[Tolo News] Jamil Karzai, a cousin of 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... and an influential businessman, announced his support for presidential candidate 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...
Is he the one with the Christian wife? As I recall, one of the candidates had a Christian wife.
on Wednesday.
"We have decided to announce our support to the team whose goal is to reform and bring solidarity to the country: Dr. Abdullah Abdullah," Jamil Karzai said. "We promise to move forward shoulder to shoulder with him."
Mr. Karzai vowed to do everything possible to make sure Dr. Abdullah comes out victorious in the second round of the presidential election, currently scheduled for June 14.
A few minutes later, Dr. Abdullah joined his new supporter on stage and emphasized that the result of the runoff would not be determined by ethnic politics.
"It is not acceptable to move the elections toward ethnicity, we are confident that the country will not go into crisis," Abdullah explained. "We will always protect the national interests."
Abdullah's comments came in response to rumblings in Afghan news media and social media that the contest between him and his opponent is essentially an ethnic one. Abdullah is half Tajik and half Pashtun whereas Ashraf Ghani is entirely Pashtun.
Both men, along with election officials and monitoring groups, have stressed the importance of keeping ethnic politics out of the election.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/22/2014 00:00 ||
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TW, it looks as if Mr. Christian Wife's probably Ghani. I see an NPR story from last month. The wikipedia article seems to weasel it (could be I'm hypersensitive to weaselry today for personal reasons): "There he met his future wife, Rula, a Lebanese Christian[3] student at the time.[citation needed]"
[Tolo News] Security officials, the election commissions and United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... representatives on Wednesday gathered at the Ministry of Interior to discuss security preparations for the presidential runoff. Much of conversation, however, focused on Pakistain's involvement in Afghanistan's security challenges.
Election Day in April was celebrated around the world as a success after millions of Afghans showed-up to the polls and there were only a few instances of violence. However, death is not the end. There remains the litigation over the estate... many experts have suggested bully boyz leaders could be more eager to disrupt the runoff after they failed to do so the first round. Moreover, with the spring fighting season underway, violence around the country has spiked.
"The election is an important issue ahead of us, and we will maintain runoff security at any cost, we have the ability to defend our people and soil," Minister of Interior Mohammad Omar Daudzai said on Wednesday. He called security for the runoff critical and emphasized that preparations must be even better than they were for the first round.
Much of the meeting in Kabul was occupied by talk of Pakistain. Many Afghan officials hold Pakistain responsible for funding and supporting the Taliban insurgency. And with hostilities along Afghanistan and Pakistain's border increasing, these suspicions have only been compounded.
Earlier this week, a bevy of military missiles were fired from Pakistain into eastern Kunar province ... which is right down the road from Chitral. Kunar is Haqqani country..... , destroying a number of houses and displacing unexpecting Afghans.
"We say again that these missile attacks need to stop," Daudzai said. "Our patience is a sign of us being a good neighbor and must be not taken advantage of, it should not be seen as our weakness."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/22/2014 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV] Egypt's election officials say former army chief Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has won over 94 percent of the expat votes in the country's presidential election.
On Wednesday, Egypt's Supreme Presidential Election Commission confirmed that former army chief, el-Sisi, has won the majority of the expatriate votes in the country's presidential election.
The commission confirmed Sisi's landslide victory over his main rival, Hamdeen el-Sabahi, saying that Sisi has claimed over 94 percent of the expatriate votes.
The commission also announced that over 300,000 Egyptians cast their ballots at polling stations overseas. The expatriates were allowed to vote without prior registration.
Meanwhile, ...back at the the conspirators' cleverly concealed hideout Montefiore's foot was still stuck and the hound had completely soaked his uniform with slobber... people in mainland Egypt will take part in the presidential election on May 26 and 27. It is the first presidential poll since last July's military ouster of former president, Mohammed Morsi ...the former president of Egypt. A proponent of the One Man, One Vote, One Time principle, Morsi won election after the deposal of Hosni Mubarak and jumped to the conclusion it was his turn to be dictator... Egypt's Moslem Brüderbund movement and several other political parties have boycotted the vote, calling it illegitimate. If you don't show up you're sure you're not gonna win.
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05/22/2014 00:00 ||
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[Libya Herald] Ansar Al-Sharia, one of the principle targets of General Khalifa Hafter's Dignity Operation, has said his forces are "waging war against the religious Mohammedan youth".
The Islamist group, based mainly in Benghazi and Derna, has said they have been the targets of a campaign of hate waged by those who are against Islam and the application of Sharia. They claimed that while they were being accused of terrorism, their assailants were in fact the terrorists.
Ansar Al-Sharia said they were eager to safeguard Mohammedan blood and had not, as has been said by their enemies, hindered the establishment of security in Libya. They said their image had been tarnished by "evil television channels" which had sowed "seeds of discord" and were led by "ex-regime sympathisers and secularists supported by their masters in the west".
The Islamist group concluded their statement saying that they remained steadfast in their demands for security and stability under Islamic Sharia, condemned Khalifa Hifter and his forces and asked the "honourable and decent tribes" to forbid their sons from joining him.
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05/22/2014 00:00 ||
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#5
Methinks, Haftar has hit a nerve going after the Islamist militias in Benghazi. It is interesting to note the groups condemning Haftar.
It was just a matter of time before someone with the power and the will to do something would finally get tired of the militias and the nonsense of the GNC and do something to solve the unrest in Libya.
If the US is smart (and I doubt anyone but the few guys in the basement at Langley are that smart) the US will come down on the side of Haftar and start pushing Libya toward rationalization.
Libya needs to disarm the militias, get the constitutional congress up and running, and without a bunch of nutjob hardline Islamists writing Sharia everywhere in the constitution, and get a secular government in place with laws that can promote international business.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
05/22/2014 14:38 Comments ||
Top||
#7
"Libya needs to disarm the militias, get the constitutional congress up and running, and without a bunch of nutjob hardline Islamists writing Sharia everywhere in the constitution, and get a secular government in place with laws that can promote international business."
Good luck with that one, Bill. :-(
Posted by: Barbara ||
05/22/2014 15:09 Comments ||
Top||
#8
One can leave one's tinfoil hat safely on the rack
[AnNahar] A young Tunisian freed in March after two years in prison for posting cartoons deemed insulting to Islam, saw his eight-month sentence on a separate charge confirmed on appeal Wednesday.
Jabeur Mejri received the same sentence handed down by the court of first instance in April for insulting a public official, his lawyer Ahmed Mselmi told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Mejri, an atheist activist, was tossed in the slammer Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! in 2012 for seven and half years for posting caricatures of the Moslem Prophet Mohammed, but walked free in March after receiving a presidential pardon.
He was detained six weeks later for insulting a court official over the date of a summons for him to appear before the investigating judge.
His support committee on Wednesday slammed what they called "judicial harassment".
"It's clear... that there is a desire not to accept the presidential pardon and to keep Jabeur in prison at all costs, to make him pay dearly for his freedom of expression and deter him from any further attempts," the group said in a statement.
The unemployed activist from Mahdia, south of Tunis, had originally been tossed in the slammer Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! in March 2012 for publishing the controversial drawings, but President Moncef Marzouki decided to pardon Mejri in February.
He was released two weeks later, but only after other charges against him emerged involving embezzlement and dating back to the time when Mejri worked for the Tunisian railways -- well before his imprisonment for posting the cartoons -- charges that are still being investigated.
Amnesia Amnesty International called him the first prisoner of conscience in Tunisia following the 2011 uprising that ousted veteran strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Moslemforces of Evil who were persecuted under Ben Ali's regime have enjoyed a resurgence since the revolution, and were blamed for numerous acts of violence against targets deemed "un-Islamic" when the government led by moderate Islamist party Ennahda was in power.
#1
A godless young man of Tunisia
Drew the Messenger sniffing a freesia:
"Since his camel-kick nose
Is concealed in this pose,
I am sure it won't irk the ecclesia!"
[AnNahar] The International Criminal Court ... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ... on Wednesday rejected a final bid by Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... 's lawyers to try slain dictator Muammar Qadaffy
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife ||
05/22/2014 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] Thousands of separatists rallied in Yemen's main southern city Aden Wednesday demanding renewed independence for the region on the 20th anniversary of a secession bid that was crushed by northern troops.
The demonstrators waved the flag of the formerly independent south and pictures of exiled separatist leader Ali Salem al-Baid as they commemorated the short-lived Democratic Republic of Yemen that was crushed in the 1994 civil war.
"We swear to God Sanaa will not govern us," the protesters chanted. "Twenty years of oppression and resistance."
Southern leaders proclaimed their abortive breakaway state on May 21, 1994, just four years after the south merged with the north, ending 23 years of independence in a union that rapidly turned sour.
The civil war ended with the occupation of the south by northern troops and the dismissal of thousands of southerners from their jobs, sowing grievances that have festered ever since.
The Sanaa authorities have proposed a federal constitution to address southern grievances but southern leaders have rejected the planned six-unit federation.
In a speech broadcast from Beirut on Aden Live television channel, owned by Baid, the exiled leader said southerners were "determined to create an independent state."
He called on the "occupying regime to begin negotiations" with southern leaders "overseen by the Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... and the international community... to prevent further bloodshed."
[AnNahar] North Korea threatened Wednesday to launch an attack on South Korean warships without warning if there was even a "trifling" provocation near their disputed Yellow Sea border.
A South Korean naval ship fired warning shots Tuesday after three North Korean patrol boats crossed the sea boundary.
On Wednesday the North's military accused South Korea of "an intentional grave provocation" at a time when North Korean vessels had been chasing Chinese boats fishing illegally in the area.
In future South Korean naval vessels near the border would be the target of "precision" strikes without warning if they were involved in "any trifling provocations," it said in a statement on the official KCNA news agency.
"We are willing to go for a showdown right now if the puppet rogue is desperate to stand face-to-face with us," it said.
It is not uncommon for North Korean patrol boats and fishing boats to cross the sea border into the South.
Two North Korean patrol boats violated the sea border last month, just before U.S. President Barack Obama My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. I hope you'll join with me as we try to change it... arrived in Seoul for a two-day visit.
The North does not recognize the Yellow Sea border, the scene of brief but bloody naval festivities in 1999, 2002 and 2009.
In March the North fired hundreds of shells in a live exercise near the sea boundary. About 100 shells dropped into South Korean territorial waters, and the South responded with volleys of shells into North Korean waters.
[Ynet] Campbell acquitted after smuggling uranium ore into states in attempt to sell material to US agent acting as Iran broker.
A Florida jury has acquitted a Sierra Leonean man placed in durance vile Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! at a New York airport last year and accused of trying to broker a deal to sell uranium ore to Iran.
Patrick Campbell was found not guilty on Monday after a weeklong trial in federal court in West Palm Beach, said his lawyer, Richard Serafini. Campbell faced up to 20 years in prison and a possible $1 million fine had he been convicted.
Campbell was arrested in August at John F. Kennedy International Airport. According to prosecutors, he allegedly traveled to the United States in response to an online ad placed by an undercover US agent posing as an American broker for a buyer in Iran..
The jury cleared Campbell of charges of attempting to cause the export of services to Iran and the conspiracy to supply goods and services to the Middle Eastern country, according to court documents.
When he was arrested, Campbell admitted to agents that he brought samples of raw uranium ore with him hidden in the soles of his shoes in his luggage.
Campbell said he was affiliated with a company involved in mining and selling of uranium, gold, and diamonds for export.
Prosecutors alleged he agreed to sell 1,000 tons of yellowcake uranium, which when enriched, can be used in the manufacture of nuclear fuel and weapons.
WASHINGTON (AP) - On the eve of a critical Senate vote and under court order, the Obama administration signaled it will publicly reveal a secret memo describing its legal justification for using drones to kill U.S. citizens suspected of terrorism overseas.
Two administration officials told The Associated Press that the Justice Department has decided not to appeal a Court of Appeals ruling requiring disclosure of a redacted version of the memo under the Freedom of Information Act. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. Redacted for what reason? Why was al-Awlaki targeted? Why would al-Awlaki or any other American citizen be targeted, denied due process? Let's have the truth.
#3
The legal system has to declare you to be an outlaw which then puts you outside of the protection of the legal system. This is a harsh punishment because basically, anybody could kill you.
So have a trial in absentia and declare al-Awlaki an outlaw. He then gets what's coming to him following due process.
#4
So have a trial in absentia and declare al-Awlaki an outlaw. He then gets what's coming to him following due process.Posted by Squinty
Sound logical on the face, but little is ever as it initially appears.
If evidence against al-Awlaki included cell or e-mail contacts with MAJ Nadal Hasan, it could become a very sticky wicket. My guess is we'll never see any of it, either coming or going. The discovery of intelligence community 'eyes-on' a terr linked Nadal Hasan would be of little help to a beleaguered regime at the moment.
[DAWN] Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has taken notice of the murder of two health practitioners of Taxila, and formed a special probe team to investigate the case and arrest the culprits.
A delegation of PML-N visited the slain doctor's house for reassurance, and ensured that the minister had ordered to utilise all resources to get to the root of the case.
Dr Faisal Manzoor was rubbed out in what the police officials described as a murder case on May 12. Similarly, his cousin Dr Babar Elahi, who was serving as deputy district officer for health, Hassanabdal, was bumped off at the same place on March 18.
Meanwhile, ...back at the desert island, Irene was indignant at the thought of doing such a thing without benefit of clergy... Additional DIG Investigation Khaliq Dad has also visited the bereaved family to get information. He also informed the family regarding the details of the investigation being carried out by the police. Earlier, protesters blocked G.T. Road, giving the police a 10-day deadline to catch the killers of the slain doctors, threatening to launch a larger protest if they fail to do so.
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05/22/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] KATMANDU: South Asia is the most corrupt region of the world and governments must strengthen their anti-graft agencies to prevent political interference and protect whistleblowers, Transparency International said Wednesday.
The watchdog group found serious problems with anti-corruption efforts in Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistain and Sri Lanka.
"South Asia now is the worst region in the world when it comes to corruption based on our studies," said Srirak Plipat, the group's regional director for Asia Pacific.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
05/22/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Too bad the surprise meter is out for repair...
[DAWN] Following massive Arclight airstrikes by Pak jet fighters in North Wazoo last night, Talibs met at some holy man's guesthouse an undisclosed location on Wednesday to reconsider a non-aggression treaty with the government.
A front man for Taliban capoHafiz Gul Bahadur ...a member of the Madda Khel clan of the Uthmanzai Waziris. Educated in a Deobandi madrassa located in Multan, he is affiliated with the Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) political party. Upon the formation of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in December 2007, he was announced as the group's overall naib amir under Baitullah Mehsud, who was based in South Wazoo, but has largely distanced himself from the TTP due to rivalries with the Mehsuds and disagreements about the TTP's attacks against the Pak state.. , who leads hundreds of fighters in the area, condemned the Arclight airstrikes that, according to Pak military officials, killed at least 60 bully boyz and injured 30 others last night.
Ahmadullah Ahmadi said the group "cannot remain silent over bombardment on people," calling it a clear atrocity on the civilians.
He said that the Shura (council) has convened this important meeting to assess the situation and hinted that the peace accord with the government might get revoked.
The front man warned that the government would be responsible for any destruction in case it did not stop the military offensive.
Pak warplanes and helicopters pounded krazed killer hideouts in Mir Ali and Miranshah ... headquarters of al-Qaeda in Pakistain and likely location of Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Haqqani network has established a ministate in centered on the town with courts, tax offices and lots of madrassas... near the Afghan border, killing 60 fighters.
The Pakistain Army in a statement said "60 hard-core terrorists" including "important commanders and foreigners" were killed in the strikes, without providing further details, and that another 30 were maimed.
Intelligence reports and other investigations confirmed the linkage of some recent terrorist acts across the country with bully boyz targeted in the strikes, said the ISPR statement.
One resident, who identified himself as Saeedullah Khan, said the army had also been firing artillery rounds since early morning.
Another resident, Inamullah, said the Arclight airstrikes destroyed several homes and nearby shops in Mir Ali's bazaar, causing civilian casualties.
The claims by the army and residents could not be independently verified. The lawless tribal area is off-limits to journalists.
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[AnNahar] Israel's Supreme Court on Wednesday heard an appeal by the parents of a U.S. activist who was crushed to death by an Israeli army bulldozer in 2003.
The parents of Rachel Corrie ...aka Saint Pancake. A member of the lefty International Solidarity Movement, she attempted to stare down an Israeli bulldozer in 2003... asked for a decision clearing the military of any responsibility for her death to be overturned, alleging "negligence" in the treatment of the case by an Israeli court.
"I think they've set a very low threshold in terms of what would be considered negligence, and just ignored the lack of a credible and thorough investigation," Rachel's father Craig Corrie said, referring to the 2012 court ruling.
"If you take (all the material for the appeal) together, what you have is a mechanism that allows the Israeli military to act with impunity," he told journalists before the hearing.
"As an ex-soldier myself I think that's very dangerous."
His wife Cindy Corrie said: "I think there are very important decisions that this court needs to make that impact far more than Rachel."
It was unclear when the Supreme Court would rule on the appeal.
The mills of justice grind slowly, but they grind exceeding small. Sometime in the next century sounds about right -- under the circumstances the judges won't want to have missed anything.
An Israeli court in 2012 cleared the army of any responsibility for Corrie's death, rejecting a civil suit filed by the family.
The ruling sparked an angry reaction from the family, with Cindy Corrie accusing the Israeli authorities of a cover-up.
According to eyewitness accounts, the 23-year-old was killed by a military bulldozer in Rafah in the southern Gazoo Strip on March 16, 2003.
At the time, she was acting as a human shield with a group of activists from the pro-Paleostinian International Solidarity Movement to prevent troops from demolishing a house.
#8
At the time, she was acting as a human shield with a group of activists from the pro-Paleostinian International Solidarity Movement to prevent troops from demolishing a house.
#10
Totally serious here. I'm trying to eat a slightly less deadly diet lately. Possibly my biggest weakness is... pancakes. I can't have 'em in the house. I mostly avoid places that serve them. I cave about once a year, usually when they catch me unawares. Absent shame, I'd eat myself to death on 'em in a week. So I'm staggering through the hospital cafeteria thinking about lunch. No cook in sight. No burgers sizzling. No pizza out. And what to my wondering eyes should appear, where the burgers and fried crap usually reside? A mirage of faraway breakfast. A couple of UFOs against a stainless sky. Junkfood claymores spotted too late. Two giant, inch-thick pancakes on paper plates. And I thought of this article and your comments (skimmed last night), and I passed up the pancakes without breaking stride. Thanks!
[AnNahar] In a region marked by sectarian division, Israel is trying to bring its Christian Arab population on side in a move aimed at splitting them from their Moslem compatriots, experts say.
What took them so long?
This Israeli charm offensive has recently led to the army calling for the first time on Arab Christians to sign up for military service, and in a newly-passed law which formalizes a distinction between Christian Arabs and Moslems.
"We and the Christians have a lot in common," MP Yariv Levin said at the time.
Sanity for openers...
"They're our natural allies, a counterweight to the Moslems who want to destroy the country from within," said Levin, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party which sponsored the bill.
It is a discourse in keeping with the neo-conservative world view of a "clash of civilizations" between the Judeo-Christian West and Islam which has been embraced by Netanyahu - a close ally of both the U.S. Republican right and the Zionist evangelicals.
It is not the first time Israel has tried to align itself with its "natural allies" in the predominantly Moslem Middle East. It did so in Leb in the 1980s by backing the Christian Kataeb party and its ally the South Leb Army against their Moslem opponents.
"There is indeed a significant decline in the condition of the Christians in the Middle East," said professor Gabriel Ben-Dor, head of national security studies at Haifa University.
"In Israel, this is perceived as the moment to improve the standing of the Christian minority in Israel," he explained, saying it would also "significantly improve" Israel's international standing.
But ahead of a key visit to the Holy Land by Pope Francis which begins on Saturday, this apparent strategy of divide and rule has Israel's Arab community worried.
- 'They are Paleostinians' -
Israel's Arab population -- descendants of some 160,000 Paleostinians who remained after the Jewish state was established in 1948 -- today numbers 1.4 million, 130,000 of whom are Christians.
Military service is not compulsory for Israel's Arabs, except for the tiny Druze community, and only around 100 Christians volunteer for service each year, army figures show.
But last month, Israel said it would start sending enlistment papers to all Christian Arabs of military service age, angering Arab MPs who accused the government of seeking to divide Christians from Moslems.
The reaction of the Christian Churches was not slow in coming.
"Please don't kill us!"
In Nazareth, the largest Arab city in Israel, the Greek Orthodox Church sacked one of its priests after he publicly encouraged young Arab Christians to join the army to understand "the importance of serving and getting involved in the country in which they live and which protects them."
The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which represents the Roman Catholic Church, protested against the army's decision to seek a tenfold increase in the number of Christian recruits annually.
"The issue is that these Christians are Paleostinian," said Michel Sabbah, patriarch between 1988-2008 and the first Paleostinian to hold the post for centuries. "If you accept yourself as Paleostinian, you must be logical with yourself -- you don't go into an army which maintains occupation on Paleostinians, or kills Paleostinians.
"You have to be a good citizen inside the state of Israel, but being a good citizen does not imply that you are ordered to kill your brothers who are Paleostinians," he said.
- Playing the sectarian card -
Opponents accuse nationalist right-wing elements within Netanyahu's coalition of playing the "sectarianism" card and seeking to create a divide between Christians and Moslems.
"I don't think that Israel is serious about integrating Arab Christians in Israeli society on the basis of full, equal-rights citizens. This is a clear attempt to split the Arab-Paleostinian minority in Israel," said political analyst Wadie Abu Nasser.
"If Israel is serious, why does discrimination continue vis-a-vis the Druze who serve in the army? And why it doesn't allow Paleostinian refugees of Christian background to come back?" said Abu Nasser, a former front man for the Latin Patriarchate.
If the strategy succeeds, it will only be "in a very limited way," he said. "Israel's strategic mistake is not to reply to regional instability in positive ways.
"Making peace with the Paleostinians and offering full equality to all of its citizens are the best guarantees for Israel's future in the region."
[AnNahar] A visit set for Wednesday by a senior Fatah official to the Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,-run Gazoo Strip to put the finishing touches on a Paleostinian unity government has been postponed indefinitely, a Paleostinian official said.
Last month, Hamas and the Paleostine Liberation Organization, dominated by Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... ' Fatah party, signed a reconciliation deal aimed at ending years of political division.
Under the terms of the deal, the two sides would form an "independent government" of technocrats, to be headed by Abbas, that would pave the way for long-delayed elections.
The government is due to be formed by May 28, and a Hamas official said Sunday it could be finalized within days.
But a Fatah front man said the visit by Azzam al-Ahmed "will not take place today but at a later date to be announced, since time is needed to study what has been agreed with Hamas."
He did not elaborate.
Hamas front manSami Abu Zuhri ...a senior spokesman for Hamas. Zuhri gained notoriety in 2006 when he dropped his money belt containing somewhere between 640,000 and 900,000 euros, which was confiscated by Paleostinian security and customs officials at a routine border crossing from Egypt to Gaza. The news brought competing Hamas and Fatah forces to the crossing checkpoint for an epic face-making and hollering contest... said "contacts are ongoing" between the two parties, without explaining the postponement.
Hamas, which does not recognize Israel, has ruled Gazoo since it expelled Fatah after a week of deadly festivities in 2007.
Fatah and Hamas representatives have already met several times for talks on a final government line-up to end their division.
The April reconciliation agreement incensed Israel, putting the final nail in the coffin of faltering U.S.-led peace talks with the Paleostinians.
[AnNahar] Four U.N. human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... monitors on Wednesday called on Iran to stay the looming execution of two activists from the Islamic republic's Arab minority, saying their trial was fundamentally flawed.
"First and foremost, the Iranian authorities must stop the executions and the accused should be permitted a new, fair trial," the quartet of rights experts said in a joint statement.
Ali Chebeishat and Sayed Khaled Mousavi, who are farmers and Arab cultural rights campaigners, are scheduled to be executed on Thursday.
"If Arabs wanted to have rights, they'd be Medes and Persians. And anyway, they aren't dirty, barbarian Arabs, they're dirty, barbarian desert Iranians. So we'd appreciate it if the world stopped fussing while we get on with perfecting our Shiite society and our nuclear bombs. Thenkyewveddymuch."
They were placed in durance vile Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! in November 2012 and sentenced to death a year later on charges of "enmity against God."
Both men have reportedly been subjected to severe mistreatment and beatings, possibly amounting to torture, the U.N. monitors said.
They have been held incommunicado for over two months, neither their lawyer nor family members able to obtain official information regarding their current whereabouts or the status of their cases.
They appeared to have been denied due process, with their trial breaching standards set down in both Iranian and international law, the monitors said.
"The accused were convicted either primarily or solely on the basis of a televised 'confession' which appeared on Iranian State TV in June 2013," they said.
"The timing of the video release, as well as its content, beg serious questions about its legitimacy as evidence in the conviction and sentencing of these men to the most serious and irreversible fate possible," they added.
The men were also denied legal representation of their own choosing and were even refused regular access to their court-appointed lawyer, and their families have faced retribution for appealing for support from the U.N.
The two men's case follows the widely-criticized execution in January of two other Arab minority activists, Hadi Rashedi and Hashem Shabani Amouri, whose trial the U.N. said did not meet international standards.
The U.N. has warned of an escalation of the use of capital punishment in Iran, where convicts are generally hanged.
According to the U.N., at least 500 people are known to have been executed in 2013 -- including 57 in public.
The four U.N. experts who made Wednesday's appeal were the world body's Iran monitor Ahmed Shaheed, its executions watchdog Christof Heyns, minority rights monitor Rita Izsak, and Gabriela Knaul, who assesses the independence of judges and lawyers.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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[AnNahar] Syria's stocks of a key chemical used to produce the deadly nerve agent sarin have been destroyed, the mission overseeing the destruction of its chemical arsenal said.
And destroyed they will remain, until Iran or Russia or North Korea sees fit to replace them, not to mention the equipment to make more.
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons-U.N. "joint mission confirms the destruction of the entire declared Syrian stockpile of isopropanol", a statement said late on Tuesday.
"Now 7.2 percent of Syria's chemical weapons material remains in country and awaits swift removal for onward destruction. The joint mission urges the Syrian authorities to undertake this task as soon as possible," the statement added.
Under a U.S.-Russian deal negotiated last year, Syria signed up to the Chemical Weapons Convention and agreed to hand over its entire chemical weapons arsenal by June 30 of this year.
The deal came after a sarin attack in August killed some 1,400 people in an opposition-held area near Damascus.
While the opposition and its Western backers blamed forces loyal to Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad The Scourge of Hama... , his government and its Russian ally blamed the rebels.
The agreement headed off a U.S. threat of military action.
Assad's regime now faces new Western allegations that it unleashed the industrial chemical chlorine on a rebel-held village in central Hama province last month.
Syria was not required to declare its stockpile of chlorine -- a toxic but weak agent -- as it is widely used for commercial and domestic purposes.
But its use for military purposes would be a breach of the Chemical Weapons Convention and the OPCW announced a fact-finding mission last month.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
05/22/2014 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
Echoing the "until Iran or Russia or Norkland sees fit to replace them", CBW is WMD on the cheap; easy to replace.
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.
[Tolo News] Jamil Karzai, a cousin of President 
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International Criminal Court
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Wazoo
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Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
