[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Islam Karimov, who crushed all opposition in the Central Asian country of Uzbekistan as its only president in a quarter-century of independence from the Soviet Union, has died of a stroke at age 78, the Uzbek government announced Friday.
Karimov will be buried Saturday in the ancient city of Samarkand, his birthplace, the government said in a statement.
His younger daughter, Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva, said in a social media post Monday that he had been hospitalized in intensive care after a brain hemorrhage Aug. 27. On Friday, she posted again, saying: "He is gone."
Little other information was available. Media freedom and human rights ...which often include carefully measured allowances of freedom at the convenience of the state... have been harshly repressed ever since he became leader in 1989 while it was still a republic of the Soviet Union.
One of the world’s most authoritarian rulers, Karimov cultivated no apparent successor, and his death raised concerns that the strategically located country could face prolonged infighting among clans over its leadership, something its Islamic radical movement could exploit.
"The death of Islam Karimov may open a pretty dangerous period of unpredictability and uncertainty in Uzbekistan," Alexei Pushkov, head of the Russian parliament's foreign affairs committee, told the Tass news agency.
Given the lack of access to the strategic country, it’s hard to judge how powerful the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan might be. Over the years, the group has been affiliated with the Taliban, al-Qaeda and ISIS, and it has sent fighters abroad.
Under the Uzbek constitution, if the president dies his duties pass temporarily to the head of the senate until an election can be held within three months. However, if you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning... the head of the Uzbek senate is regarded as unlikely to seek permanent power and Karimov’s demise is expected to set off a period of jockeying for political influence.
Karimov was known as a tyrant with an explosive temper and a penchant for cruelty. His troops machine-gunned hundreds of unarmed demonstrators to death during a 2005 uprising, he incarcerated Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! thousands of political opponents, and his henchmen reportedly boiled some dissidents to death.
He came under widespread international criticism from human rights groups, but because of Uzbekistan’s location as a vital supply route for the war in neighboring Afghanistan, the West sometimes turned a blind eye to his worst abuses.
Noting Karimov’s death, 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... said in a statement the US "reaffirms its support for the people of Uzbekistan."
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09/03/2016 00:00 ||
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The First Vice President General Abdul Rashid Dostum ...ethnic Uzbek warlord who distinguished himself fighting the Soviets and the Taliban. The story that he had a bad guy run over with a tank is an exaggeration. It was an armored personnel carrier... harshly criticized President Ghani during a gathering in Kabul ...the capital of Afghanistan. Home to continuous fighting from 1992 to 1996 between the forces of would-be strongman and Pak ISI/Jamaat-e-Islami sock puppet Gulbuddin Hekmayar and the Northern Alliance, a period which won Hek the title Most Evil Man in the World and didn't do much for the reputations of the Northern Alliance guys either.... following a deadlock in the Government of National Unity by CEO Abdullah’s remarks.
According to a video released online by Enayatullah Babar Farahmand, the Chief of Staff of the Office of the First Vice President, Gen. Dostum is seen as accusing President Ghani of allocating his authorities to himself.
Gen. Dostum further adds that President Ghani is not supporting him and has not trust to his works.
The First Vice President told his supporters that a clear and transparent decision is better than the ongoing game as he informed regarding the formation of a congress within the next 40 days.
He said he has several other things to say but did not elaborate further regarding his claims.
The latest remarks by Gen. Dostum came as CEO Abdullah earlier criticized President Ghani in almost a similar manner and said he is unfit for the office.
Abdullah made the remarks, calling President Ghani as unfit for the office, during a gathering in Kabul earlier this month as he was addressing a group of young people in his office garden.
The Chief Executive said he had struggled to achieve much progress with President Ghani during the two years of their government on the issue of electoral reform.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
Those were General Dostum's horses ridden by our men at Mazar-e Sharif. Dostum is the key to defeating the Taliban.
#2
I'm OK with that. He is a murderous thug, but we all have our little foibles.
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09/03/2016 9:00 Comments ||
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#3
Dostum is from the minority Uzbek while Ghani is an Ahmadzai Pashtun. They have on occasion been able to set aside ethnic rivalries. But only on occasion.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Talibs group in Afghanistan has released the latest video of the American and Canadian hostages in a bid to force the Afghan government prevent imposing death sentence on Anas Haqqani.
A Taliban source told Rooters Wednesday that the timing of the release was aimed at pressuring the Afghan government not to execute Anas Haqqani, son of Jalaluddin Haqqani ...founder and still titular head of the Haqqani Network. Jalaluddin is old and tough and very crafty, one of the few Pashtun warlords who was worth spit... , founder of the feared Haqqani network.
The Canadian man Joshua Boyle and his American wife Caitlan Coleman are shown in the video warning that their Afghan captors will kill them and their children unless the Kabul ...the capital of Afghanistan. Home to continuous fighting from 1992 to 1996 between the forces of would-be strongman and Pak ISI/Jamaat-e-Islami sock puppet Gulbuddin Hekmayar and the Northern Alliance, a period which won Hek the title Most Evil Man in the World and didn't do much for the reputations of the Northern Alliance guys either.... government ends its executions of Taliban prisoners.
The couple was kidnapped by the bandidosholy warriors as soon as they visited Afghanistan late in 2012.
Earlier the couple appeared in two videos in 2013 asking the U.S. government to free them from the Taliban. The Colemans received a letter last November in which their daughter said she had given birth to a second child in captivity.
The release of the video comes as the reports emerged earlier this week suggesting Anas Haqqani has been sentenced to death by a primary court in Afghanistan.
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09/03/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
kill him "just a little bit"
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/03/2016 19:13 Comments ||
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[AnNahar] A middle-aged Somali-born holy man with a bright orange beard was this week put on a U.S. terror list, accused of heading 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 in East Africa.
The U.S. State Department on Wednesday said Abdulqadir (also Abdiqadir) Mumin is "the head of a group of ISIS-linked individuals in East Africa," using another term for IS, and branding him a "global terrorist".
Continued on Page 49
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09/03/2016 02:57 ||
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[Libya Observer] Oil won’t be pumped out of the oil fields we control until the workers get paid the three-year-delayed salaries and until the health and housing facilities of the workers get improved, the commander of the Petroleum Facilities Guard in the south, Mohammed Khabasha said.
Khabasha told the press that they informed all the relevant authorities as well as the Presidential Council of the UN-proposed government about their demands, yet none replied.
"We control the oil fields al-Feel, al-Goulf, al-Khansa, Sinawen, and al-Wafaa, and we can assure that the gas pipeline from the south to Mellitah Oil & Gas complex in Zuwara is still working as normal as before." He added.
"We have nothing to do with the reopening of al-Rayana pipeline as it is not under our control." Khabasha indicated.
Zintan municipality as well as its military council and notables announced that they will reopen al-Rayana pipeline. The announcement took place at the end of the National Peace Festival in Sabratha last Saturday.
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09/03/2016 00:00 ||
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[Libya Observer] A former Qadaffy procurer in east Libya has called for killing of all besieged families in Ganfouda neighbourhood of Benghazi, claiming they are all ISIS affiliates.
Addressing a tribal meeting to show support to renegade General Khalifa Haftar ... served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all... last week, Beleid Sheikhi said all the old women and their children inside Ganfouda are terrorists.
"There aren't any honest women in Ganfouda, they must hand over their sons to stand trial or let's take them all to Erdogan, their godfather," Beleid said.
"We don’t need those old ISIS women anymore, don’t tell me about human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... ," he added.
Beleid said all people aged 14 and over in Ganfouda must be executed.
"They are talking about safe corridors to those ISISi (ISIS) people! They will never come out of Ganfouda alive," he incited.
Human Rights Solidarity in Libya has condemned Beleid's remarks as incitement to kill innocent people.
Beleid Sheikhi was a sergeant in Qadaffy brigade of Fadil Bu Omer in Benghazi. His main task was to find hookers and organize debauched nights for senior Qadaffy officials including Khalifa Hanish and Ahmed Gaddaf Addem. He was nicknamed "Beleid bitches" for this sleazy job.
Now, he has become a tribal mouthpiece for Dignity Operation and its commander Khalifa Haftar.
Ganfouda neighbourhood has been under siege for several months by Dignity Operation militia groups, which banned families there from leaving.
Backed by foreign intervention, Dignity Operation intensified Arclight airstrikes on the costal neighbourhood, leaving many, including foreign workers, dead and maimed.
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09/03/2016 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said on Friday that Iran is not respecting international law when it continues to back the Syrian regime, the Lebanese Shiite holy warrior group and political party Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ... militia group, urging Tehran to change its policies.
"We see Iran intervening in Syria and supporting Hezbollah and the Houthis, and it is behind some of the operations threatening national security of the region," Jubeir, who is currently visiting Japan, said.
"We do not see changes in Iran’s policies," he added. "We see that it is trying to send in arms to Bahrain, Kuwait and 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... . Iran should decide if it is in war or the opposite?
If it is in war and it does not respect international law and goes on with its plans, then it not possible to be able to deal with it."
He also urged Iran to return to the "family" of international community to weave new relations with regional countries.
"We wish from Iran, a great nation with great history and great people, to be able to change its policies which it built in 1979 so it can be a new member in the international community, weaving new policies with it."
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09/03/2016 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ... militia group discontinued its regional tour late on Thursday and instead headed to Muscat to meet with the UN envoy, the Turkish state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
After meeting with Iraqi President Fouad Masoum, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, and Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari in Baghdad, the Houthis left for the Omani capital, Muscat, sources told Anadolu.
The sources said the Houthis will be meeting the UN envoy to Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, who will be arriving in Muscat from New York on Saturday.
The regional tour by Houthis is aimed at seeking backing for their unilateral declaration of a "political council" to administer the crisis-hit, cash-strapped Yemen, included Iraq, Iran and Leb.
Peace talks
On Aug. 6, peace talks between Yemen’s warring sides ‐ the Houthi militia and the internationally recognized government of President Abed Rabbu Mansour Hadi - ended without bringing any breakthrough.
Even before the Kuwait-based talks ended, Houthi militia and its allies in former President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... ’s General People’s Congress party signed an agreement to set up the political council to run the country in late July, further jeopardizing any efforts to close the gap between the two sides.
On his Twitter account, the Houthis’ spokesmen and head of its delegation Mohammed Abed al-Salam said "the delegation has returned to Muscat after an official visit to Iraq to open up horizons with the regional and international community, especially after the formation of the political council."
Military escalation Meanwhile, ...back at the precinct house, Sergeant Maloney wasn't buying it. It was just too pat. The whole thing smelled phony, kind of like a dead mackeral but without the scales... the UN envoy told the Security Council that the military escalation in Yemen will provide opportunities for holy warrior groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS to spread, and warning that they will wreak havoc in many parts of Yemen.
"However, alcohol has never solved anybody's problems. But then, neither has milk... the absence of the state in many parts of Yemen, in addition to the chaos created by war, will continue to facilitate the expansion of the terrorist groups which represents a real threat to the region," he said.
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09/03/2016 00:00 ||
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[Dhaka Tribune] Death-row war crimes convict Mir Quasem Ali ...Jamaat-e-Islamic Central Committee member and Saudi money man in Bangla. Currently waiting to be hanged.... has told the jail authorities that he would not beg the president to spare his life.
This means, the Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... leader, whose atrocities during the Liberation War in Chittagong earned him the nickname ’Bangali Khan’, can be executed any time now.
Kashimpur Central Jail-2 Superintendent Prashanta Kumar Banik told the Dhaka Tribune that Quasem had informed them of his decision on Friday afternoon.
"We asked him about his decision [to seek presidential clemency] and he said he won’t," Prashanta said.
Asked if they were prepared to carry out the death sentence, the jail superintendent said they would "follow orders from the higher ups".
Quasem had spent a huge sum of money to appoint a US lobbyist to make the war crimes trials controversial.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
Do it
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/03/2016 19:14 Comments ||
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[RFE/RL] A court in the northwestern Kazakh city of Aqtobe has jailed a man for calling for a series of terrorist attacks to be carried out in Russia. The court said on September 2 that Almas Abdiraev was sentenced to four years and eight months in jail.
According to the court, Abdiraev tried to persuade two acquaintances to organize terrorist acts in Russia "as a response to Russia's military operations in Syria."
On August 31, Kazakh authorities said they had apprehended 11 Islamists in the Aqtobe region.
In June, the government said a group of 25 alleged Islamist militants carried out a series of attacks that killed five civilians and three members of Kazakhstan's security forces in Aqtobe. Security forces who encountered the group killed 18 gunmen and arrested seven others who still await trial on terrorism charges.
[RFE/RL] A group of women who blamed Vladimir Putin for the Beslan school massacre have been sentenced to either community service or fined.
On September 2, a court in Beslan found the women guilty of violating the law about holding public gatherings and sentenced three of them to 20 hours of community service, while two others were fined $305. Another woman, who did not wear an anti-Putin T-shirt but stood with the demonstrators to express support, was also sentenced to 20 hours of community service.
The women's protest was held on September 1, the 12th anniversary of the 2004 hostage tragedy that left 334 people dead, including 186 schoolchildren. As a school bell rang near the ruins of the school, the five mothers whose children either died or were hostages at the school took off their jackets to reveal shirts that read "Putin is the Executioner of Beslan."
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Israel is to host a working group of the International Criminal Court ... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ... as it weighs whether to probe alleged war crimes in the 2014 Gazoo war, an Israeli official said Friday.
The group’s arrival "shortly" will be unprecedented, he told AFP on condition of anonymity, saying the visit was intended to show the ICC team "how the Israeli judicial system works."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s front man declined to comment.
The trip is at the request of ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, whose office, in a brief statement, confirmed Friday it "is in talks with both Paleostinian and Israeli authorities about a potential visit."
Under its statutes, the ICC must be satisfied that the state in question is unable or unwilling to pursue the matter itself before the court opens war crimes proceedings.
Israel will seek to convince the visiting ICC team that it intends to see justice done over accusations it used excessive force in the July-August 2014 war in and around the Paleostinian territory and events immediately preceding it.
The official could not say if the group would be given access to the West Bank and Gazoo Strip, to which Israel controls all passage except across the largely closed Gazoo-Egypt border.
The 2014 conflict between Israel and Gazoo’s Islamist rulers Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, and other factions killed 2,251 Paleostinians, including 551 children, according to UN figures.
On the Israeli side, 73 people were killed, mostly soldiers.
Israel and the Paleostinians have accused each other of war crimes.
Israel is alleged to have used force indiscriminately, while Hamas is accused of firing rockets at Israeli civilian population centers and of using Paleostinians as human shields.
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09/03/2016 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Six suspected cases of meningitis have been identified in a Syrian town near Damascus that is under siege by government forces, the World Heath Organization (WHO) said Friday.
The suspected cases were diagnosed in the town of Madaya between Aug. 3 and Aug. 30.
WHO has already evacuated two of those infected, a child and an adolescent.
The UN agency said it was in contact with health officials about sending medicines and organizing the evacuation of the other four suspected cases.
An activist in Madaya, Abdel Wahab Ahmed, who works at a health facility in the town, told AFP that the mother and two sisters of the evacuated child had also become infected.
"The family has been placed in medical isolation in their home, after two weeks of treatment with the only medicines available failed," he said.
Several cases of meningitis are reported every week, according to WHO. Most of them are viral forms of the disease, which tends to be less severe than the bacterial form.
WHO was not in a position to say Friday which type of meningitis was suspected in Madaya.
On Aug. 19, the Red Islamic Thingy evacuated 18 people, including 13 sick children from Madaya, according to a doctor who treated the children.
Among the children was a 10-year-old boy who had been suffering from meningitis for a month.
Under a September 2015 accord, all evacuations from the government-besieged towns of Madaya and Zabadani have to be done in parallel with similar evacuations from Fuaa and Kafraya.
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09/03/2016 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Leb on Friday indicted two Syrian intelligence officers it accused of involvement in a deadly 2013 double kaboom in the city of 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... , a judicial source said.
The double bombing killed 45 people, and a series of indictments have already been handed down against Lebanese and Syrians accused of involvement.
The indictment names Captain Mohammed Ali Ali, an official in the Paleostine branch of Syria’s intelligence services, and Nasser Jouban, an official in Syria’s political security branch.
The two men, neither of whom is in jug, are accused of helping to prepare the attack, placing explosives in cars and assigning a Lebanese cell to carry out the bombing, which also maimed hundreds.
The attacks targeted two Sunni mosques in Tripoli, which has frequently experienced tensions between Sunnis and Alawites who belong to the same religious minority as Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Trampler of Homs... and tend to support his government.
The indictment alleges the attacks also involved other high-ranking Syrian officials, who are accused of directing Ali and Jouban to organize them.
The blasts in the northern city were the deadliest attack in Leb since the country’s 1975-1990 civil war and raised fears that the conflict in neighboring Syria could be inexorably seeping across the border.
Leb’s political landscape is largely divided between parties that back Assad and those who support the uprising against him that began in March 2011.
The division has stoked tensions in Leb and created a political stalemate that has left the country without a president for more than two years.
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09/03/2016 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.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Talibs group in Afghanistan has released the latest video of the American and Canadian hostages in a bid to force the Afghan government prevent imposing death sentence on Anas Haqqani.
[RFE/RL] A court in the northwestern Kazakh city of Aqtobe has jailed a man for calling for a series of terrorist attacks to be carried out in Russia. The court said on September 2 that Almas Abdiraev was sentenced to four years and eight months in jail.
International Criminal Court
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
