[Tolo News] The Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omer is willing to join the Afghan grinding of the peace processor, the Afghan High Peace Council said on Friday.
Is it the real one this time, or yet another fraud looking forward to enjoying the catered meals and the bribes?
The Council said there is optimism that the Taliban's willingness to hold peace talks will increase, adding that direct and indirect contacts were being made with the group.
It comes as Pak media have published reports saying that Mullah Omer was ready to hold direct talks with the United States.
No doubt. Kim Jong Il of North Korea is also ready to hold direct talks with the United States instead of with South Korea.
The New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... earlier wrote that the Taliban group was willing to join the grinding of the peace processor, something the High Peace Council also confirms.
"Mullah Mohammad Omer is ready to join the grinding of the peace processor and he no more sticks to not holding talks with the Afghan government," Ismaiel Qasemyar, a top member of the High Peace Council, said.
He said direct and indirect contacts were made with important sources and there is more optimism.
"When we express optimism, it is not baseless optimism," Mr Qasemyar stressed.
While the Taliban dismiss such reports, the New York Times has recently written that the Taliban have in their recent statements expressed readiness to hold talks before withdrawal of all foreign forces from Afghanistan.
Some of the Pak media reports quote officials saying that Mullah Omar has put forward some conditions including withdrawal of foreign forces and the release of all Taliban members from US and Afghan jails.
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08/06/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
You don't see that one-eyed freak on the front-lines. He is awfully generous with other people's blood.
[An Nahar] Ousted president Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... , convicted for having cut Internet services during the revolt which toppled him, has pinned part of the blame on his successor as Egypt's ruler, a defense lawyer said on Friday.
A Cairo court on May 28 fined Mubarak and two former ministers a total of $90 million dollars for "damaging the economy" with a telephone and Internet shutdown during Egypt's uprising.
A lawyer for the ex-president, Mohammed Abdul Wahab, told news hounds that Mubarak had lodged an appeal on Thursday against the ruling.
The decision to cut the Internet was taken by a commission including Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, Egypt's military ruler and then defense minister, according to Mubarak, who argued he had not been consulted.
A front man for the armed forces said the former president "considers that the armed forces abandoned him at a time when he was their supreme commander and now wants to settle scores."
Mubarak went on trial on Wednesday for alleged corruption and over the killing of hundreds of demonstrators during the January-February revolt.
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08/06/2011 00:00 ||
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Mexican writer, poet and peace activist Javier Sicilia announced to the media Friday that his group would suspend further talks scheduled for next Thursday with Mexican federal legislators until his demands are met.
While Sicilia maintained a vote to advance changes in Mexico's national security policy was "treason", several legislative leaders from both the Chamber of Deputies and Senate released statements denying Sicilia's charges saying the new law has not come into force, and is still subject to change.
Josefina Vazquez Mota and Javier Corral, both members of Partido Accion Nacional (PAN) said Friday that Sicilia's movement " should not feel betrayed", and that the new law is subject to total change and even rejection.
Vazquez Mota is currently top contender for PAN for the 2012 presidential nomination.
Sicilia's announcement and demand was made at the doorstep of the Palacio Legislativo just after noon Friday. He said that the talks would not resume until he could be reassured promises several legislators made eight days ago would be honored.
Sicilia was upset because at the meeting eight days ago several legislator promised to make political reforms as they apply to human rights a priority, including a victims restitution fund and a truth commission.
Last Monday,however, a panel of deputies voted to advance the new national security law unchanged with only one vote against from a Partido Trabajo deputy. The vote was a procedural one,and an apparent formality in advancing the law to the next regular session of the Chamber of Deputies, set to start in September.
Even so, Corral demanded as a condition of his vote to reserve all items in the law, essentially making the law subject to changes in the next session.
Sicilia has been adamantly opposed to the new national security in any form, and has been ever since his movement started last spring. In fact, Sicilia has called for legalization of drugs, a return of the military to the barracks and a commitment to non-violence from all citizens.
Sicilia's movement is strongly supported by elements of the independent Mexican and international left and by some armed leftist movements.
His movement, dubbed the Movement for Peace Justice and Dignity, has staged three marches since last March, garnering two private meetings with Mexican president Felipe Calderon Hinojosa partly because of sympathy for the death of Sicilia's son to a drug murder.
To the Mexican left the new national security law is seemingly a ghost from the past. Many leaders in the mainstream leftist Partido Revolucion Democratica (PRD) suffered at the hands of the Mexican military controlled by Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) presidents during Mexico's Dirty war from 1968 to 1982.
Their fear is well founded: the PRI is experiencing a resurgence of popularity throughout Mexico. The current frontrunner for the PRI nomination is the extremely popular ex-governor of Mexico state Enrique Pena Nieto.
The new national security law in the hands of a popular PRI president could herald a return to a time that saw at least 1,200 missing as Mexico's dominant political establishment sought to destroy a low level leftist insurgency using the military.
As it is written the most contentious parts of the new law allows the military to be absolved of any wrongdoing under certain conditions, one of them being in zones selected by military commanders as being emergency zones. The law also guards against deliberate wrongdoing on the part of the military.
The way the military operates now, all charges of human rights violations brought by civilians are investigated by the human rights directorates in each military agency, army, navy and air force. Charges are brought prosecuted and sentenced through the military justice system.
How the new law would impact the new system is unknown.
A new Supreme Court ruling last July 12th changed the relationship between the military and civilians when it ruled that all human rights charges against the military must be investigated through the civilian courts, not the military.
While the new national security law could reset the law, it has been made clear so far the new law is subject to change as well. Whether it takes into account the sentiment behind the court ruling is not currently being discussed in the Mexican press.
[Dawn] La Belle France's top judge in the fight against terrorism said Friday that al-Qaeda's North African wing has shown no ability to strike in Europe or elsewhere beyond its zone of operations.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, born of a former turban group in Algeria, remains motivated largely out of a desire to attack former colonial power La Belle France. It currently holds four kidnapped Frenchies, and French officials have called the group the biggest terror threat to La Belle France and its interests.
In an interview, anti-terrorism judge Marc Trevidic suggested AQIM is being forced to work hard to control parts of its traditional territory in the Sahel region ... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas... along the southern Sahara.
"It's been shown that AQIM is only able to strike in its own zone, by wanting to kill tourists, and we have seen nothing emerge as a significant foreign operation in Europe that was really organized by AQIM," he said.
Still, AQIM has been active in offering statements of support through the Internet to would-be hard boyz in Europe, Trevidic said, citing his recent case files.
"It's incitation without a structure behind it," he said. The group is "holed up, and already has troubles controlling its zone ... Only when a terror group is very strong in its own territory will it begin exporting."
Many European officials are more concerned. In June, Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba called AQIM a growing menace that could spread beyond its base unless Western nations step up efforts to counter it. It has rendered huge parts of Mauritania, Mali, Niger and Algeria off-limits to foreigners.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/06/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
al-Qaeda's North African wing has shown no ability to strike in Europe or elsewhere beyond its zone of operations.
"Plus, we're paying them a lot of Jazia and helping them to take over Libya."
[Dawn] An alleged criminal mastermind of the 2002 Bali bombings that killed more than 200 people will be repatriated soon to Indonesia from Pakistain where he was placed in long-term storage this year, the foreign minister said Friday.
The most wanted Islamic myrmidon in Southeast Asia, Umar Patek, was placed in long-term storage in March in Abbottabad in Pakistain, the same town where US special forces killed al Qaeda leader the late Osama bin Laden ... who no longer exists... just weeks later.
Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said the alleged coordinator of the 2002 Bali bombings that killed more than 200 people would be extradited to Indonesia "soon rather than later".
He told journalists the government wanted to ensure the process "proceeds smoothly" and did not give the alleged terrorist a stage to rally his supporters.
"We do not want to create self-fulfilling, self-creating attention to a person who doesn't deserve publicity," Natalegawa said.
Authorities are continuing to investigate Patek to "ensure that he is held accountable for the crime," which he allegedly committed before Indonesia had a specific anti-terrorism law on its books.
Born in 1970, Patek is a suspected member of the al Qaeda-linked Southeast Asian terror network Jemaah Islamiyah (JI).
In addition to the Bali bombings, he is also suspected of involvement in a series of deadly attacks targeting Christians and Westerners in Indonesia dating back to 1999.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/06/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
If you want, we would be happy to send someone to pick him up.
[Dawn] Members of different political parties in the National Assembly on Friday recommended unity and harmony among all the political parties on all national issues to remove ethnic, sectarian and political divides in Bloody Karachi and in other parts of the country.
Taking part in the debate, PML-N leader Shireen Arshad said Bloody Karachi was the economic hub of the country but unfortunately the law and order situation in the city was not under the provincial government's control.
She said indiscriminate action should be taken against criminal elements and assassins. They should be punished in public so that they become an example for others, she said.
Ms Arshad said all political and religious parties would have to join hands against anti-state elements and criminals to establish lasting peace in Bloody Karachi.
She recommended modern training for the police force and the Rangers and provision of state of the art weapons to them.
MQM MNA Abdul Wasim said terrorism, price hike, inflation, unemployment and poverty were the main causes of unrest in Bloody Karachi and other parts of the country.
He said time had come to address the issues and problems of the masses especially the poor.
The parliamentarian deplored that feudal lords and rich segments of the society wanted to rule the country without giving opportunity to intellectuals, scholars, professionals and experts.
Laiq Mohammad Khan criticised the government for not apprehending and punishing the assassins of former premier Benazir Bhutto and questioned that if the government could not arrest the killers of Ms Bhutto, how would it establish its writ in the country.
He suggested that heads of all political parties would have to leave all their political activities and sit together to explore measures for durable peace in Bloody Karachi.
Hayat Khan said anti-state elements are endeavouring to divide Bloody Karachi ethnically and to destroy the economic hub of the country with an aim to destabilising Pakistain.
He said anti-state elements term each and every killing as 'target' killing just to create a sense of panic and hate among different segments of society.
Mr Khan further said that all political parties needed to rise above party politics and sit together for a peaceful Bloody Karachi.
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08/06/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Interior Minister Rehman Malik Pak politician, current Interior Minister under the Gilani administration. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. He later joined the Pak Peoples Party and was chief security officer to Bhutto. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Näwaz Shärif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. on Friday ruled out any compromise to restore law and order in Bloody Karachi.
He was speaking to media representatives after presiding over high-level meetings with officials dealing with the city's security situation. Mr Malik also met with Sindh Home Minister Manzoor Wassan.
"We will not spare anybody," he said, adding that action against criminals would be taken without any discrimination.
He said that soon those tossed in the slammer would be brought before media representatives to tell their modus operandi and also on whose directions criminal actions took place.
Speaking at the occasion, Mr Wassan said all efforts were being made to bring normality in Bloody Karachi and other parts of Sindh with the help of the federal government.
"About 800 people have been the victims of violent shootings in the last seven months," Zohra Yusuf, chairwoman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistain (HRCP), told AFP.
The HRCP previously said 490 people were killed in the first six months of the year and on Friday that another 300 people died in July.
"The figures compiled by our staff and the corpse count for the last month confirmed by the police shows the number of victims of violence was not less than 300," Yusuf said.
The government has campaigned to end the festivities and deployed hundreds of additional police and paramilitary forces in the city, but the killings have continued with 58 people reported dead in five days alone this week.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/06/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Yah, a simple verbal declaration of peace, is all you need. Shakes hands abdullah and muhammad.
[Dawn] President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... met with Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad on Friday and invited the MQM to rejoin the government, DawnNews reported.
Sources informed DawnNews that the president had expressed hope that MQM would unite with the government for the betterment of the people.
Sources also said that both president and governor Sindh agreed that Bloody Karachi unrest should end and peace should be brought to the city.
President Zardari said that the government would continue its reconciliation policy.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/06/2011 00:00 ||
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UNITED NATIONS - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday named veteran German diplomat Martin Kobler as his next special envoy to Iraq, overseeing the world bodys political, economic and human rights operations there.
Kobler, a former German ambassador to Iraq and Egypt, and chief of staff from 2000 to 2003 to then German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, will replace former Dutch politician Ad Melkert as head of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).
Since March of last year Kobler has been deputy UN special envoy to Afghanistan.
UNAMI is a civilian mission whose tasks include assisting with political reconciliation, regional cooperation, elections, human rights monitoring and development aid.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/06/2011 00:00 ||
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MANILA: Philippine President Benigno Aquino met the leader of the countrys largest Muslim separatist rebel group at a Tokyo hotel in a push to accelerate peace talks, the government and rebels said on Friday.
Aquino met Murad Ebrahim of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) for two hours at a hotel near Narita airport on Thursday evening. They were joined by the heads of the negotiating teams.
The meeting was cordial but consisted of a frank and candid exchange of their views about the frames of the continuing peace talks and some possible approaches that the parties can take to bring about a peaceful settlement, Marvic Leonen, head of the governments negotiating panel told a news conference in Manila, confirming an earlier Reuters story.
Both agreed the implementation of any agreement should happen within the current administration. Both agreed to fast track the negotiations, he said.
Theres no secret deal made in the meeting, Leonen said, adding that Aquino had sought the meeting with the rebel leaders, who are no longer seeking to set up a separate and independent republic.
The rebels gave few details about the meeting, but described it as fruitful.
Japans foreign ministry, which hosted the meeting, issued a statement expressing support for the peace process, hoping the two sides will reach the final peace agreement at an early stage. It also pledged support for development assistance in conflict-affected areas.
The two sides will hold another round of talks on Aug. 20-22 in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur. The government is due to issue a counterproposal to rebels demand to set up a state within a state structure in Muslim provinces in the south of the Philippines, a predominantly Roman Catholic country.
Aquino has vowed to strike a political deal to end the twin insurgencies from Maoist guerrillas and Muslim separatists that have killed 160,000 people and displaced 2 million in the last 40 years.
The rebellions have scared potential investors away from putting money into poor rural communities believed to be sitting on deposits of minerals, oil and natural gas.
Analysts said the secret meeting in Tokyo could be part of a strategy to move the peace talks forward after initial delays and rebels suspicion that Manila was insincere in negotiating.
Such a meeting would entail significant political risk for President Aquino and could hand ammunition to his opponents if the administration was subsequently unable to reach a deal, the International Crisis Group (ICG) said in a report this week.
Zainudin Malang, head of a civil society group on the southern island of Mindanao, said the meeting was a shot in the arm for a peace process which is steadily losing public support due to delays.
Before this meeting, the level of confidence among Muslims here on the peace process has been steadily going down, but the Tokyo meeting has suddenly revived peoples interest and trust on the government to pursue peace talks, Malang said.
Aquino may be following the policy practised by his late mother, former President Corazon Aquino, who met another Muslim leader, Nur Misuari, in 1986. Those talks led to the resumption of negotiations with his group, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), the biggest rebel movement at the time.
In 1996, the government of her successor, Fidel Ramos, concluded a peace deal with the MNLF, creating an autonomous government for the Muslim region in the southern Philippines.
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08/06/2011 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV] A senior Iranian holy man says the Islamic Theocratic Republic faces enemies in three fronts but expresses optimism about the future of the country, saying all enemy plots They're everywhere! They're everywhere! will fail.
Speaking at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran on Thursday, Ayatollah Seyyed Ahmad Khatami said Iran's Islamic establishment is beset by enemies from both inside and outside the country as well as undercover agents.
Ayatollah Khatami noted the pressure mounted on the Islamic Theocratic Republic by the United States and its allies since the creation of the Islamic establishment in Iran after the 1979 revolution in the country.
"This war which exists in Europe and the US against the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran indicates that the arrogant [powers] want to prevent the growth of the revolution through their sanctions and schemes," he said, downplaying the efforts as futile.
"The royalists and those smitten before the Revolution, who were also part of the ruling system and agreed to the hijab ban in return for [promises of being rewarded with] a house, are standing against Islam with the [incitement of the] US, UK and Zionist regime [of Israel]," the holy man added.
Ayatollah Khatami pointed out the destructive role of hypocritical elements that pretend to zealously believe in the establishment but spare no chance to inflict blows on the body of the Mohammedan community.
He called the third group of enemies as infiltrators who managed to secure positions in the ranks of power in order to harm the establishment.
The senior holy man, however, emphasized that the prospects of the Islamic Revolution in Iran were bright due to the leadership of the Just Jurisprudence in the country, and thus all its enemies were doomed to fail.
"Since the very beginning of the revolution with every step we have witnessed God's blessings...six major coups were orchestrated against the Islamic Revolution, and some of them were had even been coordinated with arrogant powers, but thanks to God they all crashed," he noted.
Ayatollah Khatami condemned some articles and editorials which attacked senior Iranian holy mans for criticizing the deviatory movements in the country, and warned the holy manal society would strongly respond to such attacks.
"Presently the greater good lies in having the society remain calm," he noted.
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08/06/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
You know, if Iranians weren't such (Allan drunk) assh*les, they'd realize the need for a common front with the rest on non-Arabs in ME.
#2
I don't know about you, but I find it kind of comforting to know that the old guys with beards and turbans are paranoid as rats soaked in cooking oil....and they all probably have kidney problems and swollen prostates and have to pad back and forth to the loo six times a night, as well.
Let's just stand here and watch, shall we?
These Allah clowns are afraid of their own people and they think the Jewzzzz are under every skirt. What's not to like?
Posted by: de Medici ||
08/06/2011 7:57 Comments ||
Top||
#3
You know, if Iranians weren't such (Allan drunk) assh*les, they'd realize the need for a common front with the rest on non-Arabs in ME.
Thing is, the Iranians can't or won't lower themselves to do so, and the non-Arabs still recall when the "Persians*" were in charge.
*Yes, I know the Iranians aren't all Persians, but that's the term used.
#4
#3 You know, if Iranians weren't such (Allan drunk) assh*les, they'd realize the need for a common front with the rest on non-Arabs in ME.
Prime Minister Erdogan of Turkey did realize exactly that, but Iran has refused to submit to his blandishments. Of course, PM Erdogan wanted to play "sultan and satellite", which isn't nearly as much fun for the satellite...
[An Nahar] Syria's banned Moslem Brüderbund on Friday lashed out at Prime Minister Najib Miqati, accusing him of "siding with the killers of Syrian children." ... and reminding him that Syria will be there even after Pencilneck & Co. are gone...
In a statement published by the Italian news agency AKI, the Brotherhood's official front man Zuheir Salem said "the Syrian people would never compromise, no matter the sacrifices, the blood of our brothers in Leb, whether in Tripoli, Beirut, Sidon ... or anywhere in Leb."
On Wednesday, Leb disassociated itself from a U.N. Security Council presidential statement condemning Syria's crackdown on opposition protests.
Normally the document is adopted unanimously. Leb did not block the adoption, but disavowed the document after.
"Whatever affects Leb, affects Syria, whatever affects Syria will also affect Leb," Leb's deputy ambassador Caroline Ziade told the Security Council meeting.
Describing Miqati as "the son of Tripoli," the Brotherhood condemned the premier's "siding with the perpetrators of genocide crimes against the Syrian people."
"We did not expect PM Miqati to bargain on the premiership with the blood of Syria's children," Salem said, adding that "through this deplorable and appalling stance, Miqati is bargaining on his political future and on the future of the relation between him and the Syrian and Lebanese people."
The Brotherhood also accused Miqati of being in the service of "those who are seeking to destroy Leb and Syria."
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08/06/2011 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Phalange Party The Kataeb (Phalange) party was founded by Pierre Gemayel in 1936, who modeled the party after Spanish and Italian Fascist parties he had observed as an Olympic athlete during the 1936 Summer Olympics held in Berlin, then Nazi Germany. The movement's uniforms originally included brown shirts and members used the Nazi salute. Despite the party's uniform, its strong sense of nationalism and dedication to a single charismatic leader, the Lebanese Kataeb was not and never became a fascist party nor did it espouse a totalitarian ideology. leader Amin Gemayel warned Hizbullah on Friday against attempts to target the March 14 Those are the good guys, insofar as Leb has good guys... -led opposition saying its project is doomed to failure.
"Hizbullah should be aware that its project is doomed to failure," he said at the opening of the 29th Phalange conference. "We stress to Hizbullah that no one in Leb wants to target it but we don't accept that it turns its arms against us."
He accused the Shiite party of adopting the security logic of Israel to preserve its existence. "What guarantees its presence is the logic of legitimacy, politics, coordination and openness."
"If Israel is adopting the logic of security against enemies, then Hizbullah is adopting it against the citizens of its nation," Gemayel told the conference.
He urged Hizbullah to unite with the Lebanese, saying "what guarantees the sustainability of Hizbullah is partnership with the Lebanese and not alliances" with regional countries.
Neither Christians nor Mohammedans will allow anyone to change Leb's identity, the Phalange leader warned.
He reiterated his call for Hizbullah to recognize the legitimacy of the Lebanese state, put its arms under the control of the Lebanese army and hand over the four suspects in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's Feb. 2005 murder case to the Lebanese authorities.
"If the accused are saints then we wouldn't have had deaders," Gemayel quipped.
He stressed that his party backs the Special Tribunal for Leb because it believes in justice and wants stability.
Turning to President Michel Suleiman's invitation for dialogue, the former president said: "Dialogue requires that all parties believe in the state of law and legitimate authorities."
"The Phalange doesn't reject dialogue," he said, wondering "what benefits the dialogue would have, if they consider the arms sacred."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/06/2011 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.
Ousted president 
[Dawn] 
[Dawn] An alleged 
Members of different political parties in the National Assembly on Friday recommended unity and harmony among all the political parties on all national issues to remove ethnic, sectarian and political divides in 
[Dawn] Interior Minister 
Asif Ali 
A senior Iranian 
Najib Miqati
The Kataeb (Phalange) party was founded by Pierre Gemayel in 1936, who modeled the party after Spanish and Italian Fascist parties he had observed as an Olympic athlete during the 1936 Summer Olympics held in Berlin, then Nazi Germany. The movement's uniforms originally included brown shirts and members used the Nazi salute. Despite the party's uniform, its strong sense of nationalism and dedication to a single charismatic leader, the Lebanese Kataeb was not and never became a fascist party nor did it espouse a totalitarian ideology.
