[Libya Herald] A top Tebu commander has died of gangrene while being treated in the United Arab Emirates.
Barka Warduko Al-Mahdi Murzuk died this evening following along struggle against leg gangrene despite receiving extensive treatment in the UAE over the last 12 months.
At the start of the 2011 Revolution Mahdi was one the earliest rebels in the south-west. He managed to quickly storm and control the strategic Waw Al-Namous army airbase on the Libyan-Chadian border and Al-Whigh airbase on the frontier with Niger.
Mahdi also overran a number of mostly Tebu villages in the south, Qatroun, Um Aranib and Murzuk and became the military commander of Murzuk.
In 2012 he played a key role in peace negotiations between Tebu and Awlad Suleiman fighters in Sebha and later that year between fighting Tebu and Zuwai militias in Kufra.
According to a Tebu source, Mahdi was admired for his strategic savvy coupled with his religious example to his fellow fighters.
It is unclear if he will be buried in the UAE or flown back to be buried in Murzuk nor is it clear how he contracted the gangrenous wound that eventually killed him.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/30/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
"...his strategic savvy coupled with his religious example to his fellow fighters." This is rare as the ethnic Tubu are known to be heterodox in their religious practices. In the 19th century they were influenced by Cyrenaica's Sanoussi brothers -- the Sufi sect still active in Libya today. Many Tubu served as bodyguards to King Idris, and then fought desperately against Qadafi and his so-called 'Foreign Legion' to retain Chad's independence.
No chance of running out of either hard boyz or refugees...
Libya produced 500,000 barrels of oil a day in 2015 and exported almost 450,000 barrels per day, according to the World Bank’s latest MENA Quarterly Economic Brief, “Whither Oil Prices?” report.
In the report’s section on how Libya is reacting to low oil prices, Worls Bank noted that the government approved a budget of about 42.9 billion LYD with exports of half a million barrels per day of oil (more than half of its exports in 2012) with a price of $50 a barrel.
In response to low oil prices, some austerity measures have been taken, but at the same time the government is rewarding public employees in the education sector with 300 Dinars ($219) in extra pay, according to the report.
The fiscal deficit has reached a record high, estimated at 60 % of GDP in 2016, the report said.
“The Tripoli government has resorted to the Central Bank’s reserves which have been falling to $70 billion in 2016 from $120 billion in 2012. If the trend continues, Libya will run out of reserves in less than 4 years,” it noted.
According to the latest OPEC data, Libya produced 332,000 barrels oil per day in June compared to 271,000 barrels per day in May. In end 2015, the country produced 401,000 barrels per day.
Since 2014, Libya has been split between rival governments and parliaments based in the western and eastern regions, each backed by different militias and tribes.
Last month the country’s rival governments in the east and west agreed to merge their competing oil companies. The agreement was hailed as a positive step and some even predicted Libya could quickly double its oil production.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/30/2016 00:00 ||
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“The Tripoli government has resorted to the Central Bank’s reserves which have been falling to $70 billion in 2016 from $120 billion in 2012. If the trend continues, Libya will run out of reserves in less than 4 years,” it noted.
By way of contrast, how screwed is Venezuela? Foreign reserves, mostly illiquid, stand at less that $12 billion.
Riyadh, New York, Aden-Once again, Yemeni insurgents have violated Yemen’s constitution and international resolutions by announcing a unilateral agreement.
Houthis and Ali Abdullah Saleh have established a political council in a severe blow to the political solution called for by the international community in the country, which has been suffering from militias’ practices since September 2014.
Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, special envoy to the Secretary-General on Yemen, said that this development in the country contradicts with commitments made concerning the United Nations-led peace talks.
Farhan Haq, spokesman of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, told Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper that the “unilateral” decision obstructs the peace process and endangers the substantial progress made during the Kuwait talks.
He also described it as a clear violation of the Yemeni constitution and the provisions of the Gulf Cooperation Council’s initiative and its implementation mechanism.
Rajeh Badi, spokesperson of the Yemeni Government, downplayed the agreement struck between the two insurgent sides, telling Asharq Al-Awsat that this step showed that Houthis and Saleh’s forces don’t respect international efforts and the peace talks that took place in Kuwait.
Yemen’s Minister of Local Administration and Chairman of the Higher Committee for Relief Abdul-Raqib Saif Fath said that the rebels’ clear rejection of the international efforts of peace shows a state of confusion that precedes a political and military collapse.
From his part, Abdulmalik Al-Mekhlafi, Yemeni Foreign minister and head of the legitimate authority to Kuwait’s peace talks, urged the international community to pressure rebels on committing to the international resolutions and abiding by the requirements for peace in Yemen.
Mekhlafi added that Houthis and Saleh have successfully convinced the world that they are against peace and are responsible for the failure of the talks. He pointed that everyone knows who has waged war in the country and sought to destroy it despite the constant peace efforts showed by the legitimate authority.
Saudi Envoy to the United Nations Abdullah Al Muallimi told Asharq Al-Awsat that the U.N. is going ahead with the implementation of U.N. Resolution 2216 concerning the Yemeni crisis, and asserted that rebels would never be able to evade it.
Reacting to the move, Anwar Gargash, UAE minister of State for Foreign Affairs, tweeted: “The setting up of a political council is a desperate attempt by those who turned against the legitimate government and dragged Yemen to violence.
“Their attempt to dodge the Kuwait negotiations has been exposed.
“It has been made clear to the international community that Houthis, who represent less than one percent of the population, have become addicted to power and wealth, and the new political council comes in that context.”
Oh dear. However are they going to pay for their jihadi pets now?
Fiscal balances in MENA oil exporters swung from a surplus of $128 billion in 2013 to a deficit of $264 billion in 2016, according to the World Bank’s latest MENA Quarterly Economic Brief, “Whither Oil Prices?” report.
The group of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries lost $157 billion in oil revenues last year and is expected to lose another $100 billion this year, the report said.
Saudi Arabia has depleted $178 billion in reserves, followed by Algeria ($28 billion), and Iraq ($27 billion) in 2015.
Oil revenues have been falling for the third year in a row with fiscal deficits and debts rising. At the same time, several countries - Libya, Iraq, Syria and Yemen- are dealing with the devastating impact of civil war and forced displacement, exacerbating pressure on already tight budgets, the report said.
Oil prices are still up about 60 percent from 12-year lows of $26-$27 in the first quarter. But the rally has faded since they breached $50 in May.
For 2015, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates that members of OPEC earned about $404 billion in net oil export revenues (unadjusted for inflation).
This represents a 46% decline from the $753 billion earned in 2014, mainly as a result of a precipitous fall in average annual crude oil prices during the year, and to a lesser extent to decreases in the level of OPEC net oil exports. This revenue total was the lowest earnings for OPEC since 2010.
EIA projects that OPEC net oil export revenues could fall further to about $341 billion dollars (unadjusted for inflation) in 2016.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/30/2016 00:00 ||
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Those not affiliated with the GCC are overjoyed at saving $100 billion. I have met many of them at various summer vacation venues spending the proceeds.
#4
Qatar in particular is now facing the second destructive wave to hit the GCC -- the fall in natural gas prices and the emergence of the USA as a natural gas exporter. If not for the Obama administration's continuous efforts to block construction of LNG terminals the Muslim Brothers who run Qatar (and Russia) would know for sure that their days of living 'high on the hog' are over.
As previous poster said that's $100 B not being spent on gasoline and heating oil being spent on consumer goods. Gee, that sounds really positive and uplifting doesn't it.
Uncanny resemblance to the U.S. Reaper medium-altitude, long-distance drone. Boy howdy, I wonder why the Chinese made theirs to look like ours?
If I were General Dynamics, I'd be concerned.
First we let them made knick-knacks, then we let them make iPhones, then we let them make drones, then...
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/30/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
Perhaps the military contractors whose design was purloined & then copied know some "back doors" the People's Liberation Army doesn't know about - yet.
[DeutscheWelle] The proposal comes as pressure mounts on the government to do more to prevent domestic terrorist attacks. La Belle France is "just now waking up" to the threat of Islamist extremism, one expert told DW.
Speaking with newspaper "Le Monde", Valls said it was time for a "new model" for relations with Islam and that he was open to the idea of banning financing from abroad for mosques being built in La Belle France. He also called on imams to be trained in La Belle France ‐ a proposal echoed by Dalil Boubakeur, the rector of the Grand Mosque in Gay Paree, earlier this week.
French mosques have received a substantial amount of funding from North Africa and the Middle East over the years. One study, published by the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP) organization in Berlin in 2010, said that 62 percent of the budget of the Union of Islamic Organizations in La Belle France came from other countries. Many mosques have largely been dependent on funds from Algeria, Morocco and Egypt. The Saudi royal family and Egypt's Moslem Bruderbund were among those foreign entities credited with helping build certain mosques around the country.
62 percent of the budget of the Union of Islamic Organizations in France came from other countries, mainly Algeria, Morocco and Egypt. The Saudi royal family and Egypt's Moslem Bruderbund were among the donors.
Ronja Kempin, a security expert with SWP, told DW that the French government has traditionally steered away from involving itself in religious matters. Secularism "made La Belle France blind" to religion, and she suggested this was a reason why the foreign funding of mosques has not been a prime concern of the government until now.
"You could say the French state is just now waking up" to the problem of radicalization in the religious community, she said.
Focus on de-radicalization
The proposal to halt foreign funding for mosques is but one of the government's recent efforts to address the ongoing threat of homegrown terrorism.
In his interview with Le Monde, Valls said it was as a failure that the priest's murderer, 19-year-old Adel Kermiche, had been released from prison after being caught attempting to travel to Syria. Consequentially, he said judges needed to evaluate potential Death Eaters on a different, case-by-case basis.
In September, Valls announced that the government planned to open up centers across the country to help formerly radicalized Islamists reintegrate into society.
"The fight against jihadism is probably the greatest challenge of our generation," Valls said at the time.
#3
Already the US emergence as the world's energy superpower has made Saudi Arabia expend its financial reserves and consider issuing bonds. The SA has funded most mosques in Europe and the USA, and the growth of an independent small-cap US energy industry has been the one economic force than has made Riyadh reevaluate an Islamist policy now nearly a half-century old.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan wants the armed forces and national intelligence agency brought under the control of the presidency, a parliamentary official said on Thursday, part of a major overhaul of the military after a failed coup.
Erdogan's comments came after a five-hour meeting of The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's Supreme Military Council (YAS) - chaired by Prime Minister Binali Yildirim and including the top brass - and the dishonorable discharge of nearly 1,700 military personnel over their alleged role in the abortive putsch on July 15-16.
After the meeting, Erdogan approved the council's decisions to keep armed forces chief Hulusi Akar and the army, navy and air force commanders in their posts, making few changes to the top brass, Erdogan's front man Ibrahim Kalin told news hounds.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/30/2016 00:00 ||
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Turkey seems to be changing into another Islamist Dictatorship right before our eyes. How long before Vlad visits with presents and ideas?
Dear, dear Sultan Recep I: Sadly, you are merely the sultan of The Sick Man of Europe, and so all that shouting and stamping your feet will accomplish nothing. By this you know that Allah does not approve, else he would have re-created the world such that your merest whim was command the world over.
Turkey is all he has, unless he incorporates Syria. Then he'll have a larger shithole sick man as an empire...
[MSN] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's president slammed the United States on Friday, claiming it was not standing firmly against a failed military coup and accused it of harboring the plot's alleged criminal mastermind, as a government crackdown in the coup's aftermath strained Turkey's ties with key allies.
Turkey has demanded the United States extradite Fethullah Gulen, a holy man living in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania whom it accuses of being behind the violent July 15 coup attempt that left 290 people dead. It is accusing Western nations of not extending sufficient support to its efforts to counter further threats from followers of the Gulen movement, which it says have infiltrated the country's state institutions.
Turkey considers Gulen's movement a terrorist organization. Gulen has denied any prior knowledge of the plot and says his movement espouses interfaith dialogue. The United States has asked Turkey for evidence of his involvement, and said the U.S. extradition process must take its course.
"Instead of thanking this nation that quashed the coup in the name of democracy, on the contrary, you are taking sides with the coup plotters," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... said in an angry speech Friday at a police special forces headquarters in Ankara. The facility was bombed and fired upon during the attempted coup, and 47 coppers were killed.
"The putschist is already in your country," Erdogan said.
The president also lashed out at an American military official who expressed concern ...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended... that the failed coup may have longer-term effects on the U.S.-led fight against Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... murderous Moslems in Syria and Iraq.
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07/30/2016 00:00 ||
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[ZEENEWS.INDIA] Delhi: Pakistain's lie as far as fomenting terrorism in India has been nailed yet again.
The US has handed over certain documents to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) which could strengthen India's assertions of complicity of Pakistain-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammad ...literally Army of Mohammad, a Pak-based Deobandi terror group founded by Maulana Masood Azhar in 2000, after he split with the Harkat-ul-Mujaheddin. In 2002 the government of Pervez Musharraf banned the group, which changed its name to Khaddam ul-Islam and continued doing what it had been doing before without missing a beat... in the attack on the Pathankot IAF base.
As per a report in The Times of India, these comprise of over 1,000 pages of chats and conversations between JeM handler Kashif Jaan and the four fidayeen (identified as Nasir Hussain, Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... province, Abu Bakar, Gujranwala, Umar Farooq and Abdul Qayum, both from Sindh).
The conversations prove that terror strike on Pathankot was micro-managed from Pakistain.
The four fidayeen of JeM (who were eventually killed) were in regular touch with their handlers in Pakistain.
The Daily quoted sources as saying that the documents also include Kashif Jaan's conversations with other Pakistain-based JeM office-bearers.
Further, Jaan was reportedly using a Facebook account which was connected to the same mobile number which the attackers called from Pathankot after abducting Punjab police SP Salwinder Singh.
He was also using other mediums like WhatsApp. The investigating agency officials are analysing the documents.
Moreover, the turbans had also called another number in Pakistain connected to a Facebook account of 'Mulla Daadullah'.
The report said that these accounts were accessed before and around the time of the attack using IP addresses of telecom firms (Telenor and Pakistain TeleCommunications Company Ltd, Islamabad) based in Pakistain.
Numbers connected to Al-Rahmat Trust (JeM's financial arm) for which technical details were sought from the US, was also called by the terrorists.
The NIA had sought the help of US to provide details of these accounts and chats.
The US has shared the proof through Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT).
The turbans had entered the strategic air base at Pathankot on the intervening night of January one-two this year and mounted a brazen assault.
In the fierce encounter that had ensued, seven security personnel besides four terrorists were killed.
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07/30/2016 00:00 ||
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I'm not sure what benefit derives to India or the USA in the release of this information. Perhaps Obama felt the need for a pat on the..., and the perfumed princes in Maryland obliged.
[NEWINDIANEXPRESS] NEW DELHI: Arrested Lashkar-e-Taiba ...the Army of the Pure, an Ahl-e-Hadith terror organization founded by Hafiz Saeed. LeT masquerades behind the Jamaat-ud-Dawa facade within Pakistain and periodically blows things up and kills people in India. Despite the fact that it is banned, always an interesting concept in Pakistain, the organization remains an blatant tool and perhaps an arm of the ISI... terrorist Bahadur Ali alias Saifullah met Jamat-ul-Dawa (JuD) chief and one of the 26/11 criminal mastermindHafiz Saeed ...founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba and its false-mustache offshoot Jamaat-ud-Dawa. The United Nations declared the JuD a terrorist organization in 2008 and Hafiz Saeed a terrorist as its leader. Hafiz, JuD and LeT are wholly-owned subsidiaries of the Pak intel apparatus, so that amounted to squat... twice in a training camp in Pakistain, National Investigation Agency (NIA) said on Friday.
Saifullah during interrogation told the probing agency that he met Saeed twice during terror training and he was in regular touch with a Control Room in Pakistain Occupied Kashmire from where he was his handler Walid was instructing him to kill innocent civilians in the Kashmire Valley in India. He was code named A3 by the handler. Saifullah, a terrorist from Pak and a member of Lashkar-e-Taiba terror outfit, main motive to come to India was to spreading violence in Jammu and Kashmire, the agency said.
He also told interrogators that he has to keep fighting in Jammu and Kashmire and cannot come back to Pakistain. "It was suicidal mission for him," said a source in the agency.
A team of NIA officials led by a Deputy Inspector General took the custody of 22-year-old from Handwara court and brought him to Delhi for a further interrogation on Thursday. He has been brought to Delhi on a five-day NIA remand.
He told the agency that he had been hiding in the forests of Handwara and receiving infiltrating groups from Pakistain-Indian Kashmiree before sending them further into the Valley,.
"He was trained at a Lashkar camp in PoK, including in map reading and operating GPS devices," said a NIA officer adding that he had infiltrated into India with two others to take advantage of the unrest in Kashmire. In the laskhar camp he met the Hafiz Saeed.
"He had entered India with Saad bhai and Darda bhai," said the officer.
He also said that Saad bhai was an Ameer of the terror outfit and had undergone Daur-e-Khas training. Saifullah was trained in a terror camp in Chela Bandi in Muzaffarabad and also attended the Daur-e-Aam training after he learnt of the atrocities on Kashmiris in India.
The trio entered India with the help of a guide to the country. According to Saifullah, Saad and Darda bhai were killed in an encounter with security forces in on July 12. They were killed in separate encounters with security forces in the frontier district of Kupwara. "We are further probing into the matter," said the officer.
Saifullah was nabbed during a shootout in Kupwara district on July 25 and he has confessed before the NIA that he is from Lahore. He nabbed from village Yahama in Mawar area of Handwara in North Kashmire’s Kupwara district on July 25.
They agency has also decided to conduct lie detector test of Saifullah and for that they will seek permission from the court after the thorough questioning of the nabbed terrorist.
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07/30/2016 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] 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) chairman Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who ain't the brightest knife in the national drawer... in an interview with Al Jazeera's Mehdi Hasan dismissed allegations of support for the Taliban as "absolute nonsense".
Continued on Page 49
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[AlAhram] Tens of thousands of Iraqis uprooted by the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group are now returning home after a string of Iraqi government victories in Anbar province, but the United Nations ...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense... is warning civilians may be returning too soon as much of "liberated" Iraq is still dangerous, littered with roadside kabooms and bobby-trapped explosives.
Continued on Page 49
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07/30/2016 00:38 ||
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[IsraelNationalNews] "Lone wolf" terrorism in Europe is making headlines around the world. But in Israel, the phenomenon of angry or troubled individuals taking up arms is old news.
Since October, Israelis have endured a wave of violence that has been carried out largely by individual Palestinians without backing from terrorist groups — so much so that some have called this the "lone wolf intifada."
As of the end of June, 38 people had been killed and 298 injured by attackers, according to the Shin Bet security service.
Yet the violence appears to be winding down, at least for now. In October, when the wave of violence is said to have started, the number of attacks against Israelis spiked to 620. In June, there were 103 attacks, lower than in September, before the wave of violence began.
A large majority of the attacks — some 1,500 out of 2,000 — were in the West Bank, where the Israel Defense Forces is responsible for protecting Israelis. Here are five key methods the army used to turn the tide of violence.
Keep the terrorist groups out of it
The wave of violence may be considered a lone wolf intifada, but that's because the army has put a lid on the terrorist groups, a senior IDF officer told reporters during a briefing this week. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the nature of his job.
Since the second intifada, the last major Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s, the Israeli army has managed to largely dismantle the networks run by Hamas and other terrorist groups in Judea and Samaria, according to Shlomo Brom, a retired brigadier general and an analyst at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies think tank.
"Basically the terror networks are dismantled, and basically the security forces are dealing with maintenance," he said.
But that doesn't mean terrorist groups have stopped trying to launch attacks against Israelis. In the past three months, the army has thwarted dozens of attempted attacks by Hamas alone in what the senior official called the "old war" against organized terror.
“We're still having day-to-day indications of them trying to find people in Judea and Samaria, fund them, give them weapons, give them explosives and tell them to shoot Jews," he said. "This hasn't changed." More at the link
[Anadolu] A top Philippine government negotiator has expressed regret over an attack by suspected communist militants that killed a pro-government militiaman just days after President Rodrigo Duterte declared a unilateral ceasefire. Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said in a statement that it was "disheartening" that the New People's Army "failed to respect the unilateral ceasefire."
According to the military, NPA militants belonging to Guerilla Front 34 in southern Mindanao attacked a Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit in a village in Davao del Norte province, killing the militiaman and wounding four others Wednesday. Duterte responded by threatening to withdraw the unilateral ceasefire declared during his first State of the Nation Address on Monday.
He instructed Bello, a leftist congressman, to demand an explanation. Bello said that he had spoken with a panel member of the National Democratic Front (NDF) -- the CPP's political wing -- and was informed that as far as Fidel Agcaoili is aware, the NPA has been on active defense mode Tuesday.
Bello said Agcaoli promised to look into the matter, adding that the government would await the results of the NDF's verification. He quoted Agcaoli as expressing the NDF's commitment to resume preparations for upcoming talks scheduled Aug. 20-27 in Oslo.
In his speech Monday, Duterte said he aims for a "permanent and lasting peace" before his term ends in 2022. The CPP welcomed the declaration, but added that the release of political prisoners should follow immediately.
[Libya Herald] Muammar Qadaffy ...The late megalomaniac dictator of Libya, admired everywhere for his garish costumes, funny hats, harem of cutie bodyguards, and incoherent ravings. As far as is known, he is the only person who's ever declared jihad on Switzerland... ’s son Hannibal may shortly be released by the Lebanese according to his lawyer.
Hannibal was seized by Amal bully boyz last December during a visit to Beirut, according to some sources, in an attempt to effect a reconciliation with his estranged wife. Early reports that he had been released proved inaccurate.
The bully boyz apparently grabbed him in the hope of winkling out information about their religious leader, Sheikh Musa Sadr who went missing with three colleagues during a visit to Qadaffi in 1978, when he was reportedly critical to the dictator’s face. He and his lover companions were never seen again. Hannibal was three years old when this happened.
His lawyer has reportedly argued that her client had been granted political asylum in Syria and should be allowed to return there. As far as is known Hannibal and other members of Qadaffy’s family have been granted asylum in Oman, after being thrown out of Algeria. This is the first time that the Syrian government of Bashir al-Assad has been involved in the fate of the late dictator’s son.
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The siege on Aleppo by Syrian regime forces, which a number of world powers have objected to, was “sorrowful and unacceptable,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said late July 28. In a written statement, the ministry said eastern Aleppo had been under a full blockade for weeks, as the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and its supporters’ conducted intense attacks.
Pro-regime forces have surrounded Aleppo’s eastern districts since July 17, leaving an estimated 250,000 trapped without reliable access to food or medical aid.
“Airstrikes against Aleppo targeting civilians and civil infrastructure should be immediately stopped,” the ministry said.
Forcing millions of civilians to live in inhumane conditions in Aleppo and other regions of Syria should be stopped immediately and the safety of people in those regions and access to humanitarian aid should also be provided under U.N. supervision, it added.
Aid agencies also called on the Syrian government to end its encirclement of rebel-held east Aleppo.
U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura, meanwhile, urged Russia to let the United Nations take charge of the corridors.
“Our suggestion is to Russia to actually leave the corridors being established at their initiative to us,” he said. “How can you expect people to want to walk through a corridor, thousands of them, while there is shelling, bombing fighting?”
Per the Russians and Pencilneck, that's exactly the idea...
France, meanwhile, said corridors out of the city were not “a credible response to the situation” and residents should be able to receive aid at home.
Russia, a key ally of al-Assad, on July 28 announced the opening of humanitarian passages for civilians and surrendering fighters seeking to exit the city’s rebel-held eastern neighborhoods.
Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the U.S.-led coalition targeting a village in northern Syria held by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) killed 28 civilians, including seven children. The observatory said aircraft belonging to the coalition struck the village of al-Ghandour, near Manbij, late on July 28.
The observatory’s chief, Rami Adurrahman, said another 13 people were killed in the strikes but that he could not say if they were ISIL fighters or civilians. Al-Ghandour is 24 kilometers northwest of the town of Manbij, a key hub in the extremist group’s Syria network and a supply route to ISIL’s de facto capital of Raqqa.
The U.S. military acknowledged July 28 that there may have been civilian deaths. U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East, said it had “initiated an assessment following internal operational reporting that a strike today near Manbij, Syria may have resulted in civilian casualties.”
The strikes came a day after the coalition opened a formal investigation to determine whether its air strikes last week near Manbij claimed civilian lives.
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07/30/2016 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Fiscal balances in MENA oil exporters swung from a surplus of $128 billion in 2013 to a deficit of $264 billion in 2016, according to the World Bank’s latest MENA Quarterly Economic Brief, “Whither Oil Prices?” report.
[AlAhram] Tens of thousands of Iraqis uprooted by the 
[Anadolu] A top Philippine government negotiator has expressed regret over an attack by suspected communist militants that killed a pro-government militiaman just days after President Rodrigo Duterte declared a unilateral ceasefire. Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said in a statement that it was "disheartening" that the New People's Army "failed to respect the unilateral ceasefire."
