[The Peninsula] The final result of the presidential election held in Afghanistan over a month ago will be announced today, a day later than planned because of a high number of voter complaints, the election authorities said.
Preliminary results late last month indicated no candidate would emerge with an absolute majority. If final results confirm the initial count, a run-off will be held between the two leading contenders, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah ... the former foreign minister of the Northern Alliance government, advisor to Masood, and candidate for president against Karzai. Dr. Abdullah was born in Kabul and is half Tadjik and half Pashtun... and ex-World Bank economist Ashraf Ghani.
The final result would be announced today at 11.00am, IEC front man Noor Mohammad Noor said.
Failure of the complaints commission to submit its final report on time was the reason for the delay.
A front man for the commission said this was because it had been flooded with an unexpectedly high number of complaints, including over 900 classed serious enough to affect the outcome of the vote. "That's why it took longer," said Nader Mohseni.
This number exceeds the 815 recorded during the previous election held in 2009, when over a million votes were cast out as fraudulent.
A second round of voting was initially scheduled for May 28, but is now expected to be pushed back to mid-June if required.
The volume of complaints and subsequent delays has not dampened enthusiasm for the democratic process, widely seen as a success because of the high turn-out.
According to the commission's preliminary results, Abdullah finished top with 44.9 percent, followed by Ghani with 31.5 percent.
President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... was constitutionally barred from standing for a third term. His successor will face a range of challenges.
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[An Nahar] Leaders of a Sudanese counter-insurgency unit on Wednesday dismissed accusations that their men committed abuses in Darfur.
"We didn't loot. We didn't burn any villages. We didn't rape," General Abbas Abdelaziz, who heads the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), told news hounds.
"All the allegations against us are lies," an angry Mohammed Hamdan Dalgo, the unit's field commander, shouted.
They held the presser a day after newspapers reported that Sudan's powerful National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) has filed a criminal complaint against former prime minister Sadiq al-Mahdi, who heads a major opposition party, Umma.
Newspapers said NISS accused Mahdi of releasing false information about the RSF to news hounds last week.
NISS, which has authority over the RSF, accused Mahdi of offences, including threatening public peace.
He reportedly accused the unit of arson and other violence against civilians, and of including "non-Sudanese" in its ranks.
The RSF role has also come under scrutiny by the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... and UNAMID, the African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... -United Nations ...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly... peacekeeping mission in Darfur.
UNAMID chief Mohammed Ibn Chambas told the U.N. Security Council more than a month ago that the activities of the RSF were of "particular concern" as violence rose to alarming levels in Darfur this year.
"They have perpetrated attacks on communities," Chambas said.
European Union ambassador Tomas Ulicny told Agence La Belle France Presse last month that "we should be concerned" about the role of the RSF.
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Legislators from the parliamentary human rights committee called for the battles in Baladxawo to be brought to a standstill after many civilians have been wounded in the fighting and several families have began to evacuate the town.
The deputy chairman of the committee Muse Sheikh Omar, elucidated that the clashes in Baladxawo can put the town on the brink of a disaster and displaces the entire population. Mr. Omar called for the sudden halt of the violent confrontations urging on the Somali Federal Government to resolve the issue peacefully, refraining from military interference.
âWe are sending a few MPs from our committee to Baladxawo so that we can get an insight as to what the fighting has caused and to assess the needs of the civilians in the town.â He said
At least 10 soldiers were killed and more than 30 (including civilians) sustained severe injures yesterday after a battle broke out between Interim Jubba Administration militia fighters against the co-allied forces of the Somali National Army and Ahlusunna Waljamaaca troops.
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[MAGHAREBIA] One of the al-Qaeda terrorists responsible for the 2007 slaying of a French tourist family died in a Mauritanian prison, AFP reported on Tuesday (May 13th).
No details were given on the circumstances of Maarouf Ould Haiba's death on Monday.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility for the Aleg murders. The killings were ordered by former AQIM emir Mokhtar Belmokhtar.
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[MAGHAREBIA] Libyan antiquities are falling prey to bad boys.
In the most recent attack, vandals demolished the marble pillars of an ancient church in Shahat. Along with nearby Cyrene (which lent its name to today's Cyrenaica region), the city is home to many Greek and Roman artefacts.
Activists concerned with preserving Libya's patrimony shared news of the incident on social networking websites and blamed local authorities for failing to prevent the destruction.
Continued on Page 49
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[Iran Press TV] The US military is using spy drones as well as manned aircraft over Nigeria to locate over 200 schoolgirls who were recently kidnapped by Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed... bad boys, according to senior military officials.
The United States has deployed high-flying drone, Global Hawk, and the manned MC-12 Liberty aircraft for the mission, a military official said on Wednesday.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to journalists.
On Tuesday, Army Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon front man, said, "I can confirm that we're using both manned and unmanned aerial ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) assets in the search for the kidnapped girls,"
He added that the military is not sharing intelligence directly with the Nigerian government.
"We are not sharing the raw intelligence data," Warren told news hounds. "We are working closely with the Nigerians to establish intelligence-sharing protocols. We're also establishing a baseline. But as of now, we are not directly sharing that information."
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[REUTERS] Nigeria's president has rejected an offer from Islamist rebel group Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... to exchange schoolgirls it kidnapped for imprisoned Death Eaters, but the government is open to broader talks with the rebels, a visiting British minister said.
[An Nahar] A federal prosecutor Wednesday urged a New York jury to convict Islamist holy man Abu Hamza on kidnapping and terrorism charges, insisting in closing arguments the evidence against him was "simply overwhelming."
"The real Abu Hamza is not the man you see now in 2014," said assistant U.S. attorney Ian MacGinley. "The real Abu Hamza is guilty. Don't let the passage of time dismiss what he did."
Mustafa Kamel Mustafa, Abu Hamza's real name, was extradited from Britannia in October 2012 to stand trial on 11 counts of kidnapping and terrorism.
Blind in one eye and with no hands, the 56-year-old defendant is the ex-imam of the Finsbury Park mosque in north London.
As Abu Hamza, a fiery ...a single two-syllable word carrying connotations of both incoherence and viciousness. A fiery delivery implies an audience of rubes and yokels, preferably forming up into a mob... and influential preacher, he became one of the main figures of "Londonistan," the Islamist network based in the British capital during the 1990s.
The charges against him pre-date the 9/11 attacks on New York and include the 1998 abduction of 16 Western tourists in Yemen, four of whom were killed in a military rescue operation.
He is also accused of trying to set up a terrorist training camp in the United States in 1999, and of promoting "violent jihad" on a global scale.
Among the charges against him are providing material support to al-Qaeda, assisting the Taliban and sending terror recruits to Afghanistan.
He faces life in prison if convicted and denies all the charges.
"The evidence is simply overwhelming," MacGinley contended in his two and a half hour closing arguments.
The prosecution presented documents, photographs, videos and tape recordings to support their case.
"He jumped on opportunities around the globe to support jihad. In Yemen, in Afghanistan, in the U.S.," MacGinley said of Abu Hamza.
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[DAWN] Chief Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani on Tuesday hinted at framing guidelines for law-enforcement agencies for protection of minorities' rights.
"We believe that the Constitution has set goals, pledges and commitments that the nation has vowed to live by and to achieve these dreams we may develop guidelines for the protection of rights of minorities," observed the chief justice who heads a three-judge bench hearing a suo motu ...a legal term, from the Latin. Roughly translated it means I saw what you did, you bastard... case relating to the Sept 22, 2013 kaboom on a church in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. . Over 80 Christians were killed in the attack.
The court observed that desecration of places of worship of any faith attracted blasphemy laws under Section 295 of the Pakistain Penal Code (PPC) and indicated that it would consider the role of police in protecting the rights of minorities in an effective manner or suggest raising an alternative special force for the purpose.
The case was taken up on an application of Nadeem Sheikh and Saleem Michael, the in-charge of minority wing of Justice Help Line.
Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, patron of the Pakistain Hindu Council (PHC), informed the court that six incidents of desecration of temples and places of worship in Sindh had taken place over the past two months and regretted that the attackers could not be brought to justice because cases had not been registered under relevant laws.
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[DAWN] Pakistain's top military and civilian leadership huddled together on Wednesday to review the law and order situation in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... at a meeting at the Governor House chaired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... The premier said that the military and politicianship would together supervise the targeted Karachi operation, and that no political pressure would be tolerated.
The meeting was briefed by Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif, the heads of Pakistain's intelligence agencies, the Corps Commander Karachi, the Director-General Rangers and the Inspector-General of Sindh Police.
This was the first time that the army chief attended such a high-level meeting with the civilian leadership on the issue of unrest in Karachi.
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[Ynet] FA president Jibril Rajoub urges FIFA to fine Israel for 'behaving like the neighborhood bully'; claims one player placed in durance vile Please don't kill me! , two shot in last months.
No mention in the complaint whether the players or their friends and relations were attacking Israelis at the time...
[Ynet] Amid nuclear talks with Iran and severe IDF financial crisis, US secretary of defense lands in Israel for talks on regional security and US military aid to Israel
The Third Smartest Man In The Room arrives. Details at the link for those who want 'em.
[An Nahar] A young Arab Israeli who joined rebel forces in Syria and underwent military training with jihadist fighters law went on trial Wednesday charged with violating Israeli law, legal and security officials said.
Ahmad Shurbaji, 23, from Umm al-Fahm in northern Israel, along with three other Arab Israelis on January 16 left for Turkey, from where they crossed into Syria, the prosecution said.
According to the Shin Bet domestic security agency, Shurbaji was enjugged Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! upon his return to Israel on April 20.
"In his investigation, Shurbaji admitted he went to Syria to join the struggle against the Syrian army," the Shin Bet statement read.
It said he joined the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ... the current version of al-Qaeda in Iraq, just as blood-thirsty and well-beloved as the original... , "one of the most extreme global jihadist groups currently active in Syria".
He underwent military training with ISIL and "participated in at least two battles" against government forces as well as other actions, including on the Iraqi border, it said.
Shurbaji was charged on Wednesday at Haifa magistrate court in northern Israel with unlawfully leaving Israel and undergoing prohibited military training, the charge sheet read.
Israel is technically at war with Syria and it is illegal for its citizens to travel there.
The trickle of Arabs from Israel to fight on the Sunni side of the civil war in Syria is of serious concern to the Shin Bet. In January the organization tossed in the slammer Book 'im, Mahmoud! three men, including Ayad Abu-Sara, an East Jerusalem resident who was allegedly set to leave for Syria -- part of a plan that was to culminate in suicide kabooms against the US Embassy in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem's International Convention Center.
There are currently, according to a study by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terror Information Center, over 5,000 foreign Arab fighters in Syria, constituting "the spine" of the fighting ranks of the jihadist groups Jabhat al-Nusra and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ... the current version of al-Qaeda in Iraq, just as blood-thirsty and well-beloved as the original... The study, released this week, pointed at Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... , Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya as contributing the bulk of the warriors, with only 30 from Gazoo and "several individuals" from the Paleostinian Authority and Israel.
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[Ynet] In additional sign of Paleostinian unity, Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, officials vacated the Gazoo City villa of Paleostinian President Abbas, which has in recent years been used as a base.
Hamas on Wednesday cleared out of the private Gazoo residence of Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... , in the most concrete sign yet that the rivals are moving toward reconciliation.
Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, took over the residence when it seized Gazoo from the Western-backed Abbas in 2007, leaving him with only parts of the West Bank. Since then, the rivals have become entrenched in their respective territories, setting up separate governments.
Repeated reconciliation efforts have failed, but the current one might have a better chance because both sides seem to have more compelling reasons than in the past to strike a compromise.
On Wednesday, Hamas security forces removed belongings from the Abbas villa in Gazoo City. They loaded mattresses, desks and chairs onto pickup trucks and drove out of the gated compound.
Abbas' villa is located in the western part of the Tel Al-Hawa area of GazCity, considered to be an exclusive neighborhood. Paleostinian sources saidhat the villa will be cleared in a number of hours and will be handed over to a special committee representing Abbas in Gazoo.
Photos at the link. They keep using the word modest, clearly because they do not understand what it means.
A modest living room with a flat-screen TV was devoid of decorations, but two large photo albums on a shelf contained pictures of Abbas with various leaders and officials, including former U.S. mediator Dennis Ross.
Iyad Al Bozum, a front man for the Interior Ministry in Gazoo, confirmed that security forces cleared their belongings from the residence, but that a formal handover of the villa requires another government decision.
"Our presence there during the past seven years was to protect the place," he said.
On April 23 the two sides agreed to revive a previous reconciliation deal that was never implemented. Under that deal, Abbas is to form an interim unity government of technocrats by the end of May. The main task of the government is to prepare for general elections by 2015.
Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, has faced growing regional isolation and a crippling financial crisis in recent months, largely a result of an asphyxiating border closure by neighboring Egypt. Abbas, meanwhile, suffered a political setback when the latest nine-month round of peace negotiations with Israel ran aground last month.
The ideological gap between Abbas and Hamas remains wide, and a temporary government of technocrats is meant to paper over those differences.
At the same time, Abbas needs to reassure Western donor countries, which consider Hamas a terror organization, that the Islamic gunnies will not play a role in his new administration. Abbas has said any unity government would recognize Israel, renounce violence and uphold previous interim deals -- positions Hamas rejects.
Gazoo Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh ...became Prime Minister after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continues as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintains a separate PM in the West Bank... said Wednesday that Hamas is willing to do its part to end the Paleostinian split, but that the movement would not "abandon its fixed political positions." He also said a new government would require the approval of the Paleostinian parliament - elected in 2006 but not functional since the split - where Hamas has a majority.
[Ynet] Officials from Fatah and Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, meet in Gazoo to discuss non-partisan make-up for cabinet in preparation for presidential, parliamentary elections after six months.
[Ynet] IAI unveils new tactical miniature drone able to sustain flight for up to two hours and 45 minutes; ground troops can carry drone with them when deployed to battlefield.
Israel Aerospace Industries unveiled Tuesday the "ArrowLite", a mini drone produced for the United States Special Forces by Stark, a Mississippi-based subsidiary of the IAI, with the assistance of the American Department of Defense.
The new drone is currently on display at the Unmanned Systems exhibition in Orlando, Florida. The ArrowLite is a tactical drone that can be launched manually by a single operator in 60 to 90 seconds after the transport carry case is removed. In addition, fighters are able to carry and use the mini-UAV while on the battlefield.
The ArrowLite weighs less than 3 kilograms (6.60 lbs) and can sustain flight for up to two hours and 45 minutes. The new model is equipped with an electro-optic payload for day and night vision operations, along with a laser pointer and an advanced communication system.
With the payload, the drone can mark tactical targets either for the forces operating the drone or for land or air forces operating in secret. The drone is adjusted to operate in harsh environmental and weather conditions and thus can be used in a variety of activities within enemy territory.
The mini-drone will not be sold to the IDF in the near future, but it is suitable for the use of many Western armies. Currently, the IDF's Artillery Corps Unit operates the "Sky Rider", a small drone used for raids, arrests and scans of relatively small areas in the area of the border with Syria and the Gazoo Strip.
The IAI manufactures and develops a variety of drones, from the gigantic "Heron" drone that can reach Iran and perform a number of different missions, including intelligence collection, and up to drones in the size and shape of toy helicopters that can capture footage of small objects such as people in populated areas and perform scans between densely-packed structures.
[An Nahar] Syrian rebels who evacuated Homs after a two-year siege and daily bombing are rediscovering the simple joy of eating well and resting. But many feel far from home and dream of return.
"In the last months of the siege, all we had left to eat were the leaves off the trees," says Abul Joud, an activist and native of Homs' Old City.
"Now, after all that hardship, the guys are eating eight meals a day, and sleep a lot, trying to recover."
"It's really funny, we were happy even to have onions!," he laughed.
"We were munching onions like apples, and kept asking for more," he told Agence La Belle France Presse via the Internet, after the evacuation of 2,000 people, mainly rebels, from the city to the northern countryside of Homs province.
"We had all thought we were going to die, and it felt like coming back to life," he added, speaking from the opposition-held town of Dar al-Kabireh.
But Abul Joud said after two years under siege in Homs, his friends felt out of place.
"We walk through the market and wonder how all the people we see just went about their normal lives, while we were under the bombs."
Now almost entirely under regime control, Homs was once dubbed the "capital of the revolution" because of the vigor of its peaceful protests against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... at the beginning of the uprising in March 2011.
It was also where the revolt first militarized.
Hajj Ayman was among those evacuated under an unprecedented deal allowing opposition fighters to withdraw with their weapons to the countryside.
He used to sell car parts and owned a cake factory, but the revolution turned him into a poet. He wrote the lyrics for several protest chants that became known across the Arab world.
"But the regime didn't understand the language of song and poetry, and with its violence, it pushed us into taking up arms," Hajj Ayman said via the Internet.
As relieved as they are, the rebels say they already long to return to Homs.
"We exited the Old City, where I am from, in order to reorganize our ranks," said Hajj Ayman.
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[Ynet] A senior US official on Tuesday cautioned against excessive optimism over six world powers' nuclear talks with Iran but said disputes could be overcome and a deal reached by their self-imposed July 20 deadline.
Idiots, fools and willing dupes, otherwise known as The Smartest Men In The Room.
The official noted some media reports about the negotiations that have wrongly implied a deal called a "comprehensive plan of action" between Iran and the six powers was a virtual certainty.
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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.
[The Peninsula] The final result of the presidential election held in Afghanistan over a month ago will be announced today, a day later than planned because of a high number of voter complaints, the election authorities said.
[MAGHAREBIA] One of the al-Qaeda terrorists responsible for the 2007 slaying of a French tourist family died in a Mauritanian prison, AFP reported on Tuesday (May 13th).
Goodluck Jonathan
[An Nahar] A young Arab Israeli who joined rebel forces in Syria and underwent military training with jihadist fighters law went on trial Wednesday charged with violating Israeli law, legal and security officials said.
[Ynet] In additional sign of Paleostinian unity, 
[Ynet] Officials from Fatah and 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
