[Tolo News] A group of 50 holy warriors on Tuesday surrendered their weapons and joined the grinding of the peace processor in northern Sar-e-Pul province.
According to the Sar-e-Pul Police Chief Noor Habib Gulbahari, the bad boys, who were previously active in Shermha area, joined the government grinding of the peace processor because of the efforts of the tribal elders and the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF).
"This is a good step toward building peace and stability in the province," Gulbahari stated while asking other holy warriors to also join the process and ensure everlasting peace and stability in the country.
According to Gulbahari, with the joining of this group the security measure in 16 provinces will improve.
Foreign troops are scheduled to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, handing over full security responsibility to the ANSF.
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[Tolo News] The Police Chief of Baghlan province has issued his officers shoot-to-kill orders when engaging Talibs. The move comes as police and military commanders around the country have ramped-up efforts to put Lions of Islam on their heels following major Taliban offensives in Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... and Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. provinces.
"We have told our soldiers, in order to prevent the release of Taliban from prisons and the judicial systems, that they should be killed and must be punished for what they have done," Baghlan Police Chief General Aminullah Amarkhail said on Wednesday.
Many Afghan security officials and politicians have blamed government policies that have led to the releasing of suspected murderous Moslems from custody for the recent slue of Taliban advancements.
General Amarkhail's orders follow a similar approach taken by the famously tough Kandahar Police Chief, General Razaq. "No matter where the operations are, I have ordered my soldiers to not let Taliban live from now on," he said.
The District Governor of Hesarak in Nangarhar, where the Taliban recently launched a major offensive, has also asked his police commanders to not show any mercy toward Taliban fighters.
"I tell all commanders, no matter where they find the Taliban, they should not be brought in alive," said District Governor Abdul Khaliq Maroof.
While praising the decisions of the police commanders, MPs this week added that their hands were forced.
"The police chiefs are present in the district and know that local people are being killed [by Taliban], local commanders are closer to the local people than those in Presidential Palace," MP Naheed Farid said.
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... , who has promoted a more lenient approach toward the Taliban in his last months in office, has been the focus of much of the criticisms surrounding releases of suspected myrmidons.
Some fear the lack of will for fighting the Taliban at the highest levels of power in Kabul will undermine the commanders efforts.
"Since there is not very much motivation in the capital, and ministers do not have a strategy against the Taliban, I don't think that the commanders' statements will have any effect," Helmand MP Abdul Hay Akhundzada said.
Taliban Lions of Islam have undertaken major efforts to disrupt security in parts of Eastern, Western and Northern provinces this summer. But local officials in these provinces have maintained that they have mobilized their forces for a quick and effective response.
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HARGEYSA, Somaliland -- Norwegian Oil and Gas Company, DNO that struck Production Sharing Agreement with Somaliland’s separatist administration in April 2012 is planning to pull out of the region due to security threats, Garowe Online reports.
According to multiple independent sources, the decision by high-ranking DNO officials came after armed clan militia ambushed exploration team near Sool region town of Hudur on Tuesday afternoon. No fatalities were reported and the expatriates escaped unharmed, sources confirmed.
Garowe Online correspondent in Somaliland capital of Hargeisa says, the oil exploration team who were set to survey 12 square kilometers covering block SL18 returned to the capital to depart for their respective countries.
Somaliland government reportedly gave undisclosed amount of money to local clan elders but the clan militiamen were not pre-informed about the secret deal, GO learned.
UN monitors warned of the consequence of Somaliland’s oil pursuit. The breakaway region set up oil protection unit and stepped up its involvement in the disputed regions of Sool and sanaag.
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Federal Government of Somalia has renewed plea to the United Nations Security Council in an effort to fully lift two-decade-old arms embargo on the country on Monday, Garowe Online reports.
It's a shame Somalia doesn't have enough guns...
Minister of Defence Mohamed Sheikh Hassan Hamud underlined the need for united and strong Somali Army that can deal with looming Al Shabaab threats during an interview with BBC Somali Service.
"Strong armed force is confronted by weapons embargo on Somalia, therefore we are unable to reinstitute strong army since the much-needed elements are not now available," said Hamud, highlighting that his ministry is in full force campaign to equip Somali National Army with modern military gears.
"The policy of ministry of Defence is the establishment of inclusive army troops who are capable of securing borderlines and the development of the country relies on armed forces," he added.
Hamud is accompanying President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud on US trip. He met with US Defence Ministry officials, discussing the military support for Somalia as well as terrorism.
The UN Security Council extended partial easing of Somalia weapons embargo through October in March.
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[DAILYPOST.NG] Members of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, over the weekend, boycotted a fund-raising organized in Nsukka Enugu State to rehabilitate about 1000 indigenes of the area, who were forced home as result of the 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... insurgency in some northern states.
None of the politicians serving under the platform of the PDP attended the event.
In a remark, Mr Willy Ezugwu, Secretary-General, Conference of Political Parties, CNPP, said it was unfortunate that the politicians abandoned their people when they needed help most.
Ezugwu expressed surprise that not even one elected person in Nsukka zone found it expedient to come for the fund raising, even when they received invitation early enough.
"It is unfortunate that those the people elected failed them at this very difficult moment. None of then found it worthy to come and contribute towards rehabilitating these victims; they did not even sent any representative.
"In 2015, these same people will come and look for our votes; it is so bad", he lamented.
He added that "We have to give these our people a sense of belonging to enable them feed, take their children to school as well as find something they will do to earn a living. No amount is too big or small to help in rehabilitating them".
Earlier, Prof Osita Ogbu, Ex-Economic adviser to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, urged the victims of Boko Haram insurgency not to loose hope.
Ogbu, a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Economics, University of Nigeria Nsukka, commended the organizers. noting that it would go a long way in giving hope to the victims.
He applauded efforts of the federal government towards fighting the insurgency and urged Nigerians to continue to give government and security operatives required maximum support.
Earlier in a remark, the chairman of planning committee of the fund-raising, Mr John Ezema said that "it is no longer news that activities of Boko Haram in the country have claimed so many lives as well as property worth billions of naira.
"Most of them here today have no accommodation; they cannot feed their families because they lost their bread-winners to Boko Haram terrorists.
"They are our brothers and sisters; so they need our help now".
Narrating his ordeal, one of the victims, Mr Johnson Attah, in a emotion laden voice disclosed how all his shops and a house in Maiduguri were set ablaze.
He said he came home with only one shirt and one pair of trousers.
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[ARABNEWS] 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... has given $100 million for the International Counterterrorism Center at the UN.
Adel Jubeir, the Kingdom's ambassador to the US, and Abdullah Al-Moallami, its permanent representative to the UN, handed over the amount to UN chief the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan...
Speaking at the event, Jubeir said Saudi Arabia has been supporting countries in the Gulf region and outside to combat terrorism.
"The divine religion of Islam has nothing to do with the activities of terrorists. The Supreme Council of Islamic Scholars in the Kingdom has rejected the 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... ideology," the ambassador said.
He said the donation was given on the desire of King of the Arabians, Sheikh of the Burning Sands, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah to strengthen efforts to combat terror.
Al-Moallami reiterated Saudi Arabia's support for combined efforts to fight terror under the auspices of the United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit...
A Saudi specialized court in Riyadh, meanwhile, sentenced a Death Eater to eight years in jail and 10-year travel ban, for issuing religious edicts against Saudi rulers, exploiting Friday sermons to incite sectarianism and trying to create division in the country.
The defendant can appeal against the verdict.
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h/t Gates of Vienna
The government's decision to suspend a series of arms export licences to Israel if hostilities resume in Gaza was the cause of a major row between the coalition parties, the JC understands. Business Secretary Vince Cable holds sole responsibility for issuing arms licences, with legislation stating that even the Prime Minister cannot overrule the Secretary of State's decision. Yea, sure
h/t Gates of Vienna
The Liberal Democrat MP who was censured for saying he would fire a rocket at Israelis has been cleared by his party.
Nick Clegg came under mounting pressure to suspend David Ward, the MP for Bradford East, after he appeared to endorse Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli civilians. However Don Foster, the Lib Dem chief whip, has said Mr Ward has been cleared of bringing his party into disrepute and will face no further action.
Now if he had said that he wanted to blow up a Hamas tunnel...
[WashingtonPost] REYHANLI, Turkey — Before their blitz into Iraq earned them the title of the Middle East's most feared insurgency, the jihadists of the Islamic State treated this Turkish town near the Syrian border as their own personal shopping mall.
And eager to aid any and all enemies of Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... , Turkey rolled out the red carpet.
In dusty market stalls, among the baklava shops and kebab stands, locals talk of Islamist fighters openly stocking up on uniforms and the latest Samsung smartphones. Wounded jihadists from the Islamic State and the al-Nusra Front — an al-Qaeda offshoot also fighting the Syrian government — were treated at Turkish hospitals. Most important, the Turks winked as Reyhanli and other Turkish towns became way stations for moving imported muscle and arms across the border.
"Turkey welcomed anyone against Assad, and now they are killing, spreading their disease, and we are all paying the price," said Tamer Apis, a politician in Reyhanli, where two massive boom-mobiles killed 52 people last year. In a nearby city, Turkish authorities seized another car packed with explosives in June, raising fears of an Islamic State-inspired campaign to export sectarian strife to Turkey.
"It was not just us," Apis said. "But this is a mess of Turkey's making."
The U.S. military is back in action over the skies of Iraq, launching Arclight airstrikes against the Islamist bully boyz who have taken control of large swaths of Iraq and Syria. But for many months, the bully boyz were able to grow in power partly by using the border region of a NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... member — Turkey — as a strategically vital supply route and entry point to wage their war.
Alarmed by the growing might of the Islamic State, Turkey has started cracking down. Working with the United States and European governments, Turkish officials have enacted new safeguards to detain imported muscle trying to get into Syria and launched a military offensive aimed at curtailing the smuggling of weapons and supplies across the border.
But in a region engulfed by a broadening conflict, Turkey is also reaping what it sowed. It is engaging in border shootouts with rebels it once tactically aided. It is confronting spillover violence, a cutoff in its trade routes and a spreading wave of fear in Turkish towns as the Islamic State wins over defectors from rival opposition groups.
Meanwhile, ...back at the dirigible, Jack stuck the cigar in his mouth, stepped onto the gantry, and asked Got a light, Mac?
Von Schtinken stopped short, lowering the dagger and trying to control his features.
If you light that thing, Herr Armschtröng, he pointed out, his voice tense, we all die!... Turkish calculations in the Syrian conflict are fast evolving. The Turks have started cooperative talks with the Democratic Union Party (PYD), a Kurdish separatist group whose brothers in arms have fought a long guerrilla war against Turkey. The reason for the possible new alliance: The PYD controls a swath of Syria and is fighting against the Islamic State.
But Turkey's about-face may be too little, too late.
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[Ynet] Trial due to begin in New York claiming that Arab Bank knew that accounts were used to give money to Paleostinian families of jacket wallahs.
Some 140 American victims of two dozen terror attacks in Israel, Gazoo and the West Bank during a Paleostinian uprising from 2001 to 2004 want the Jordon-based Arab Bank to pay a price as well.
A civil trial that's set to begin Thursday in federal court in Brooklyn will see the victims try to convince a jury that the bank helped Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, finance a "death and dismemberment benefit plan" for deaders - a claim that survived numerous legal challenges before being allowed to go forward amid a backdrop of the current Israeli-Paleostinian conflict.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs call it the first terrorism financing case to go to trial in the United States and say it could result in the bank paying unspecified damages. Arab Bank, which has hundreds of branches around the world, including in New York and in the Paleostinian territories, has denied it knew it was doing business with Lions of Islam when it processed electronic transfers.
"Arab Bank has great sympathy for all victims of terrorism but is not liable for the tragic acts described by plaintiffs," it said in a statement.
A lawsuit filed in 2004 accused the bank of violating the US Anti-Terrorism Act, which allows victims of US-designated foreign terrorist organizations to seek compensation. The US State Department designated Hamas a terrorist group in 1997.
The suit accuses Arab Bank of setting up accounts to channel funds from an organization run by the Saudi government, the Saudi Committee for Supporting Al Quds Intifada, to at least two Lion of Islam groups, Hamas and Paleostinian Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... . It also alleges that bank officials were aware that the funds were for an insurance program that provided a standard benefit worth more than $5,000 to the families of Paleostinians who were killed in attacks on Israel, including suicide bombers.
The case had stalled in recent years as the bank fought demands that it turn over customer account information and other financial records, arguing that doing so would violate banking secrecy laws in Jordan and elsewhere. In 2010, a judge issued sanctions against the bank for its "recalcitrance" in withholding evidence - a penalty that would allow the court to instruct the jury that it could infer that it knowingly worked with terrorist organizations.
The ruling was later upheld by an appeals court. When Arab Bank asked the Supreme Court to intervene, the court sought the US government's input on whether it should hear the case - a request that reportedly created a dilemma for President Barack Obama If you have a small business, you didn't build that... 's administration on how to respond in way that wouldn't harm diplomatic relations with Jordan.
A brief filed by Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr. described the Arab Bank as "a constructive partner with the United States in working to prevent terrorist financing" and "a leading participant in a number of regional forums on anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism." But Verrilli concluded the Supreme Court should not intervene and should let the case play out, and the court agreed.
The defense has said another federal judge in the same Brooklyn courthouse threw out the case of a US man maimed in the Middle East who sought to hold Arab Bank liable for providing material support to Hamas.
"Moral blame should only follow if the harm caused by providing bank services to Lions of Islam is foreseeable," US District Judge Jack Weinstein wrote. He added: "Hamas is not the defendant; the bank is. And the evidence does not prove that the bank acted with an improper state of mind or proximately caused plaintiff's injury."
[DAWN] RAWALPINDI: After veteran politician Javed Hashmi's departure to Multan, cracks started to surface within Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... (PTI) and its allies in Rawalpindi, where PTI asked the Awami Mohammedan League (AML) and Pakistain Awami Tehrik (PAT) to bring their own rallies to Islamabad and not join the PTI rally from Rawalpindi.
"PAT workers may create law and order situation and the local leaders of PAT have been advised to join the Azadi March in Islamabad, to ensure that our march from Rawalpindi remains peaceful," a senior PTI leader told Dawn.
He said that PTI workers in Rawalpindi did not want to include PAT in their march, especially after the statements of Dr Tahirul Qadri ...Pak politician, and would-be dictator, founder and head of Tehreek-e-Minhajul Quran and Pakistain Awami Tehrik. He usually resides in Canada, but returns to Pakistain periodically to foam at the mouth and lead demonstrations. Depending on which way the wind's blowing, Qadri claims to be the author of Pak's blasphemy law. Other times he says it wasn't him... on revolution.
"The one-man party wants to steal the show to improve their politics under PTI's banner," he alleged.
He said the PTI workers and sympathisers were against the aggressive attitude of the PAT leader, thus they were asked not to join PTI in Rawalpindi at least.
PTI leadership has asked AML and PAT to lead their rallies to Islamabad separately
District President Arif Abbasi told Dawn: "We welcomed all the parties to join PTI, but we will not allow PAT workers to use the PTI rally to score points with the government."
"Awami Mohammedan League (AML) of Sheikh Rashid Ahmed will bring a 'dozen' of their workers in a separate rally.
"PTI local chapter had no contact with Sheikh Rashid and his party, thus he will join the Azadi March with PTI chairman in Islamabad," he said.
He said PTI Rawalpindi Chapter handed over 2,000 wagons and 8,000 cycle of violences to the unit in-charges to transport Azadi March participants on August 14.
He said the PTI directed its workers and supporters to gather at Faizabad and start the march towards Islamabad on August 14 at 5pm.
The rallies from six tehsils of Rawalpindi will culminate at Faizabad, from where they will go to Jinnah Avenue.
He added that PTI has formed a nine-member team of lawyers to get bails for more than 130 party workers who have been tossed in the clink Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! across the district.
He did, however, admit that despite all the arrangement, the party has no clear direction about the sit-in.
PAT Information Secretary Suhail Abbasi told Dawn that PAT workers arriving from Rawalpindi, Azad Kashmire and adjoining areas will join their party's rally, which will be coming from Lahore, at Faizabad.
He also said that there were differences between PAT and PTI, but for the "interest of the people" the party will join PTI in Islamabad.
AML leader and former Rawal Town tehsil nazim ...small time big shot, the chief elected official of a local government in Pakistan, such as a district, tehsil, union council, or village council... Sheikh Rashid Shafique said that AML workers will bring out a cycle of violence rally from Lal Haveli at 3pm and join PTI wherever it will meet the workers.
"We have no contact with PTI leaders, but on the directions of Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, the workers of AML will join PTI Azadi March. Sheikh Rashid will come to Islamabad from Lahore with PTI Chairman Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who isn't your heaviest-duty thinker, maybe not even among the top five... ," he said.
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[DAWN] The federal government is reported to have decided to declare the Pakistain Awami Tehrik (PAT) as a proscribed organization.
Police sources privy to the development told Dawn on Tuesday that the decision had been taken at a high-level meeting held in Lahore and Dr Tahirul Qadri ...Pak politician, and would-be dictator, founder and head of Tehreek-e-Minhajul Quran and Pakistain Awami Tehrik. He usually resides in Canada, but returns to Pakistain periodically to foam at the mouth and lead demonstrations. Depending on which way the wind's blowing, Qadri claims to be the author of Pak's blasphemy law. Other times he says it wasn't him... 's party was likely be included in the official list — First Schedule of the Ministry of Interior.
They said Dr Qadri's speeches had incited his followers and other people against the government, waging war against the state and indulging in incidents of ransacking, arson and terrorism.
The sources said the procedure to be adopted in declaring PAT as a banned ...the word banned seems to have a different meaning in Pakistain than it does in most other places. Or maybe it simply lacks any meaning at all...
organization would be in the light of the Anti-Terrorism Act, meaning that its fund-raising campaigns would also come under scrutiny.
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[ARABNEWS] A Pak court has restrained Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who who convinced himself that playing cricket qualified him to lead a nuclear-armed nation with severe personality problems... and Tahirul-Qadri from launching a march on Islamabad in an unconstitutional way, a lawyer said.
The Lahore High Court's order came as authorities blocked almost every entry point to Islamabad, with more than 20,000 police and paramilitary forces deployed to try to thwart a major anti-government rally.
"Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... (PTI)and Pakistain Awami Tehrik (PAT)are restrained from launching a march/sit-in in Islamabad in any unconstitutional way keeping in view sensitivity of independence day and (the) current uncertain situation in the country," PTI's lawyer Ahmad Owais said in Lahore quoting from a short order by a three-judge panel headed by Justice Khalid Mehmood.
Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan ...Currently the Interior Minister of Pakistain. He is the senior leader of the Pak Moslem League (N) and a close aide to Nawaz Uncle Fester Sharif. He is noted for his vocal anti-American railing in the National Assembly. However (comma) Khan told the U.S. ambassador that he was in fact pro-American but he and the PML-N would have to be critical of US actions in order to remain publicly credible. Khan cited his wife and children's US citizenship as proof, which means he's lying to one side or the other and probably both. He wears a wig, but you probably guessed that. since hair doesn't grow naturally in that shape or texture... told a presser in Islamabad "the court's order will be fully implemented."
He added: "Any political party or a group which wants to hold a march should approach the concerned district administration for permission, which will decide if the the purpose of march is legal and constitutional."
Major roads were barricaded with shipping containers and police used excavators to dig up smaller roads in Islamabad, a day before two opposition protest marches are due to converge on the capital.
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[Al Ahram] Pak authorities blocked almost every entry point to Islamabad on Wednesday, with more than 20,000 police and paramilitary forces deployed to try to thwart a major anti-government rally.
Major roads were barricaded with shipping containers and police used excavators to dig up smaller roads, a day before two opposition protest marches are due to converge on the capital.
Cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who is the lightweight's lightweight... and Canada-based preacher Tahirul-Qadri plan to march on the city on Thursday, Pakistain's independence day, to demand 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... resign and call fresh elections.
Both Khan and Qadri, who led mass demonstrations in Islamabad early last year to urge electoral reform, allege that the May 2013 general election was rigged.
By late Wednesday afternoon only the highway to the airport remained open and even there shipping containers were on standby ready to be moved into place.
The heavily-guarded "red zone", home to parliament, the president and prime minister's residences and foreign embassies, was already sealed with containers, barbed wire and concrete blocks.
Mobile phone services were shut down in the red zone on Wednesday -- a common practice on sensitive occasions in Pakistain aimed at stopping Death Eaters using cell phones to detonate bombs.
In front of the five-star Serena hotel, the road was blocked with several containers guarded by around 50 to 60 coppers.
The city streets were largely deserted on Wednesday, with almost all offices and shops closed.
The government on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to set up a panel of judges to investigate claims of rigging in last year's general election -- a move announced by Sharif late on Tuesday to try to ease political tension.
The judicial probe was a key demand of Khan, who leads the country's third largest party, but he rejected Sharif's proposal and demanded he step down.
Sharif's landslide general election victory in May 2013 saw Pakistain's first ever handover of power from one civilian-led government to another after a full term, in polls that local and foreign observers called credible.
In his television address on Tuesday, the 64-year-old prime minister said economic progress had been made under his government but the opposition groups' protests would reverse the gains.
Khan and Qadri, who says he is struggling for an "interim national government" consisting of technocrats and experts, have announced they will merge their marches.
Tension has gripped parts of the country since last week, with running festivities between police and supporters of Qadri in the eastern city of Lahore over several days leaving at least one protester dead.
The government for its part has rejected the allegations of vote-rigging and accuses the opposition groups of attempting to obtain by force what they could not achieve through democratic means.
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Australia's prime minister has held open the possibility of sending a combat force to Iraq in addition to military transport aircraft to airlift humanitarian aid to refugees trapped by insurgents in northern mountains, though the defense minister played down the prospect.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott told reporters in London after meeting with British officials on the Iraq crisis on Tuesday that his government would not rule out taking military action in Iraq.
"The disposition of the Australian government is to provide what assistance we reasonably can to protect people who are at risk not just from the elements — from starvation, from dehydration, from exposure on Mount Sinjar — but also people who are at risk from ISIL forces," Abbott told reporters, referring to the Al Qaeda splinter group leading militants in Iraq, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, now known as Islamic State.
"Australia should do what it can ... to protect people from potential genocide," Abbott said.
The suggestion that Australian combat troops could return to Iraq was widely attacked by the government's political opponents.
Of course...
Abbott was a minister in a previous conservative government that sent 2,000 combat troops to back the US and British militaries in the 2003 Iraq invasion, triggering Australia's largest protests since the Vietnam War.
But Defense Minister David Johnston on Wednesday played down the prospect of an Australian combat force, saying the military had only committed to sending two unarmed C-130 Hercules transport planes for humanitarian aid air drops to begin within two or three days.
"I'm not getting into the rule-in, rule-out guarantee game," Johnston told reporters.
Asked whether the Obama administration ruling out combat troops effectively ruled out Australia from sending forces of its own, Johnston replied, "I think that's a very reasonable conclusion to draw."
"What we have seen is an extreme act of barbarism by a group of terrorists. What the future holds, no one can predict," he said. "The Australian government has signed off on providing humanitarian relief, and that is all."
The Australian planes will work with the US and other international partners to deliver water and supplies to thousands of members of the Yazidi minority trapped on Sinjar Mountain in northwest Iraq.
Under Australia's political system, a prime minister can commit troops to war without asking Parliament. In practice, prime ministers consult with senior ministers and notify the main opposition party before troops are deployed.
Opposition leader Bill Shorten called for consistency from the government on the question of an Australian combat role. He said Abbott had not notified the opposition Labor Party, which opposed the 2003 Iraq War, that Australia intended to send troops to Iraq.
"It would be handy ... if the government could get its ducks in a line and make sure its ministers are saying the same thing so the rest of Australia knows what's going on," Shorten said.
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#1
Australia should look into buying some ex-US warthogs and spooky gunships.
[Ynet] La Belle France's top security official says nearly 900 French citizens have gone to Middle East battlegrounds and some have joined the Islamic State group.
Despite efforts to discourage French people from joining krazed killer groups, the figures given Wednesday by Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve show the numbers of French youth leaving continue to grow.
"There are today nearly 900 from La Belle France who are part of this phenomenon, either in the theater of operations in Syria or in Iraq. There are presumably some in Iraq because the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, which recruited them, takes them to all the places where it is engaged in combat," Cazeneuve told La Belle France Info radio.
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It wasn't nailed down, so by definition it belongs to the jihadis. If it were nailed down, a local could bloody well unnail it in order to keep his head, at which point the definition obviously applies.
[Ynet] A top Iraqi government grains official said on Wednesday that Islamic State holy warriors are taking wheat from state silos in northern and western Iraq, in order to mill it there and in neighbouring Syria.
Hassan Ibrahim, Director General of the Grain Board of Iraq, the Trade Ministry body responsible for procuring Iraq's wheat internationally and from local farmers, told Rooters the holy warriors had seized wheat in recent weeks from government silos in the provinces of Nineveh and Anbar.
Between 40,000 and 50,000 tonnes of the crop was taken from government silos in Tal Afar and Sinjar in Nineveh Province, where hundreds of thousands of residents, many of them ethnic and religious minorities, have fled the bad boy onslaught.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
08/14/2014 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] Calling the situation in Iraqi Kurdistan "catastrophic," La Belle France said Wednesday it would start supplying arms to the Kurdish forces fighting Sunni holy warriors from the Islamic State group.
The sudden announcement that arms would begin to flow within hours underlined La Belle France's alarm at the urgency of the situation in Iraq, where the Islamic State fighters are threatening the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq.
The shipment of French arms, which the government refused to describe, follows the United States' increased role in fighting back the Islamic State Death Eaters.
Senior American officials say US intelligence agencies are directly arming the Kurds. On Tuesday, 130 US troops arrived in the Kurdish capital of Irbil on what the Pentagon described as a temporary mission to coordinate plans to help trapped Yazidi civilians on Mount Sinjar.
La Belle France says its arms shipment was coordinated with the Iraqi government.
French authorities have pushed other European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... members to do more to aid Christians and other minorities being targeted by the Islamic State group Death Eaters.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/14/2014 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Wednesday welcomed the nomination of Haidar al-Abadi as new prime minister of Iraq, though incumbent Nuri al-Maliki is clinging on to power.
Abadi has won broad international backing, from the United States, 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... and Iran amongst other countries.
In a message of congratulations addressed to Abadi and to Iraqi President Fuad Masum, OIC secretary general Iyad Madani said he hoped the "major" political development would enable Iraq to "deal with the challenges facing it."
He hoped Iraq would resume "its active role at the Arab, Islamic and international levels."
Madani hoped all regional and international powers would support "the unity of Iraq without distinction between the component parts" of the majority-Shiite country.
The international community has urged Abadi to quickly form a unity government ready to face up to the jihadists who have taken countrol of large swathes of Iraq.
Maliki said Wednesday it will take a court ruling for him to step down, defying President Masum's decision to task Abadi with forming a government.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/14/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Whew! For a second there, I mistook Islamic States for the Islamic State - ISIS - or whatever the Crazed Caliphate Crackpots are calling themselves this week.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/14/2014 7:55 Comments ||
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[TIME] In a small shop, four Yazidi men watch Kurdish peshmerga fighters perform drills on a local television station. Kurdish forces that have led the efforts to rescue over 50,000 ethnic Yazidis from Mt. Sinjar in northern Iraq, where they have been stranded for the last ten days.
"The peshmerga are stronger than the Iraqi army," says Tassin Qasim Assi, watching the Kurdish fighters. "The Iraqi soldiers are just there for the money." Assi fled Sinjar, the Yazidi heartland, more than a week ago and is now taking refuge in Erbil with his family. He says he has faith in the Kurdish fighters, but that they need more support to fight the hard boy army of the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS).
In recent days the world has been captivated by the plight of thousands of members of the unique Yazidi sect, which mixes elements of Shiite and Sufi Islam and Christianity, among others relgions. Yazidis have lived as a minority around the mountains of northern Iraq for centuries. They were little known to the wider world until recent images of Yazidi refugees, dehydrated and terrified, were shown around the world, which in part helped prompt recent U.S. Arclight airstrikes on ISIS to prevent what President B.O. called "genocide."
While many Yazidis don't consider themselves Kurds at all, they are Kurdish speaking and have lived in areas held by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). That gives the Kurds some responsibility for their fate. "We are not going to dictate who is a Kurd and who is not," says Falah Mustafa Bakir who heads the KRG's Department of Foreign Relations. "The important thing is we are a tolerant society and protect all ethnic and religious minorities."
Bakir says the Kurdish forces now battling the ISIS forces of Evil include his Iraqi-Kurdish peshmerga fighters and Kurdish fighters from Syria, as well as some Iraqi national forces. But for the Iraqi national army the defense of the north and minority groups like the Yazidis is unlikely to be a major priority—especially with political parties grappling for power in Baghdad.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/14/2014 00:00 ||
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#8
From the Times of Israel liveblog, about the Wall Street Journal article today on the subject of the transfer halt:
The paper also reports that Washington has increased its control over arms transfers to Israel after the administration was shocked to discover in late July that the Pentagon was providing the Jewish state with ammunition for the war without the knowledge of the White House and State Department, just as officials were trying to bring about a cessation of hostilities.
Three cheers for the Pentagon who, like the majority of Americans, stand with Israel and also independent thinking.
#9
This stupid move will force Israels hands. Currently their Iron Dome is fairly accurate. Suspend support of missiles and Israel will have no other option but to go directly into Gaza to stop it. Obama and his staff cant so stupid to think there will not be a ground offensive once the Iron Dome logistics is cut off. He is purposefully trying to drive Israel into a larger ground offensive to stir up Muslim action against Israel. To dismiss him as shortsighted and stupid is wrong, he knows exactly what he's doing.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/14/2014 11:55 Comments ||
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#10
He IS short-sighted and stupid, 49 Pan. He thinks he knows how others will react. He keeps getting "surprised", "unexpectedly". What he may end up doing is forcing Israel to resort to the nuclear option, and take out Qatar. The one thing he's SURE to do is to set back US/Israel relations for 20 years or more, and create even more havoc (which he has no ability to influence, much less control) in the Muddled East. The man is a walking disaster.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/14/2014 14:19 Comments ||
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#11
I think he is doing it on purpose. He wants to destroy our relationship with Israel, he wants to reduce America to a second world community. This is what he wants. If he could be the man in history to reduce America to a socialist police state, subject to the sodies ruling, I believe he would call it success. And lastly, he wants Israel to go to ground operations so the rest of Islam will rise up in support of Israels destruction. He is a disaster and dangerous to the free world.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/14/2014 15:35 Comments ||
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#13
I said it before, Gazooks should be grateful for Iron Dome. If significant numbers of their missiles landed in Israeli cities there's no telling what might happen.
#14
Obysmal is like an ME dictator, he speaks one language to his tribe and another to everyone else.
He's telling his lefty nutjob base that he's willing to tip the scales for Hamas to level the killing field. The reality is that he's more focused on his putting.
Posted by: regular joe ||
08/14/2014 16:46 Comments ||
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#15
Kind of wonder how this will impact donations to Democrats and the Democratic Party from the various Jewish donors and organizations that have been so heavily pro-Democrat in the past. By all accounts it is a rather substantial part of the overall percentage of the donations that Democrats receive.
[Ynet] The IDF has begun concentrating forces along Gazoo borders as sides met in Cairo to extend the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, set to end midnight Wednesday. The IDF say the forces are a contingency measure in case the talks fail to yield a deal.
Hamas meanwhile has said it will renew rocket fire at Israel should talks fail to yield "substantial progress".
According to the IDF, it has moved infantry, artillery and armed corps forces from what it calls "assembly areas" to "assessment areas" — where forces prepare for a possible operational activity. The IDF also said it has called up a number of reservists to back up regular forces in the field.
Both sides agreed to extend the ceasefire. But I've not seen anything to indicate that the IDF relaxed or will relax its posture over the next few days. Not a great deal of trust there, for some reason.
#1
What Israel needs to do is to cut Gaza into small pieces, then dismantle each piece one at a time. Hamass only has so much capability, but being able to concentrate it is bad for Israel. Cutting off sections at a time gives Israel the upper hand. We all know that Hamass will only continue the hudna until they think they can't get anything more out of it. I'm sure Isreal does, too.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/14/2014 14:22 Comments ||
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[Iran Press TV] Leader of the Paleostinian resistance movement Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,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... says a permanent truce with the Israeli regime cannot be achieved other than by the complete removal of a seven-year-old blockade on the besieged Gazoo Strip.
On Wednesday, Haniyeh told the al-Aqsa television network that "achieving a permanent truce can come only through lifting the blockade on Gazoo."
The Hamas leader also expressed support for the Paleostinian negotiators engaged in indirect talks with Israeli officials in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, in order to reach a truce deal on Gazoo.
"I am quite certain that our delegation in Cairo will not give in to blackmail," Haniyeh noted.
His remarks came hours after his house was targeted by an Israeli Arclight airstrike, which left no casualties, according to witnesses, although the house was flattened.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/14/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
"no peace if you don't let us import more arms at will"
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/14/2014 14:42 Comments ||
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[Ynet] Washington Post talks to Gazoo residents who condemn rocket fire from civilian areas, say Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, should have accepted first ceasefire weeks ago.
After a month of bombing from Israel in response to rocket fire from the Paleostinian krazed killer groups, Gazooks are starting to be vocal in their criticism of Hamas, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.
Hamas has "committed many mistakes," Ziad Abu Halool, who works for the Gazook government, told the Post. "All the Paleostinian factions should stop firing rockets. It's enough. We've been suffering."
The rockets, which were fired from residential areas, mosques and schools in Gazoo into Israeli towns and cities, drew a harsh response from the IDF. The army also sent in ground troops to find and destroy the tunnels used by Hamas and the other krazed killer groups to ferry weapons and fighters - and to send murderous Moslems into Israeli border communities.
Rafaat Shamiya, 40, a resident of Beit Lahiya in northern Gazoo, condemned the rocket fire from residential areas, as it inevitably resulted in an IDF reaction.
"When they fire from here, Israel repays us with an F-16 Arclight airstrike," Shamiya told the newspaper. He said, however, that he primarily held Israel to blame for the destruction in Gazoo. "We don't have the power to fight the Israeli. While he is sitting in his office in Israel, he can destroy all of Gazoo by remote control."
Meanwhile, ...back at the Senate, the partisans of Honorius went for their knives and the partisans of Stilicho went for the doors... the paper said, other Gazooks are criticizing Hamas for not accepting an Egyptian ceasefire proposal after the first week of the IDF operation, which began on July 8.
"All the people are whispering, 'Why didn't Hamas accept the Egyptian initiative in the beginning of the war when the casualties were still low?' " the Post quoted Paleostinian journalist and political analyst Hani Habib as saying.
The krazed killer groups "should have accepted the cease-fire," Hathem Mena, a 55-year-old teacher, also told the paper. "It would have stopped the bloodshed. We are the ones affected by the war, our houses and our lives. The destruction is over on this side, not the Israeli side."
Other Gazooks don't believe that Hamas will help in the rehabilitation of the Strip, which was heavily damaged by the IDF bombardments.
"They just fight Israel, and then they leave everything," 20-year-old Mahmoud, identified only by his first name, told the Post. "The people will pay the price."
#3
I wonder of the WaPo will feel any remorse when all the Gazookians they named are executed as Zionist spies?
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/14/2014 7:52 Comments ||
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#4
We don't have the power to fight the Israeli
Then don't. As a rule, 'peace' is when all parties know who would win and 'war' is when the issue is in doubt. Hence, Peace Through Superior Firepower. Unfortunately this rule does not apply to irrational parties.
[Ynet] Three of the maimed appear at death's door while there are are light to moderate; Turkish Air Force transport plane to take them from Ben Gurion Airport.
Seventeen Paleostinian maimed in the Gazoo Strip during Operation Protective Edge will be flown to Turkey on Wednesday to receive medical treatment.
The maimed will be taken in Red Islamic Thingy ambulances to the Erez border crossing, and then moved to Israeli Magen David Adom ambulances to be taken to Ben Gurion Airport. They will then travel to Turkey in a Turkish Air Force transport plane.
This was done with the help of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories and the Foreign Ministry and under their approval.
The maimed's condition is unclear, but three of them appear to be at death's door, while the rest are in light and moderate conditions. Magen David Adom sent 19 ambulances to the Erez crossing to transport the maimed.
Paleostinian patients are routinely transported from the Gazoo Strip to receive treatment elsewhere. In an average month, Magen David Adom transports some 100 patients from Gazoo to Israel.
While there was no transport of Paleostinian patients into Israel during Operation Protective Edge, there were some incidents in which Paleostinian ambulances took Gazoomaimed to Jordan under Israeli approval.
[An Nahar] Hizbullah ...Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistance and purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory... chief His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah The satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb... stated that there are "no red lines" in the "security war" with Israel, reported al-Akhbar newspaper.
He told the daily in excerpts released on Wednesday: "Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, was not serious in its call on Hizbullah for assistance in the Paleostinian Gazoo Strip."
He made his remarks in an interview, with al-Akhbar, that will be published on Thursday and Friday.
Commenting on regional developments, Nasrallah said: "What we have prepared for Israel was not affected by our actions in Syria."
"We are a resistance but they want us to be a Shiite party for Arabs, and as we defended the South, we will defend our entire country and our border with Syria," he declared.
"Many of those who were opposed to us are starting to change their stances," he noted.
On July 29, Moussa Abu Marzouq, deputy head of Hamas' political bureau, had hoped that Hizbullah will open a new front from southern Leb against Israel after it launched a campaign against Hamas in Gazoo.
"The resistance in Leb has the capability to do a lot of things," Abu Marzouq added.
Earlier in July, Nasrallah said his group will continue to stand by the Paleostinian people and "all Paleostinian resistance factions in Paleostine."
"We are following up on all the military and political developments of the battle and we tell our brothers in Gazoo that we stand by them and will do everything that we perceive as duty " to help them, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/14/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Well, Lebanon has a lot more to lose than Gaza.
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] A group of 50 
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[DAWN] The federal government is reported to have decided to declare the Pakistain Awami Tehrik (PAT) as a proscribed organization.
Currently the Interior Minister of Pakistain. He is the senior leader of the Pak Moslem League (N) and a close aide to Nawaz 
[Al Ahram] Calling the situation in Iraqi Kurdistan "catastrophic," 
[TIME] In a small shop, four Yazidi men watch Kurdish peshmerga fighters perform drills on a local television station. Kurdish forces that have led the efforts to rescue over 50,000 ethnic Yazidis from Mt. Sinjar in northern Iraq, where they have been stranded for the last ten days.
