[Tolo News] Nato's Civilian Spokesperson Monday said that there are good preparations on hand for security transition to Afghan cops.
Nato's Civilian Spokesperson Dominic Medley said security transition process will begin based on conditions on the ground.
Isaf has predicted that Taliban-led insurgency will increase in 2011.
There will be a sizeable increase in the number of Afghan army in two years and their number will peak at 300,000, Nato's Civilian Spokesperson said.
"It is clear with the strategic partnership signed by the Nato's Secretary General and President Karzai at the Lisbon summit about six weeks ago, that Nato and Afghanistan will have a long- term friendly commitment," Dominic Medley told TOLOnews.
"You will see that support continuing with the training of troops and full support for the army and police and continuing the mission as long as it takes," he further said.
"1,200 coppers had died in 2010 which is testament to their sacrifice, to their efforts, to their commitment they are fighting for their country," Isaf's spokesperson, Josef Blotz, said. "And certainly there is also a high number of casualties on the civilian side."
Afghan Ministry of Interior Affairs had previously hailed gains made by Afghan cops in 2010.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/04/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
The Afghoofs can't wait for the turnover. Then they can openly peddle their weapons to Taliban.
This is the one they denied yesterday...
[Tolo News] President Karzai's Spokesperson, Wahid Omar, Monday approved the news claiming he had resigned. He said his resignation is not politically motivated.
Yesterday a source close to Karzai's Office told TOLOnews that Wahid Omar, the spokesperson for President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai, had presented his resignation letter to the President.
But hours after the news was aired, President's Office strongly rejected it. He said: "I have presented my resignation letter to the Afghan president. My resignation has been approved in principle, but the administrative process is not yet over."
Wahid Omar started working as Karzai's spokesperson early on 2010.
It is not clear whether Mr Omar leaves the whole government or he will be appointed in another position.
"I wish this is taken as something normal in government structure. I hope it is finalised as soon as possible," he said. "Once again I would like to repeat there hasn't been any political reason behind this." Nope. Just want to spend some quiet time at my opium ranch...
Officials in President's Office have yet to comment about his replacement.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/04/2011 00:00 ||
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[Tolo News] Around 53 forces of Evil have renounced violence and joined the Afghan grinding of the peace processor, bigwigs in Afghan Peace Commission said on Monday.
Sebghatullah Mujaddadi, head of the Afghan peace commission, said despite lack of funding to provide job opportunities to forces of Evil who renounce violence, but it has been able to convince around 10,000 cut-throats to join the grinding of the peace processor.
The forces of Evil were active against government in different provinces including Ghazni, Pashtun-infested Logar, Maidan Wardak, Khost and Kapisa, the peace commission said.
"We are trying to provide them jobs and salaries so that they earn a living. We also instruct related governors to give them land and to make a living for themselves," Mr Mujaddadi said.
A top military official in Afghan Defence Ministry urged all jihad boys, who are in contact with peace commission, to stop war and take part in reconstruction Afghanistan.
"We hope the peace commission gains some more achievements to attract forces of Evil in the country," said General Aziz Ahmad, a top official in defence department.
Peace commission said more than 20,000 tribal elders are in contact with the commission and greatly back the grinding of the peace processor.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/04/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
I guess AGW is particularly bad in Afghanistan this year.
#3
They'll have backslidden by April and be back to their normal looting, bombing, and killing schedule.
Perhaps. No doubt some have that intention, but it depends on whether our guys have in the meantime left anything for them to go back to. We don't take winter off.
[Ennahar] Eighty-illegal African migrants, mostly Ethiopians, have drowned when two boats aboard which they were capsized off the coast of southern Yemen, said Monday the Interior Ministry in a statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/04/2011 00:00 ||
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How bad does your life have to be before southern Yemen looks like a step up?
[Asharq al-Aswat] The New Year's Day suicide kaboom of a church that killed 21 people has opened up a vein of fury among Egypt's Christians, built up over years of what they call government failure to address persistent discrimination and violence against their community.
Christian protests spread to Cairo from the northern city of Alexandria where the attack took place. Late Sunday, riots erupted outside the cathedral-headquarters of the Coptic Church after the country's top Mohammedan religious figures and government officials met with Pope Shenouda III.
Protesters threw bottles and stones at riot police outside the cathedral, injuring 45 coppers, security officials said. Elsewhere, demonstrators threw stones at cars on two main highways, and hundreds marched in other parts of the capital, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.
In the last couple years in particular, the country's Coptic Christian minority, which makes up 10 percent of the country's 80 million, has felt under siege following a string of incidents.
In January a year ago, six Christians and a Mohammedan guard were killed in a drive-by shooting on Coptic Christmas Eve in southern Egypt. Then in November, Christians rioted after government forces violently stopped the construction of a church near Cairo in a long-running dispute over restrictions on building Christian houses of worship. Two people died at the hands of security in the rare instance of Christian unrest in the capital.
In 2009, the government ordered the destruction of a quarter-million pigs as a dubious prevention measure against swine flu, devastating the livelihoods of Cairo's large community of Christian garbage collectors, who raised the animals to dispose of organic waste. The Christians saw it as an expression of Mohammedan disgust at pigs thinly disguised as a health concern.
After a jacket wallah attacked worshippers in the northern city of Alexandria as they filed out of a midnight Mass at the Saints Church on Saturday, Christian rage went kaboom! on the streets in riots and festivities with police. Protesters also attacked Mohammedan passers-by and a nearby mosque in an indication of the alienation they feel from the country's majority Mohammedans.
The protests Saturday and Sunday had an unprecedented edge of frustration: A common theme among protesters was that Christians would no longer be silent over their complaints. Security forces have turned out in force, but appear to be showing restraint, apparently to avoid further enflaming tensions.
"You want me to leave Egypt. I will not leave Egypt. Egypt is Coptic and will remain Coptic," one woman in her mid-40s, wrapped in a white sheet stained with blood from the victims, shouted Saturday in front of the Saints Church. "I have seen discrimination all my life. In college, at work. I am not going to take it any longer. Enough."
Christian anger, says rights activist Hossam Bahgat, stems in large part because they feel attacks against them can be carried out with impunity, something borne out by evidence of past incidents, especially in Egypt's impoverished hinterlands.
In a two-year study conducted by his organization, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, he documented 52 anti-Christian incidents between 2008 and 2010 and in none of them were the perpetrators punished. Instead security forces arbitrarily jugged a few people.
"Security then forces both sides to accept reconciliation at the expense of justice," he said, which gives the perpetrators a sense of impunity. "It's an invitation for these events to recur and the victims are left feeling victimized twice, first by those who did it and second by the government."
Egypt's government maintains Mohammedans and Christians are treated equally in the country and after these kinds of sectarian incidents loudly affirms its commitment to national unity.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/04/2011 00:00 ||
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"You want me to leave Egypt. I will not leave Egypt. Egypt is Coptic and will remain Coptic,"
Define the problem. Set your goals. Work out the means.
Possibly not a fortuitous image, under the circumstances. Probably not intentional, given that is Asharq al-Aswat, but quite possibly someone is giggling helplessly in a corner over what the editors missed.
#4
The Egyptian govt may have planted the seeds for a new insurgency led by Christians, all because they would not man up and show down muslim extremists. Fence sitting has never solved any problems in world politics and won't here either.
How many attacks did we take responsibility for in 2010?
[Yemen Post] The General People's Congress, Yemen's ruling party, said Saturday that the U.S. call for Yemen to delay a vote on constitutional amendments proposed by the party last week and which the House of Representatives already voted on today was interference in Yemen's internal affairs.
The call made Friday by the U.S. Department of State on the New Year's Eve harmed
Yemen's illusory sovereignty and was considered as regrettable interference in Yemen's own matters, the party said. Not to mention their national dignity...
U.S. officials are aware that Yemen's Parliament acts according to constitutional and legal rules and that the determination of nations can't be decided through external desires, it said.
"The U.S. call, which urged all Yemeni parties to postpone the parliamentary procedure and come back to the negotiating table in the best interest of the Yemeni people, was irresponsible and did not live up to diplomacy norms or wisdom."
Lawmakers should respond to the desire of their people and bear the sense of national
Responsibility, the party made clear, reaffirming that it has left open the door to dialogue with various political forces. "We also urge to put the interests of the nation above anything else."
On Friday, Mark C. Toner, acting front man for the U.S. Department of State called on Yemeni parties to avoid the vote, saying if it takes place, it could add to instability in their country.
He added that the U.S. has supported and will continue to support commitments of
the ruling party and the opposition towards national issues, urging both to negotiate to reach 'an agreement that will be welcomed by the Yemeni people as well as Yemen's Friends.'
Posted by: Fred ||
01/04/2011 00:00 ||
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[Arab News] South Korea's president on Monday opened the door to possible peace talks with North Korea even as he vowed not to let Pyongyang "covet even an inch of our territory" -- looking to strike a delicate balance between diplomacy and strength two days after the North called for better ties with Seoul.
Lee Myung-bak, addressing the country in a New Year's speech, said the Nov. 23 shelling of Yeonpyeong Island, which killed four and has spiked fears of war, should be treated as the United States did the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and spur the South to change the way it defends itself. Future provocations, he said, "will be met with stern, strong responses." However, The infamous However... he said: "The door for dialogue is still open.
If the North exhibits sincerity, we have both the will and the plan to drastically enhance economic cooperation." On New Year's Day, the North called for warmer ties and the resumption of joint projects with South Korea.
Pyongyang, eager for food and fuel assistance, has said it wants stalled international aid-for-nuclear-disarmament talks to restart. Washington and Seoul have said no, demanding the North first fulfill past nuclear disarmament commitments.
The United States, which has about 28,500 troops in the South, is sending its top envoy on North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, to Seoul for talks Wednesday with brass hats.
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates will visit Seoul next week.
North Korea on Monday called for Seoul to scrap its hostile policy against Pyongyang.
"As long as South Korea's dangerous northward invasion plot is maintained, North-South Korea relations cannot be improved at all and we cannot think about the nation's safety and peaceful reunification," the North's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.
In the North Korean capital, an estimated 100,000 people gathered Monday for an annual New Year rally to display loyalty to leader Kim Jong Il.
The crowd packed Kim Il Sung plaza, pumping their fists in the air and shouting slogans while carrying huge portraits of Kim and his father, North Korean founder Kim Il Sung.
Some waved huge red flags and played small drums, as brass hats watched from an elevated viewing stand. Kim and his son and heir-apparent, Kim Jong Un, didn't appear in the footage broadcast by APTN.
Despite the mention of possible peace talks, the focus of Lee's comments on North Korea was a tough promise to improve South Korea's defenses.
Lee was severely criticized for acting too slowly and too weakly after the shelling near the Koreas' disputed western sea border. It was the first attack by the North, which claims the waters around the island as its territory, on a civilian area since the 1950-53 Korean War. Lee's government has responded by replacing the defense chief, strengthening security and pushing to deploy additional troops and weaponry to Yeonpyeong, which lies just seven miles (11 kilometers) from North Korean shores.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/04/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
"The door for dialogue is still open.
Translation
Since you want to "Talk" we will allow you to persuade us with gifts, then You will "Gift" us more as the talks continue, and whenever we wish.
Further translation
Bribe us and keep bribing us, doesn't mean We'll agree to anything But keep those Bribes coming in and we'll "Talk" all you want.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/04/2011 11:58 Comments ||
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#2
same ol shit different day
Posted by: chris ||
01/04/2011 12:22 Comments ||
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Again, IMO the proverbial YOU-KNOW-WHAT-WILL-HIT-THE-FAN iff China doesn't its desired "Warm Water" overseas Ports vee the "First Island Chain', + PYONGYANG = DPRK UNILATER/
ASYMMETRICALLY BELIEVES A DE FACTO CHINESE TAKEOVER OF NORTH KOREA IS INEVITABLE = UN-STOPPABLE, as per FAILURE OF "NORTH KOREA FOR NORTH KOREANS/KOREANS + NORTH KOREAN -ISMS" ONLY.
The ROK = SOUTH KOREA also has a vital ETHNIC, NATIONAL STAKE in preevnting a Chin takeover of the North despite the latter's belligerencies.
9-11 + OWG-NWO + "GLOBALISM", ETC. = ANTI-STATUS QUO = TIS-NOT-BUSINESS-AS-USUAL FOR ANYONE + EVERYONE.
* ION PEOPLES DAILY > TAIWAN ARMY DISMISSES ROCKET RE-DEPLOYMENT REPORT. Taian's "Thunderbolt-2000" MLRS will stay on KINMEN + MATSU.
* SAME > JAPAN MAKES FRESH BID FOR UNSC SEAT [along wid rest of "Group of Four", i.e. Nippon + Germany + Brazil + Indjuh].
* SAME > JAPAN PM CALLS FOR OPENNING UP OF COUNTRY, TAX DEBATE, for Year 2011.
* TOPIX > VARIOUS [old] = JAPAN SEEKS MILITARY PACT WITH SOUTH KOREA. Closer bilateral Cooper + Mil ties.
ROK MILITARY AUTHORITIES are repor in favor of such closer ROK-JAPAN ties WHILE ROK POLITICIANS, DIPLOMATS ARE NOT = CAUTIOUS???
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > SIX OF CHINA'S PROVINCES WILL HAVE RUSSIA-SIZED GDP'S [or in altern CANADA-SIZED GDP'S] BY 2020.
Such lovely people, these particular Lions of Islam.
[Arutz Sheva] The Turkish IHH, which directed the 'Free Gazoo' flotilla led by the Mavi Marmara, continues at the forefront of an anti-Israeli hate and incitement campaign, according to a report by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center. The IHH is calling for the annihilation of the "Zionist entity" and exploiting and inflating the myth of the Mavi Marmara "heroism."
IHH leader Bülent Yildirim continues using anti-Semitic themes to defame Israel. He recently claimed that "Zionists" controlled the United States and the global media and repeatedly accused Israel of deliberate "slaughter" aboard the Mavi Marmara. He also claimed that the takeover of the ship was meant to establish Israel's ownership of the oil and gas fields in the Mediterranean.
Thousands of people participated in the reception for the Mavi Marmara at the port of Istanbul on December 26. The families of the operatives killed aboard the ship and representatives from various countries attended, and the crowd shouted "Death to Israel." Senior members of the Turkish government did not attend.
IHH leader Bülent Yildirim gave a speech to inflate the myth of the "heroism" of the Mavi Marmara. He praised the struggle against the IDF soldiers and claimed that Israel attacked the ship with "dozens of boats, warships, helicopters and even submarines" and that "the Israeli soldiers used every possible weapon except an atomic bomb."
Yildirim announced that [IHH] would struggle against "the filth that is Israel" and called for "release from the burden that Israel puts on the back of the Middle East." He also criticized the leaders of the Islamic countries who, "if they wanted to, could wipe Zionism off the face of the earth."
According to a report last month on the Paleostine Monitor website, the Mavi Marmara will be returning to Istanbul on the anniversary of Operation Cast Lead on December 26. A ceremony organized by the Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) will be held that day and politicians, activists and survivors will gather to mourn the losses on the flotilla and in Gazoo.
The IHH has also announced that a new flotilla to Gazoo will be formed, once again starring the Mavi Marmara. The new flotilla will sail to Gazoo on the anniversary of the clash with the IDF navy commandos, on May 31, 2011.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/04/2011 00:00 ||
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#3
This time pick the deepest point Preferably beyond the reach or any divers or submersibles, and from an internal explosion(For all Y'all Non Navy, a shot "Down the stack" looks remarkably like a Boiler explosion, easily done with todays guided Munitions. Be sure to remove any identification.)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/04/2011 12:07 Comments ||
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Constantinople (misnamed "istanbul" by invading savages) was occupied by Brit troops for a month in 1924. They should have kept it.
[Geo News] Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani won the support of parliament's third largest party, PML-Q on condition of good governance, Geo News reported on Monday.
Talking to the media men after meeting PML-Q leadership, Prime Minister Gilani said PML-Q has supported me earlier and would not derail the system.
Prime Minister said that PML-Q has always supported the government on national issues unconditionally, adding that Chaudhary Shujaat Hussain has assured that his party would not be part of any undemocratic step. He further said that PML-Q has assured for supporting him if no-confidence motion was filed.
He said Shujaat has convened party meeting tomorrow to discuss the issues.
PM urged politicians to support democracy and strengthen it.
Gilani said PML-Q has supported unconditionally while remaining in opposition. He said that PML-Q has always supported the government on issues of national interest.
Shujaat Hussain said that PML-Q is not against the Prime Minister, adding that it did not want to blackmail the government. He further said that his party wants to flourish the democracy.
He asked the PM to redress the grievance of masses.
The Prime Minister pointed out that Muttahida Qaumi Movement has only one issue i.e Sindh Home Minsiter Zulfiqr Mirza's statements, while the JUI-F was angry over the sacking of his minister.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/04/2011 00:00 ||
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[Ma'an] A hard boy group in the southern Gazoo Strip said they fired mortar shells at Israeli military vehicles operating east of Khan Younis on Monday afternoon.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said she had received no reports of attacks on Israeli forces operating inside Gazoo. Nope. Nothing here. Probably just trying to impress the chicks at the new mall.
The An-Naser Salah Ad-Din Brigades, affiliated with the Popular Resistance Committees, said their artillery unit was able to launch two shells at a force which entered the Strip at 12:35 p.m. Okay, boys, that's it...it's ZamZam time!
The Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, said their fighters also launched a number of mortar shells at the same Israeli unit. EAT...SOMETHING...ZIONIST OPPRESSORS!
Late Sunday night, two resistance groups claimed to have launched projectiles at Israeli targets.
A wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Paleostine, the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, said fighters clashed with Israel forces at the southern Kissufim military gate. The group also claimed to have fired mortar shells at an army post east of Khan Younis' Abu Aj-Jeen neighborhood.
Meanwhile National Resistance Brigades fighters, affiliated to the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Paleostine, said they launched projectiles toward an Israeli military post. Wow, it's a veritable...projectilepalooza!
An Israeli army spokeswoman said she was not aware of any shells launched from Gazoo overnight. I dunno. Maybe it was the voices in their head that told them they did it. Bet it's getting crowded in there... Look at the bright side for them. This way they can say they did it and still live to talk about it. And when the Zionists deny it ever happened, that's just confirmation, 'cause they're evil Joooz and all.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/04/2011 00:00 ||
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slate reports that Wikileaks had a cable from Feb 2010 reporting an incident where the commander of the IRG slapped Ahmadinejab after the latter suggested that they get ice cream before visiting Abercrombie and Fitch, no actually it was after he suggested some minor loosening of the restrictions on the press.
There is a link to wikileaks in the Slate article.
Posted by: lord garth ||
01/04/2011 00:00 ||
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[Asharq al-Aswat] An Iranian pro-government website says President Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad has fired 14 advisers as part of an ongoing shake-up of his administration.
The Sunday report from mashreghnews.ir says Ahmadinejad sacked the advisers a day earlier in an effort to help reduce the size of the government. The dismissals have not been confirmed by state media or the president's office.
Last month, Ahmadinejad abruptly fired his longtime foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, as well as his vice president for youth affairs, Mehrdad Bazrpash.
Those dismissals appeared to signal a rift at the top levels of the Iranian leadership, pitting the president against rival conservatives.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/04/2011 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.
