[Al Arabiya Latest] The United Nations will replace more than 200 poll monitors implicated in fraud in Afghanistan's presidential election, U.N. Chief Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday, as the country prepared for a run-off.
In a televised interview, Ban said the U.N. would "take all necessary measures, (both) administrative and security" to ensure that irregularities that tainted the first round of voting on Aug. 20 were not repeated.
An inquiry by a U.N.-backed watchdog this week confirmed staggering levels of fraud, most of it in favor of President Hamid Karzai. It declared more than one million ballots suspect -- a quarter of the total cast.
"We will try to replace all the officials who have been implicated in not following the guidelines or who have been complicit in fraudulent procedures," Ban said, promising a "transparent and credible" run-off on Nov. 7.
Thus allowing Bambi to kick the can down the road for a couple weeks ...
"There are 380 electoral districts throughout Afghanistan, and we will try to replace more than 200 officials who have been implicated or who have not been following correct guidelines," he added.
Threats of Taliban violence dogged the first round, and Ban said the U.N. would work with the NATO-run International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and Afghan authorities to protect polling stations.
"We will coordinate closely with the ISAF and Afghan national forces to ensure there is security under which the Afghan (people) can express their will without any intimidation or threat."
"We will also try to visit all the polling stations to make sure that no such fraud can happen, and we will try not to open polling stations where during the first election there weren't any polling elections."
Karzai was forced to agree Tuesday to a second round after the U.N.-backed Electoral Complaints Commission rejected fraudulent ballots from 210 polling stations.
His chief rival, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, should discover his official share of the vote later Wednesday.
Although a preliminary tally gave him around 28 percent, his final share is expected to be nearer 32 percent. Officials said that Karzai won 49.67 percent, just under the 50-percent threshold required for an outright win.
A second round had to be held rapidly, before harsh winter sets in to make much of the country inaccessible.
Practice makes perfect.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/22/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
[Maghrebia] The United States appreciates Algeria's role in fighting terrorism in the Maghreb and Sub-Saharan regions, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for Africa Vicki Huddleston said on Monday (October 19th) at a press conference in Algiers.
Huddleston, who was speaking during a three-day visit to Algeria, said both sides had underlined the need to pursue the "good co-operation" that ties the US and Algeria, notably in the fight against terrorism and for maritime security in the Mediterranean.
The US official's comments came in the context of deepening Algiers-Washington bonds that have been marked by "substantial progress" in political, economic, science and security affairs in recent years, Algerian Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci told APS on Tuesday (October 20th).
Huddleston was received by Algerian Defence Minister Abdelmalek Guenaizia on Monday at the ministry's headquarters in Algiers. According to a ministry statement, both sides focused on "bilateral co-operation in the military and technological fields".
"The US did not mask its wish to undertake security and intelligence co-operation with Algeria in the fight against terrorism, a topic of the highest priority in all visits paid by US officials," Maghreb security affairs analyst Hassan Bouliha told Magharebia. "The US constantly lauds Algeria's role in the fight against terrorism, and sees the assistance and information offered by Algeria as really important, given the experience of the Algerian security authorities in countering terrorism."
Huddleston said her talks with Algerian officials touched on "means of instituting security co-operation with the African Union in order to combat terrorism."
In a meeting with the heads of security authorities in African Sahel states (Mali, Mauritania and Niger, as well as hosts Algeria) held in Tamanrasset, Huddleston described that step as "important within the framework of combating terrorism," adding that "the US is going to support any endeavours that seek to eradicate terrorism from the region."
Speaking about the Touareg population scattered across the Sahel region, Huddleston denied that they could be linked in any way to terrorist groups.
"Touareg have nothing at all to do with local terrorist groups," she said. "They are known for their tolerance and have no terrorist [undercurrents] in them."
She also referred to the role of the United States Africa Command, saying, "AFRICOM is going to indirectly co-operate with a number of states, including Algeria, in fighting terrorism in African Sahel states and in Africa in general."
This fight against terrorism, Huddleston continued, will take place through security co-ordination among partner states, such as military training in the US and a number of African Sahel countries, including Algeria. The co-ordination comes in the wake of joint naval manoeuvres off the Algerian coast by the Algerian National Navy and the United States Marine Corps, she added.
Local press and security experts offered detailed analyses, from various perspectives, of the US official's visit.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/22/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa
[Asharq al-Aswat] Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood was swift in its rejection of reports that its leader resigned after a row with conservatives, but the crisis exposed a profound rift among the Islamists, analysts said.
The Brotherhood was reacting to front page reports in the Egyptian press on Monday that Supreme Guide Mohammed Mahdi Akef stormed out of a meeting at the weekend, saying he quit.
Akef reportedly clashed with conservative leaders over the appointment of senior member Essam al-Erian, who is associated with the Islamist group's reformist wing, to the Brotherhood's politburo.
The dispute has been brewing since the recent death of Mohammed Hilal, which opened a seat in the group's politburo. The conservatives reportedly blocked Erian when he was nominated.
On the face of it, analysts said, it was a mere power struggle, pitting an old guard that survived the harsh crackdown by former president Gamal Abdel Nasser in the 1960s against relatively new and moderate newcomers such as Erian.
"There was a conflict, that was for sure," said Diaa Rashwan, an expert on the Brotherhood with the Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies.
"It is an organisational conflict. There is a group that does not want newcomers, and there could be an ideological aspect as well," he said.
But it fed into a widespread discontent among a younger generation that complains of rigid, antiquated command that stifles views differing from the conservative's austere political vision.
"There's a problem of ideas. There's a conservative tendency that controls the leadership and does not believe in opening up to society in political work," said Abdel Moneim Mahmud, a journalist associated with the reformist wing.
Mahmud said reformists want to see the Brotherhood, which controls a fifth of seats in parliament after it ran independent candidates to get around a ban on the movement, to take on more political action in alliance with the country's leftist and liberal opposition.
The reformists were especially appalled by a draft of the Brotherhood's political programme in 2007, which opposed women or Coptic Christians leading the country, and proposed a council of clerics to oversee the drafting of laws, in a manner redolent of Iran's Islamist regime.
"The conflict is not on strategy in regards to the government," Rashwan said.
"They have the same strategy of non-confrontation with the regime. But there are differences in ideology, specifically on allowing women to rule, and clerical oversight."
Akef, who once told a newspaper he would rather see a Malaysian Muslim head the country rather than an Egyptian Copt, has tried to keep all the factions within his tent.
He also seems keen to set a democratic example, being the first leader of the Brotherhood who has promised to step down once his term ends early next year, an unusual move in a country where leaders' resignations are often published in the form of a eulogy.
"Akef is a balanced man. Without him there will be an explosion in the Brotherhood. He likes different views in his office," Mahmud said.
"When you say one Brotherhood member discusses dissenting ideas, there's turmoil. What do you think when the supreme guide resigns," he added.
Akef, 81, has headed the Islamists since 2004, overseeing their surprise gains in a parliamentary election a year later.
He will leave the Brotherhood at a crossroads, with two of his possible replacements in prison -- part of an ongoing police crackdown against the group, which has been banned since 1954.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/22/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Muslim Brotherhood
[Al Arabiya Latest] A Scottish lawyer for the Lockerbie bomber rubbished reports that Abdelbaset al-Megrahi had died after a British news channel reported he had passed away, two months after he was controversially freed from a Scottish jail.
"It's not true... he's alive and I know that for a fact," the AFP news agency quoted Scottish lawyer Tony Kelly as saying.
He's got another twenty years to go on his 'terminal' cancer ...
When you come right down to it, we're all "terminal" in one way or another.
Kelly did not give details but said he had spoken to Megrahi, who supposedly is suffering from prostate cancer, today and he was fine.
Britain's Sky News television, quoting unidentified sources, said there were reports that Megrahi had died but stressed the reports were still not confirmed by Libyan officials.
Megrahi was freed from a Scottish prison two months ago, on the grounds that he was terminally ill.
A short time earlier, spokesmen for British and Scottish authorities said they were investigating the reports. "We're trying to confirm reports that Megrahi has died," said a spokeswoman for the Scottish government.
Megrahi was convicted in January 2001 at an extraordinary Scottish court convened in the Netherlands. He mounted an unsuccessful appeal in 2002 and in 2007 his case was sent for a second appeal -- which his lawyers dropped shortly before his release on compassionate grounds in August.
This article starring:
Abdelbaset al-Megrahi
Posted by: Fred ||
10/22/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
could be the reason for the cold snap awhile back.
[Asharq al-Aswat] New information has been obtained by Asharq Al-Awsat concerning the vehicle used by elements of Al-Qaeda organization that infiltrated the Kingdom from Yemen to carry out a terrorist operation inside Saudi territories.
The vehicle in question was a black GMC truck, which according to Confirmed information was driven by Youssef al-Shihri and Raid al-Harbi who were killed in a shoot out in the Jizan region (south Saudi Arabia). The truck was rented by a member of Al-Qaeda organization from the coastal city of Jeddah (west of the country) who was not one of the suspects.
He wasn't a suspect then. Now the soles of his feet are getting special attention.
The individual who rented the truck used in the security clash that resulted in the death of the two wanted Al-Qaeda members, drove the truck from Jeddah to the southern region, traveling a distance of over 700 km to reach it.
According to sources which spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat on the condition of anonymity, the truck driver was able to travel the long distance without being detected because he was not a suspect and there were no question marks about him which would have indicated in one way or other that he had joined Al-Qaeda organization. But according to the same sources, this does not minimize the GMC driver's role in this operation as he is considered a participating member in the Jizan operation in which one security officer was killed when he was shot by Al-Shihri and his colleague Al-Harbi both of whom were killed in the operation. "Mahmoud, the Number 7 Vicegrips, please."
Several Saudi towns and provinces lie between Jeddah and the Al-Darb area, the northern entrance to Jizan region where the incident took place, and the most important of these are Al-Qanfadhah, Al-Layth, the only sea outlet for the Asir region (Al-Haridah), and Al-Shaqiq which has desalination plants and then Jizan.
Jizan has common maritime and land borders with Yemen and Al-Shihri and Al-Harbi probably infiltrated from Al-Khawbah, the administrative capital of Al-Harth District that is close to the town of Al-Malahiz which is the scene of the military operations against the Huthist insurgents.
Jizan has a 30-mile long maritime border with Yemen and hundreds of rugged mountains and they are separated by the Tuhamah area, the only level part of the common borders between Saudi Arabia and Yemen which it is difficult to infiltrate because of the many security precautions, such as the common maritime borders that are also difficult to infiltrate. Therefore, Al-Harth, which is close to the current security tension in Yemen, remains the most likely area used by Al-Shihri and Al-Harbi to enter from Yemen which is 190 km from Al-Darb area where the operation took place. This means that the two terrorists infiltrated through six provinces to reach Al-Hamra point which is known for its stringent search roadblocks and this prompted the two terrorists to wear women's clothes hoping to pass through this roadblock but this did not prevent them from meeting their death there.
That's the part that puzzles me. Were they wearing women's clothes while driving the truck? Because that would get them stopped for sure and certain.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/22/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
[Asharq al-Aswat] The Yemeni army is coming close to ending the Zaidi Shiite rebellion in the rugged mountains of the north, the government spokesman said on Tuesday, 10 weeks into its campaign. "The armed forces are taking calculated moves, and a final end to these confrontations will come soon," said Information Minister Hassan al-Lawzi, according to Saba state news agency.
Signs that the war is near its end can be seen by the "armed forces' tight siege of these groups and cutting their lines of supply," Saba reported.
The government launched Operation Scorched Earth on August 11 with the aim of crushing the Zaidi rebels, known also as Huthis, in their stronghold Saada region and its surroundings.
Hundreds of people have been killed or wounded in the clashes, and tens of thousands have been forced to flee their homes, resulting in a humanitarian crisis complicated by a dire shortage of food and other basic necessities.
Fighting between government forces and the Huthis, named after their late commander, Hussein Badr Eddin al-Huthi, has killed thousands since it erupted in 2004.
The authorities accuse the rebels of being supported by groups in Iran and of seeking to reinstate a form of clerical rule that ended in republican coup in 1962. The rebels deny both claims.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/22/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
A clash between the Mexican army and about 60 assailants turned some this citys streets into a battle zone for about an hour early Tuesday morning.
The group fired shots at soldiers patrolling the Reynosa-Matamoros highway near Motel Dalí about 1:20 a.m., the Mexican Defense Ministry said in a news release issued Wednesday evening. The attackers rode inside about 20 newer-model trucks as they fired guns and hurled grenades at the military convoy.
No injuries were reported by neighbors and passersby, though one soldier suffered a gunshot wound to his leg. It remains unknown whether any of the criminals were injured during the conflict.
Two trucks were damaged after apparently barreling into obstacles, and five vehicles within the convoy were riddled with gunshot holes. No arrests were made in connection with the attack, which left about 2,000 cartridge casings and 40 spent grenades littering the area.
Minutes before the street battle, a state police convoy had circulated in the same area and also confronted a group of armed aggressors, according to the Defense Ministry statement.
Mexican media said the shootout left six colonias without electricity after several power cables were destroyed amid the chaos. Newspaper El Mañana reported Wednesday before the Defense Ministry issued its statement that several people in addition to the injured soldier suffered gunshot wounds and that seven people were arrested. The newspaper also said at least 5,000 cartridge casings were found at the crime scene.
Since Calderón took office in December 2006, his offensive against the cartels that smuggle drugs into the United States has been met with unprecedented brutality, leaving more than 13,500 people dead, according to The Associated Press.
Much of the headline-grabbing border violence has been in cities like Juárez, across the border from El Paso, and Tijuana, across the border from the San Diego metro area. In early September, however, the University of Texas-Brownsville/Texas Southmost College closed for a weekend after bullets from a shootout in Mexico struck a building and a car on the campus.
[Kyodo: Korea] Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Wednesday that the United States will not ease its sanctions on North Korea unless steps are taken by Pyongyang toward complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization. The top U.S. diplomat also said in a speech in Washington that the United States will never move to normalize relations with a nuclear-armed North Korea.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/22/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Six Muslim clerics who were forced off a flight in Minneapolis amid terrorist concerns from passengers have settled their lawsuit against the airline and law enforcement agencies. defendants were hurt by a preliminary finding by a MN judge who thought no reasonable officer could find the imans were dangerous even though 15 officers did
The imams called the settlement, which must be approved by a federal judge to take effect, a victory. The airport said it has not changed any policies as a result of the settlement, which it said it agreed to in order to save the expense of a trial.
"It is not an admission of guilt," said Patrick Hogan, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Airports Commission, which runs Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. law enforcement officials will have to -at the least- do more cya next time
Posted by: lord garth ||
10/22/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Maybe no literal threat, but a procedural one.
Stupid effing judges. Who need them any more? Too few of them display any common sense whatsoever. Passing decrees from the bench as if they are playing with chess pieces and not lives. Thinking that every law is perfect and was written with every situation in mind.
Any more, if a judge makes a decision that makes sense, I'm shocked. More than half of the time they head exactly the wrong way unless the guy shows up in court with the bloody knife in his teeth, and then the lawyer just refers it up until he finds a judge who will agree with him. Which never takes long.
#2
You should read Annie Jacobson's articles on this. The most charitable interpretation of the iman's actions was they were trying to provoke an incident. A less charitable interpretation was it was a dry run for a hijacking.
womenswallstreet.com which published the articles seems to be down. so no link
#1
No matter how powerful the voice of Gee-Ham might be, the fact remains that these dudes are going to jail in Canada . . . . where they will find themselves to be "friendly companions" of the other occupants - with the emphasis on "pants".
They may find those voices to be even more powerful than the one to which they've been listening.
Pakistan is facing a rising threat from Punjabi Taliban, who authorities fear are regrouping in the province after the army launched a major offensive to clear South Waziristan Agency of the threat.
A report published by the Washington Times said extremists from Punjab had increasingly taken control of the Taliban forces fighting the army in Waziristan, but might now be fleeing back to Punjab "which already has been the scene of multiple suicide bombings" before the army launched the offensive.
"The growing role of Punjabis marks a major escalation of the extremist threat in the country, analysts told Washington Times.
"Punjab is the heartland of Pakistan, home to its political and military elite, and some of the extremist leaders received military training that has made them far more lethal than rural Pashtun fighters," the paper said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/22/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
[Geo News] Secretary Law and Order Fata Tariq Hayat Wednesday said the terrorists present in South Waziristan Agency (SWA) are flourishing on foreign aid and patronage.
Talking to Geo News here, he ruled out carrying out of large-scale terror activities, as are presently being witnessed in the country, by organizations running on public donations.
Tariq Hayat pointed to the presence of such foreigners in the organized militant outfits in SWA who are seditious even to their own homeland and they are funded with foreign aid. "Donation-run militant group cannot launch actions of such great propotions," he ruled out.
According to experts, the explosives used in Peshawar blasts were brought from abroad.
According to Secretary Law and Order Fata, the extremists present in SWA pose real threat to the stability of Pakistan; the government is bearding down upon them with a full-fledged crackdown.
The security forces sealed all of the major paths and passages leading out of SWA, he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/22/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Dawn] Pakistan will support Iran in tracking down those responsible for a suicide bomb attack in southeastern Iran, Pakistan's foreign minister said on Wednesday, as calls in Iran grew for the perpetrators to be punished.
Sunni Muslim rebel group Jundollah (God's soldiers) claimed responsibility for Sunday's attack that killed 42 people, including several commanders of Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
Iran says it operates from across the border in Pakistan.
The commander of the Guards'ground forces, Mohammad Pakpour, was quoted by state television as seeking permission on Tuesday to hunt terrorists inside neighbouring Pakistan.
Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi declined to comment on the television report and said an Iranian delegation was due in Pakistan for talks.
'We will help them and support them in unearthing the people responsible,' Qureshi told Reuters by telephone. 'We will sort this thing out on a government-to-government basis.'
He said terrorism was a regional problem and the two countries had to help each other.
'What we are asking is that we as neighbours, as friends, as brotherly friendly countries, have to adopt a cooperative regional approach to deal with this menace,' he said. 'Pakistan is suffering, Pakistan is a victim of terrorism.'
Pakistan has condemned Sunday's bombing which it called a 'ghastly act of terrorism' in an area near its border with Iran.
Jundollah denies any links to regional militant groups but analysts have linked it to the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), an anti-Shia group based in Pakistan's Punjab province which works closely with the Pakistani Taliban.
Both are believed to have close ties to al Qaeda.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and his Iranian counterpart, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, spoke on the telephone this week and stressed the need for cooperation in confronting and eradicating 'criminal terrorists'.
Relations between Iran and Pakistan have been generally good in recent years and the neighbours are cooperating on plans to build a natural gas pipeline.
But Iran has in the past accused Pakistan of hosting members of Jundollah, and Guards commander-in-chief Mohammad Ali Jafari said on Monday the group had ties with US, British and Pakistani intelligence organisations.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/22/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Jundullah
#1
As per earlier posts, REHMAN MALIK has repor claimed that IRAN has been formally notified that wanted "JUNDALLAH/JUNDOLLAH" GROUP LEADER REIGI is in AFGHANISTAN, NOT PAKISTAN, as IRAN believes.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Iraqi MPs failed on Wednesday to agree a new electoral law intended to establish more transparency for elections due in January because of a stalemate over Kirkuk, casting serious doubt on whether the poll can be held on schedule.
The Jan. 16 parliamentary election is seen as crucial for consolidating democracy after years of war. The United Nations envoy to Iraq, Ad Melkert, warned that time was critical and that further delays in passing the legislation may call into doubt not only the date, but also the credibility of the result.
"It is the collective responsibility of members of parliament to now rise to the occasion and be ready to account to the Iraqi people, who expect to exercise their right to express their preference in the upcoming elections," he said.
The elections will be a critical test as Iraq emerges from more than six years of sectarian conflict unleashed by the U.S. invasion in 2003 and begins to stand on its own feet ahead of a full U.S. withdrawal by the end of 2011.
"This situation is so embarrassing," said Faraj al-Haidari, head of the electoral commission. He said the body could wait at most another week before the election date would be in doubt.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/22/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
[Al Arabiya Latest] Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed his government to draw up proposals to amend the international laws of war after a damning United Nations report on its bombarment of Gaza as Tel Aviv joined the United States in a major air defense drill in preparation for a faceoff with Iran.
Despite Netanyahu raising the so-called Goldstone report with his security cabinet they did not, however, discuss calls made by ministers for an internal investigation into the 22-day air, land and sea assault at the turn of the year that killed some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israeli.
"The prime minister instructed the relevant government bodies to examine a worldwide campaign to amend the international laws of war to adapt them to the spread of global terrorism," his office said in a statement.
Israel was dealt a heavy diplomatic blow with the adoption by the U.N. Human Rights Council of the report that accused both Israel and the Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip of war crimes.
Israel's closest allies, the United States, Britain and France urged it to investigate war crime allegations raised by the fact-finding missions headed by Richard Goldstone, a former international war crimes prosecutor.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak backed Netanyahu's call for a diplomatic campaign, saying that Israel should propose changes in the international laws of war "in order to facilitate the war on terrorism," an official quoted him as saying.
"It is in the interest of anyone fighting terrorism. We must give the IDF (Israeli army) the full backing to have the freedom of action," Barak said.
Netanyahu dismissed the Goldstone report on the Gaza war and vowed that Israel would not give up its right of self-defense.
"We are struggling to delegitimize the ongoing attempts to delegitimize Israel... We must persistently fight this lie, which is being spread by the Goldstone report," Netanyahu was quoted as saying.
"I want to make it clear: no one will weaken our ability and right to defend our children, citizens and communities."
Goldstone, the respected South African jurist who led the U.N. fact-finding team, recommended that the conclusions of the report be forwarded to the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court at The Hague if the two sides fail to conduct credible investigations into the conflict within six months.
Israel has slammed it as a "diplomatic farce" and warned that it risked sinking the stalled Middle East peace process.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/22/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
The principal change needed is to make terrorism facilitation a capital offence.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Lebanon's President Michel Sleiman on Tuesday accused Israel of spying on his country in violation of a United Nations resolution intended to promote peace in the region.
"There is a difference between spying carried out by people who have been detected and detained and detectors and spying equipment which have been found during last week," he told reporters in Spain where he is on a state visit.
"Both these spy networks and these means of spying are a clear violation of Israel of (U.N.) Resolution 1701, even more so than the violation of Lebanese air space that is routinely carried out by Israel."
Resolution 1701 calls for the removal of weapons in southern Lebanon from the hands of everyone except the Lebanese army and other state security forces.
A Lebanese military source told AFP in Beirut on Sunday that three "Israeli spying devices" which monitored communications in Lebanon had been destroyed near the border with Israel, two of them blown up by the Israeli army.
Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite movement, said it discovered a spying device installed by Israel on a cable between the villages of Mays and Jebel after the 2006 war between it and the Jewish state.
It said the Lebanese army and troops from the United Nations Interim Forces in Southern Lebanon (UNIFIL) later discovered the two other devices.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/22/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Next thing you know, he'll accuse them of plotting to impose excise taxes on imports from Lebanon.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
10/22/2009 8:12 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Israel could have some fun with this, by suggesting that they knew of some nasty scandals among the top Lebanese, involving things so nasty and disgusting that they would not only be forced from office, but imprisoned.
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.
[Al Arabiya Latest] The United Nations will replace more than 200 poll monitors implicated in fraud in Afghanistan's presidential election, U.N. Chief Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday, as the country prepared for a run-off.
[Asharq al-Aswat] Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood was swift in its rejection of reports that its leader resigned after a row with conservatives, but the crisis exposed a profound rift among the Islamists, analysts said.
[Al Arabiya Latest] A Scottish lawyer for the Lockerbie bomber rubbished reports that 
[Asharq al-Aswat] The Yemeni army is coming close to ending the Zaidi Shiite rebellion in the rugged mountains of the north, the government spokesman said on Tuesday, 10 weeks into its campaign. "The armed forces are taking calculated moves, and a final end to these confrontations will come soon," said Information Minister Hassan al-Lawzi, according to Saba state news agency.
[Geo News] Secretary Law and Order Fata Tariq Hayat Wednesday said the terrorists present in South Waziristan Agency (SWA) are flourishing on foreign aid and patronage.
[Dawn] Pakistan will support Iran in tracking down those responsible for a suicide bomb attack in southeastern Iran, Pakistan's foreign minister said on Wednesday, as calls in Iran grew for the perpetrators to be punished. 
