul has a list of about 100 locations "related to North Korean nuclear weapons and programs," Defense Minister Kim Tae-young said Monday. He was answering a question from Grand National Party lawmaker Yoo Seong-min during a parliamentary audit of the Defense Ministry and the Joint Chiefs of Staff headquarters. Yoo asked whether the JCS has information where the North's nuclear weapons are stored.
But Kim added, "We don't have accurate information on how many nuclear bombs [North Korea] has because such bombs are not big enough.
Although it's not certain whether North Korea possesses nuclear weapons, we have sufficient information" about the locations of the means of a nuclear attack such as missiles and aircraft.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/06/2009 00:00 ||
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Our spy satellites are not good enough to count individual completed bombs stored deep inside the mountain?
SEOUL, Oct. 6 (Yonhap) -- The youngest son and heir apparent of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is believed to be working as a mid-level staffer at the country's Workers' Party, where he is apparently being groomed to assume leadership, a lawmaker said Tuesday. Kim, who reportedly suffered a stroke last year, is said to be preparing to hand over the throne to his third son Jong-un. Information on the son remains scarce as the communist regime exercises tight controls on it.
Jong-un, born in 1984, was confirmed to have been given a "deputy director-level" post at an unknown branch inside the party, Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun of the ruling Grand National Party said, citing an intelligence report he received from the government. Yoon did not disclose the source of the report.
The heir apparent was also forecast to be officially tapped as the next leader between 2010 and 2012, most likely through a full-scale party convention.
According to the lawmaker, the son is presumed to have received a degree from the Kim Il Sung Military University through private tutoring. Like his father, Jong-un appears not to have served in the military.
Oh no, he's never soiled his hands a day in his life ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/06/2009 00:00 ||
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Turks with low IQs and poor child-rearing practices are "conquering Germany" by breeding two or three times as fast, Dr Thilo Sarrazin, a member of the executive board and head of the bank's risk control operations, told Europe's culture magazine 'Lettre International', the Telegraph reported on Monday.
"A large number of Arabs and Turks in this city, whose number has grown through bad policies, have no productive function other than as fruit and vegetable vendors," he said. "Forty percent of all births occur in the lower classes. Our educated population is becoming stupider from generation to generation. What's more, they cultivate an aggressive and atavistic mentality. It's a scandal that Turkish boys won't listen to female teachers because that is what their culture tells them", he said. "I'd rather have East European Jews with an IQ that is 15 percent higher than the German population," he added. Sarrazin has since apologised but his comments may have breached Germany's anti-racism laws. The Bundesbank's staff union said over the weekend that his position had become "untenable".
Posted by: Fred ||
10/06/2009 00:00 ||
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This argument is a valid argument, but who has the lower IQ? Those who escape to a country with awesome welfare benefits and free education or those who allow the lifeboats to be swamped by people who have made clear their intention to throw overboard those who throw them the life-life once they are pulled on board?
#3
The same ideas were developed in Mike Judge's comedy, "Idiocracy." Unfortunately, FOX pulled the film after spending $30 million on it. As if FOX is in the battle against "dumbing down."
Posted by: Ulineper Scourge of the Veal Cutlets9295 ||
10/06/2009 7:50 Comments ||
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#4
"I'd rather have East European Jews with an IQ that is 15 percent higher than the German population," he added.
....but I'm just a simple gold dealer and lanpshade salesman, what do I know.
#7
LH,
I figure the WOT is so connected with the culture clash between the West and the Islamic world that any material about that clash is relevant to understanding the background of the WOT.
WASHINGTON - For the past five years, researchers in a modest office overlooking the New Haven green have carefully documented cases of assassination and torture of democracy activists in Iran. With more than $3 million in grants from the US State Department, they have pored over thousands of documents and Persian-language press reports and interviewed scores of witnesses and survivors to build dossiers on those they say are Iran's most infamous human-rights abusers.
But just as the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center was ramping up to investigate abuses of protesters after this summer's disputed presidential election, the group received word that - for the first time since it was formed - its federal funding request had been denied.
"If there is one time that I expected to get funding, this was it,'' said Rene Redman, the group's executive director, who had asked for $2.7 million in funding for the next two years. "I was surprised, because the world was watching human rights violations right there on television.''
Easier for Obama to do a deal with Short Round if embarrassing evidence about human rights violations just goes away ...
Just weeks before the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, an Afghan immigrant with ties to a senior al-Qaida operative drew the attention of U.S. intelligence organizations, intelligence officials familiar with the investigation say.
The fact that intelligence officials learned of Zazi through a CIA source sheds more light on the government's claim that the charges against him are part of a broader, international case and begins to explain why the investigation triggered such a large offensive from the nation's intelligence community.
It also shows the case stems from the CIA's counterterrorism efforts to track al-Qaida rather than an investigation initiated in this country by someone's suspicious actions, like most other domestic terrorism cases handled by the FBI.
Zazi is the only suspect publicly identified in the terror plot. More arrests are expected. Prosecutors have said three others in New York City worked with Zazi, although they do not currently pose a threat.
The Khasadar Force personnel whose services were terminated last month -- after they failed to report for duty following a warning from Taliban-linked militant group Lashkar-e-Islam -- have requested the authorities to reinstate them.
Addressing a press conference at the Peshawar Press Club (PPC), naib subedar Shah Jahan and subedars Muhammad Rehman, Zarmeen Gul and Muhammad Ali Khan said the operation had been going on in Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency for the past one month, during which the services of 604 personnel of the Khasadar Force -- belonging to different clans of the Afridi tribe -- had been terminated. They said most of them belonged to poor families and had no other source of income.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/06/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
I'd rehire, not reinstate them at the bottom most rank, obviously they were'nt trained right, or the training was ignored.
Let them EARN rank, then they'll appreciate it.
Do it again and bye bye permanently.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/06/2009 12:43 Comments ||
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An Egyptian daily reports that the country's top Muslim cleric is planning to ban female students from wearing the face veil from schools run by al-Azhar, Sunni Islam's most prestigious institute of learning. The independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm said in a report on Monday that Sayyed Tantawi would soon order the ban implemented in all of al-Azhar's institutions. A security official also said they had verbal orders to prevent students wearing the face-covering veil, known as the niqab, from entering al-Azhar schools, and dormitories of three Cairo universities for security reasons. Sunni Muslim scholars are divided on whether a woman must cover her face, with the majority saying it is not an obligation, but all mainstream scholars agree a woman must cover her hair and body with loose fitting clothes. In the Middle East, the niqab has come to be associated with Salafism, a brand of ultra-conservative Islam practiced mostly in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/06/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Don't want men hiding under that veil might see women in their sgcanties.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/06/2009 0:29 Comments ||
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#1
Don't worry. Be happy. Obama will ask them nicely not to, and so they won't.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
10/06/2009 17:11 Comments ||
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#2
Uh, uh, NOTSWINE in APPLE/PEAR GROUP LOVE???
Gut nuthin.
ARTIC > IMO iff true it shows that Radical islam includ ISLAMIST IRAN are trying to secure the hinterlands = periphery of future ISLAMIST NUCLEAR ASIA, FKA AS RUSSIA, CHINA + INDIA, ETC, and ENCLAVES THEREFROM.
#3
This sounds like total BS. To begin with, chemical weapons are a two-edged sword. You can't effectively use them unless you have protection yourself. The Iranians are intensely aware of this going back to the Iran-Iraq war. Chemical protective and decontamination equipment is prohibited anywhere near Iran, unless the US military has it.
Second thing is that right now, if Iran attacked Iraq, there is a strong possibility that Iraq would kick seven bells out of Iran. Iraq's status of forces right now would make even Russia hesitate before getting into a fight with them.
Third is that the Saudis are sure as hell not going to make a deal with the Iranians, because the Iranians want the Saud family and the Wahabbis deposed, and for Shiites to rule Mecca and Medina. And the Saudis have some pretty formidable teeth as well.
Finally, nobody likes the Iranians. If they try any kind of stunt like this, there is going to be a "pile on" like nobody's business. Even the Egyptians might decide to play.
Iran plans to install a more advanced type of centrifuge at its newly revealed uranium enrichment site, an Iranian newspaper reported Tuesday, a development certain to add to international concerns about the country's nuclear work.
A Western intelligence assessment that has been cited by diplomats says the new site is meant to house no more than 3,000 enriching centrifuges much less than the more than 8,000 machines at Natanz.
That assessment also notes that the site could be set up for more advanced domestically developed centrifuges that would process uranium at much higher speed and efficiency, adding to concern that such a site could be used to enrich uranium to the higher levels needed to make weapons.
Posted by: ed ||
10/06/2009 10:31 ||
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Shortround needs a war to get the people behind him!
[Iran Press TV Latest] Israeli Army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi and his American counterpart Admiral Mike Mullen have held secret talks in France with a special focus on Iran.
The two officials, who met in the northern French region of Normandy on Sunday, also discussed the Middle East, reports say.
Ashkenazi also discussed the developments in Iran with French Armed Forces Chief of Staff General Jean-Louis Georgelin.
The meeting comes ahead of the US and Israel's largest military drill, which is scheduled for later this month. The maneuver is planned to simulate missile strikes on Israel.
For years, Israel has threatened to bomb Iran's nuclear installations.
Dodging scrutiny over its own arsenal of up to 200 nuclear weapons, Israel accuses Iran of refining uranium for military purposes.
Iran, however, continues to dismiss the allegation, saying its nuclear activities are solely aimed at peaceful application of the technology.
Tehran says its nuclear program is aimed at generating electricity, under close monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Iran has vowed a 'firm response' to any military action by foreign invaders, while downplaying the threat of any attack on the country by Israel.
"Talk of an Israeli attack on Iran is merely a ploy," Iran's Armed Forces Joint Chief of Staff Major General Hassan Firouzabadi had said in September.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/06/2009 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] A former spy of Iran's Revolutionary Guards reveals Monday the existence of thousands of intelligence cells for the Islamic Republic in most Arab countries, especially those in the Arab Gulf.
The former undercover agent, who declined to be named for security reasons, said there are 40,000 Iranian spies in the Arab Gulf states, 3,000 of them in Kuwait alone. He added that many are mercenaries paid for limited services while others are regular employees in the Revolutionary Guards.
" These cells are woven with skill similar to the weaving of a Farsi carpet; they are often quintets of four members plus a commander and no one of them is aware of another's tasks and missions "
Unnamed former undercover agent
The former spy denied that Iran's intelligence cells in the Arab states are sleeper and said they regularly work amassing information on Gulf states' military capabilities, infrastructure and key economic institutions.
"These cells are woven with skill similar to the weaving of a Farsi carpet; they are often quintets of four members plus a commander and no one of them is aware of another's tasks and missions," he said, adding that Iran spends "extensive amounts of money" on its foreign intelligence.
The spy, from the Arab --majority city of Ahwaz, told Alarabiya.net that he started his job as an undercover agent for Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards two years before the Iran-Iraq war ended in 1988.
"I was deceived in the beginning by slogans that the Islamic Republic of Iran was defending Islam," he said explaining his reasons for joining intelligence.
While in service his main job was to monitor and provide information on the Iranian opposition leaders in the Arab Gulf states, he said.
The former undercover agent is from the Arab-majority city of Ahvaz, the capital of the southwestern Iranian province of Khuzestan, which is the home of the Canada-based Ahwaz Arab Renaissance Party (AARP) advocating resistance to the Iranian government.
He said he decided to give up spying when he "realized how authorities discriminated against Ahwazi soldiers fighting for Iran in the war against Iraq," adding that "wounded Arab Ahwazi soldiers were often given treatment on the ground, whereas those Iranians of Farsi origin were treated on hospital beds."
When he submitted resignation to Iranian intelligence authorities it was turned down many times and was kept under surveillance for five years before was finally discharged and allowed to reside in a foreign a country, he told Alarabiya.net.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/06/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
40,000 Iranian spies in the Arab Gulf states, 3,000 of them in Kuwait alone
#3
There is a huge arab community in Iran, close to the Strait of Hormuz. And most Iraqi arabs are pro-Iran Shiites. Both recruitment and infiltration would be easy.
Posted by: Ulineper Scourge of the Veal Cutlets9295 ||
10/06/2009 7:53 Comments ||
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#4
to subvert and dominate it, and to keep tabs on US forces there, the oil industry, etc. I guess.
#7
Pfft. These are Arabs. I'm willing to bet 80% of these "spies" are people who are just waiting for somebody else to "recruit" them. It's free money, you just tell the handler what he wants to hear, you get some cash, and if things ever go to shit, hey, you can get in good with the current authorities by ratting the handler out.
They're tribals. They'll lie to and cheat anyone who isn't part of the clan. And that's the moral, ethical ones - the other guys'll rat out their own kin.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
10/06/2009 19:24 Comments ||
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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.
