[GEO.TV] The B.O. regime has been asked to deport Afghanistan´s first woman pilot, who has requested asylum in the United States, said a Pajhwok report.
A letter, written by Afghan activists in the US, urged the president that the female pilot did not face any threats in her home country Afghanistan and she can safely assume duty in her homeland.
The White Assembly asked the US government to deport Nilofar as soon as possible that her home country has spent millions of dollars on her professional training and education.
Nilofar Rahmani, a 25-year-old pilot lionised widely as the "Afghan Top Gun" after the 1986 Tom Cruise film on flying aces, was scheduled to return to Afghanistan last week after a 15-month training course with the US air force.
But on the eve of her departure, she declared she will not be returning citing fears for her safety, triggering a storm of criticism in Afghanistan for "betraying" her nation but also garnering support from activists.
Rahmani became a symbol of hope for millions of Afghan women when she surfaced in the press in 2013 after becoming Afghanistan´s first woman pilot since the Taliban era, dressed in tan combat boots, khaki overalls and aviator glasses.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/31/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
Any Afghan who corroborated with us is gonna be in danger. Does that mean we have to let the all into this country?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/31/2016 13:22 Comments ||
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[MIDDLEEASTMONITOR] Sudan is set to announce a new national government early next month including a minister to take over the newly recreated post of prime minister, a bigwig disclosed yesterday.
The Sudanese Presidential Assistant Ibrahim Mahmoud said in a presser in Khartoum that President Omar al-Bashir Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president-for-life. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to Arabize Darfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it. will issue a decree slated for 10 January to declare the new government once the arrangements are finalised.
The ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and the political parties participating in national dialogue efforts have engaged in broad-based consultations to name the new prime minister and the entire cabinet, Mahmoud said.
He called on the opposition to join the new government. "The doors are still open for the boycotters to join the national consensus government," he said. Opposition members boycotted the elections in Sudan on the grounds that they do not represent true democratisation.
On Wednesday, Sudan’s parliament endorsed a raft of constitutional amendments, one of which revives the country’s prime ministerial post for the first time since al-Bashir came to power after a 1989 coup. The constitutional changes give the president more power, including authority to appoint cabinet ministers.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/31/2016 00:00 ||
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[AlAhram] Tunisia said Friday it has locked away Please don't kill me! or closely monitored 800 jihadists who have returned from foreign battlefields in the past decade.
"Some are in prison, some are under house arrest and others are under close surveillance", government spokesperson Iyed Dahmani said of the fighters who have returned since 2007.
A little under 3,000 Tunisians have joined the ranks of jihadist groups fighting in neighbouring Libya, as well as in Syria and Iraq, Dahmani said.
The United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... puts this figure at 5,000.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Youssef Chahed said all jihadists returning from fighting abroad would be immediately locked away Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! and judged according to the country's counter-terrorism law.
Chahed said authorities had "lists of all (Tunisian) terrorists" and "all the data on them".
Last week, Interior Minister Hedi Majdoub told parliament that 800 jihadists had already returned from the front lines.
Concern about their return has increased since Tunisian Anis Amri, 24, was identified as the suspected attacker who mowed down 11 people at a Berlin Christmas market last week, and also killed the driver.
Tunisians rallied outside parliament at the weekend to protest against allowing jihadists back into the country.
The national union of internal security forces has called on the government to strip Tunisian jihadists of their nationality.
But President Beji Caid Essebsi, citing the constitution, has said the authorities cannot prevent a Tunisian from returning home.
Since its 2011 uprising, Tunisia has faced repeated jihadist attacks, killing more than 100 soldiers and coppers, as well as about 20 civilians and 59 foreign tourists, according to official figures.
[AnNahar] Dozens of Malian migrants colonists kept locked up in Libyan jails after failing to make it onto boats bound for Europe have arrived home, with some reporting maltreatment by authorities in the unstable north African nation.
The group of 159 Malians including several children arrived in Bamako on Thursday night on a flight chartered by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), according to an AFP journalist at the scene.
Around 40 were detained in Libya's notoriously grim jails for living in the country illegally, according to regional civil protection director Bakary Daou, and had requested deportation.
"Given the difficulties that they encountered in Libya, they accepted coming back to the country voluntarily," Daou told AFP.
The government would work with the IOM to ensure they were safely returned to their loved ones, Daou added.
Racist attacks and maltreatment were the norm, the returnees said, confirming they were attempting to reach Europe through the well-trodden smuggling route taken by many west Africans through Niger and Libya.
AFP saw at least three unaccompanied minors and several clearly unwell people among the group.
"In all of Libya's prisons, they hit people and treat them badly, especially black Africans," said Ibrahim Bidane Sy, a migrant who spent three months in one jail.
"I was in prison without communicating with my family or friends... luckily the IOM helped me to get out," he added.
The operation was the second planned mass deportation of Malians from Libya this year.
Earlier this month Algeria, Libya's neighbor, deported 260 Malians who also alleged brutality by the police and authorities.
African migrants colonists have been regularly expelled by the thousands since Libya's descent into chaos.
It is the focal point for migrants colonists attempting to cross the Mediterranean to Europe, and was previously home to thousands of Africans working as laborers or domestic servants.
After receiving medical treatment by the Malian authorities, the migrants colonists were due to return home to their families on Friday.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] While the world places its full attention at the destruction in Syria’s Aleppo, another Middle Eastern city has faced just as much destruction and violence.
While Syrian and Russian forces recaptured Aleppo and Iraqi forces, along with a coalition of multiple countries, try to liberate djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , Libya’s Sirte has been left in ruins after ISIS were driven out.
Fighting continues to be fierce in the coastal city that witnessed the death of longtime ruler Muammar Qadaffy ...a reminder that a single man with an idea can change an entire nation, usually for the worse... Sirte was known to be Qadaffy’s favored city, where his grandfather once led an significant battle against Italian occupation. In 1999, Qadaffy himself announced the "birth of the African union".
Today, little remains of the city but rubble.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/31/2016 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] According to a military source who asked not to be named, 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... jihadists have been "tremendously weakened and are trying to avoid confrontation ... by hiding in some obscure locations."
Islamists routed from Sambisa have reportedly fled to areas on the edge of the forest, islets on Lake Chad as well as villages on the Cameroon ...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there... border.
"They were sighted in large numbers in ... the Kala-Balge area," said a vigilante helping in the fight, referring to a region near Cameroon.
If they can be sighted in large numbers they can be killed in large numbers...
The head of the fishermen's union in Borno state, the epicentre of Boko Haram's seven-year insurgency, said some fighters had regrouped on Lake Chad, which straddles Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad.
It provides the jihadists with a "convenient sanctuary", with its 400 islets covered with dense vegetation that makes aerial detection and ground operations dangerous, Abubakar Gamandi said.
"The islets are between one and two square kilometres and the fresh water and abundant fish in the lake make them habitable," said Gamandi, who has fished in Lake Chad for 40 years.
Abu Musab al-Barnawi, the leader of a Boko Haram faction recognised 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, has already been living on the lake since his group split from Shekau's leadership in August, residents and vigilantes say.
Should Shekau and his troops move there, it is unclear whether the two rival factions will end up battling each other.
- The next battleground? -
Cameroonian troops have intensified their operations along their nation's frontier with Nigeria, where fleeing Boko Haram fighters have also sought refuge, according to a vigilante in the Nigerian border town of Banki.
"Cameroon has upped security along the border which has forced fleeing Boko Haram (fighters) to head to Kala-Balge, where Nigerian troops are deploying", said the vigilante, who did not want to give his name.
"Kala-Balge may be the next battleground," said Umar Ari, a local trader.
According to Yan St-Pierre, an expert on jihadist groups, cooperation between west African governments fighting Boko Haram has "vastly improved since September."
However, denial ain't just a river in Egypt... "the army's biggest problem is to secure the areas it recaptures from Boko Haram," he added, referring to a spike in suicide and other guerrilla-style attacks unleashed since the jihadists began to lose ground.
Even though the Nigerian authorities have claimed several times that the end of Boko Haram was imminent, the conflict has merely continued to shift and "the army remains far from gaining the upper hand."
- 'A matter of time' -
How Shekau beat feet from Sambisa remains a mystery.
He "might have escaped in the intense battle to take over Camp Zero," an army source told AFP, referring to the last jihadist bastion in Sambisa Forest to fall to Nigerian troops.
He has since been spotted in Pulka village near Gwoza on the Cameroonian border -- and is currently believed to be hiding in a forest in Kala-Balge, a security source said.
Shekau's fighters are believed to have taken with them scores of Chibok girls held since 2014, as well as Nigerian army hostages, to use them as human shields.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/31/2016 00:36 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] Thousands of People rallied in Diraz area in rejection of the regime’s steps to normalize relations with the Israeli entity after a Zionist delegation visited the capital Manama.
The protesters held the photos of al-Aqsa Mosque and Sheikh Issa Qassem and rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud which reject normalizing Bahrain’s ties with the Zionist entity, burning the Israeli flag and highlighting their support to the Paleostinian cause.
A number of Bahraini figures condemned the regime’s act of facilitating the entrance of the Israeli delegation to the Bahraini territories, denouncing the attempts to establish a closer relations with the Zionists.
A circulated video showed a group of Zionist extremists chanting and dancing with Bahraini businessmen during their visit to Manama.
The slogans they chanted asserted their intention to destroy al-Aqsa Mosque to build the alleged Solomon’s Temple, according to the video.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/31/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
Iran's Shiite puppets
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/31/2016 8:25 Comments ||
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#2
Prob'ly just the usual Arab idiots, Frank G, who believed what they were taught in school and saw on television. If I were Bibi, I'd insist on the curriculum being changed before I lifted a missile in the direction of Iran's nukes.
#3
Iran's been stirring Shiite Shit up in Bahrain for some time
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/31/2016 9:54 Comments ||
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#4
A circulated video showed a group of Zionist extremists chanting and dancing with Bahraini businessmen during their visit to Manama.
The slogans they chanted asserted their intention to destroy al-Aqsa Mosque to build the alleged Solomon’s Temple, according to the video.
Mmmmm... Right. The Zionist regime is establishing normalized relations with an Arab country. They send a delegation. What does the delegation do? Why they chant and sing with their hosts about tearing down the third holiest site in all Islam.
They aren't tarred and feathered. They aren't run out of Manama on a rail. Nobody notices but al-Manure and probably IRNA or Pars or somebody like that.
Really, if you can't believe al-Manure who can you believe?
Posted by: Fred ||
12/31/2016 11:02 Comments ||
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#5
"The protesters held... 'signs'... and rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud"
Dang, for a moment I thought the article was talking about the typical democrat protesting losing the election.
Took me a moment to realize the article was talking about something else.
[MIDDLEEASTMONITOR] A new defence contract will see 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... , Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates... and the UAE upgrade their missile defence capabilities.
The United States and allied military forces will upgrade their missile defence capabilities under a new $1.45 billion contract for the production and delivery of Lockheed Martin Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) and PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement (PAC-3 MSE) interceptors, Aerotech News reported.
Using up the oil profits before they run out...
The defence and aerospace industry site announced that the contract will includes PAC-3 and PAC-3 MSE missile deliveries for the US Army, and Foreign Military Sales of PAC-3 interceptors, launcher modification kits, associated equipment and spares for Qatar, the Republic of Korea, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates.
The PAC-3 missile is a high-velocity interceptor which can defend against including tactical ballistic missiles and cruise missiles. PAC-3 currently provides missile defence capabilities for six nations ‐ the US, the Netherlands, Germany, Japan, the United Arab Emirates and Taiwan.
Kuwait is also under contract to procure PAC-3 missiles.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/31/2016 00:00 ||
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[Dhaka Tribune] Myanmar said on Friday it would take back 2,415 "citizens" from Bangladesh, only a tiny fraction of the 300,000 people who Bangladesh says are Myanmar citizens taking refuge there and should go home.
"There are only 2,415 Myanmar citizens, according to our data," Kyaw Zaya, director general of Myanmar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said, referring to the number of Myanmar citizens in Bangladesh.
"We always stand with our number," he said, adding he had "no idea" about the Bangladesh figure of 300,000.
He said the Myanmar government had a plan to take back the 2,415 in 2017.
Myanmar earlier agreed to take back 2,415 Rohingyas from the two registered camps in Bangladesh after the eighth foreign secretary-level talks in Dhaka in August 2014. The process was supposed to begin within two months, but it did not happen. After 2005, it was the first time Myanmar agreed to repatriate Rohingyas from Bangladesh.
Less than 300,000 Rohingyas registered their names during a census carried out in six coastal areas in May by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, according to primary data.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/31/2016 00:00 ||
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[MIDDLEEASTEYE.NET] President Vladimir Putin ...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead... said on Friday he would not expel any Americans in response to Washington turfing out dozens of Russian diplomats over alleged election interference.
The Kremlin strongman's surprise decision came after Russia's foreign ministry asked him to send home 35 US diplomats in tit-for-tat retaliation for the expulsion of the same number of its staff by President Barack Obama Because I won... on Thursday.
"We will not create problems for American diplomats. We will not expel anyone," Putin said in a statement, also inviting children of US diplomats to a holiday party at the Kremlin.
A calm adult vs. President Obama playing a petulant child. President Putin is enjoying his chew toy.
Putin's move was a clear sign that Moscow is pinning its hopes on President-elect Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... to help rebuild ties - which have plunged to their lowest point since the Cold War - when he takes office next month.
"We evaluate the new unfriendly steps by the outgoing US administration as a provocation aimed at further undermining Russian-American relations," Putin said.
He said Moscow would plan its next steps "based on the policies pursued by the administration of president Donald Trump," while warning that the Kremlin reserves the right to hit back.
Putin ended his message by wishing both Obama and Trump a Happy New Year and separately congratulated Trump in his New Year's message to heads of state around the world.
Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Friday that a total of 96 Russians, including expelled diplomats and their families, were expected to leave the United States due to the latest sanctions on Moscow, TASS news agency reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/31/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
When was the last time you thought of the Russians as the adults in the room? I get the feeling we're not in Cold War Kansas anymore.
#5
"I expect cynicism in Washington. But it usually is combined with a lot of knowledge — as with, say, Henry Kissinger. To be cynical and ignorant and to spin those two things into a virtue? That’s industrial-strength hubris. Kind of like what got us into Iraq, in fact.
"Rhodes and others around Obama keep on talking about doing all this novel thinking, playing from a new playbook, bucking the establishment thinking. But if that is the case, why have they given so much foreign policy power to two career hacks who never have had an original thought? I mean, of course, Joe Biden and John Kerry. I guess the answer can only be that those two are puppets, and (as in Biden’s case) are given losing propositions like Iraq to handle.
"Obama’s hasn’t been an original foreign policy as much as it has been a politicized foreign policy. And this Rhodes guy reminds me of the Kennedy smart guys who helped get us into the Vietnam War. Does he know how awful he sounds? Kind of like McGeorge Bundy meets Lee Atwater."
#12
And remember that the bread, crackers, and bowls of caviar are there for a reason. One of my favorite photos is of a Russian after the night before knocking back a shot of vodka and eating caviar out of a tub.
[AnNahar] Suspected Berlin truck attacker Anis Amri considered heading to Rome before finally plumping for Milan where police shot him dead, Italian media reported Friday.
The Corriere della Sera daily said that security cameras at Turin station had twice recorded the 24-year-old searching for trains either to Rome or Milan.
"In the end, he chose a regional train for Lombardy because at that late hour, there was no train going to the capital," said the paper, adding that this showed he had "no precise travel plan."
Several papers also reported that when he arrived in Milan in the early hours of December 23, Amri asked a passer-by where he could catch a train or bus for "Rome, Naples or the south."
Sesto San Giovanni, the town north of Milan where Amri was eventually shot, is the starting point for international coaches to Spain, Morocco, Albania or southern Italia.
Local Rome daily Il Messaggero said it was "not a coincidence" that he was eying the capital as that city was where he "probably had the most contacts."
Amri had close links to Italia, arriving there in 2011 from Tunisia after the revolution that led to the Arab Spring.
[AlAhram] The Pak man wrongly incarcerated Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! for the Berlin truck attack on Friday said he had told German police he could not even drive and was now afraid for the safety of his family back home. Naveed Baloch, an asylum-seeker from the troubled province of Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... , told the Guardian newspaper he had just left a friend's house and was crossing a street when he saw a police car approaching fast and picked up his pace. He said he was arrested and taken to a cop shoppe, where he was undressed and photographed.
"When I resisted, they started slapping me," the 24-year-old, who has been living in a secret location provided by police since his release because he says he is afraid for his life, told the British daily.
Baloch, who sought refuge in Germany as a member of a secular separatist movement in Balochistan, said he struggled to communicate because no translator could be found who could speak his native Balochi.
"I calmly told them I cannot drive at all. Neither can I even start a vehicle," he said.
Baloch was arrested on December 19 in the hours after the attack on a Christmas market in the heart of Berlin in which 12 people were killed. Police released him 24 hours later, after failing to find evidence of his involvement.
Baloch, a shepherd by profession, told the daily that members of his family in the village of Mand in Balochistan in southwest Pakistain had received threatening phone calls following his arrest.
"Now they all know I fled to Germany, fearful of my life, and that I am claiming asylum here. It leaves my family very vulnerable and there's nothing I can do to protect them," he told the Guardian.
Baloch said he left Pakistain around a year ago, arriving in Germany via Iran, The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... and Greece, because of death threats he had received for his activism for the Baloch National Movement.
"Most of the people I worked with have been arrested and killed. I knew it was a matter of time before they came for me. That's the reason I came to Germany," he said.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/31/2016 00:45 ||
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In its last full month in office, the Obama administration has admitted 1,307 more Syrian refugees – pushing the 2016 calendar year total to 15,479, a 606.1 percent increase from the numbers resettled in the U.S. in 2015.
Of the 15,479 Syrian refugees admitted by the end of Thursday:
15,302 (98.8 percent) are Muslims – 15,134 Sunnis, 29 Shi’a, and 139 other Muslims
125 (0.8 percent) are Christians – 32 Catholics, 32 Orthodox, five Protestants, four Jehovah’s Witnesses, and 52 refugees described only as “Christian” in State Department Refugee Processing Center data
43(0.27 percent) are Yazidis
eight are “other” religion and one is described as having “no religion”
3,904 (25.2 percent) are males between the ages of 14 and 50
3,521 (22.7 percent) are females aged 14-50
7,428 (47.9 percent) are children under 14, of whom 3,824 are boys and 3,604 are girls.
Last year’s intake of Syrian refugees was considerably smaller – 2,192 in total – although the religious ratio was similarly skewed: 2,149 Muslims (98 percent) and 31 Christians (1.4 percent).
The last month of 2016 has seen 1,307 Syrian refugees arrive, of whom 1,278 (97.7 percent) were Muslims, 24 (1.8 percent) were Christians, and five (0.3 percent) were Yazidis.
The administration has determined that atrocities against Christians, Yazidis and other religious minorities by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS/ISIL) in areas under its control amount to genocide. At the same time, however, it has rejected calls by Republican lawmakers and others to prioritize vulnerable religious minorities among refugee applicants. President Obama said that would amount to a “religious test.”
Which immigration law expressly allows, precisely because genocide sometimes affects one religion more than another.
Sunni Muslims do account for a majority of Syria’s population – an estimated 74 percent when the civil war began in early 2011. Even so, the proportion of Sunnis among the refugees admitted into the U.S. has been much larger than that: 97.7 percent of those resettled in 2016, and 97.15 of the total number of Syrian refugees admitted since the conflict began (17,513 out of 18,026).
On the other hand, Christians comprised some 10 percent of the Syrian population in early 2011, but only account for 0.8 percent of the refugees resettled in 2016; and for just 1.03 percent of the total number of Syrian refugees taken in since the beginning of the civil war (187 out of 18,026).
But we don't do religious tests, no sir Senator...
Organizations aiding Syrian Christians say many of those who have left the country avoid camps run by the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR for fear of their safety, and seek shelter instead with churches, Christian charities or relatives in surrounding countries. Since the U.S. relies on UNHCR referrals at the early stage of processing refugee status applications, Christians as a result are underrepresented.
The UNHCR has acknowledged that minorities “fear that registration might bring retribution from other refugees” in the camps, although it also says living in a camp is not a requirement for refugees to be registered with the agency.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/31/2016 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] US Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, unsuccessful presidential candidate, and utterly failed Secretary of State... made a telephone call to the Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar on Thursday night in which he said United States was aware of Pakistain’s complaint against India's alleged violation of Indus Waters Treaty, said a statement issued by the government on Friday.
"US would like to see an amicable solution to this issue," Kerry was quoted as saying by the federal government.
The finance minister mentioned it to John Kerry that Indus Waters Treaty is an international commitment and it is the responsibility of the World Bank to make sure that India honours this treaty and the water rights of hundreds of millions of people of Pakistain are protected.
Earlier this week, Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry said India's violation of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) would set a dangerous precedent for other countries to behave similarly, but remained hopeful that India would refrain from such actions.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/31/2016 00:00 ||
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#2
Again. Dump something in the water (like, say more water) and spread a rumor it shrinks muzz pee pees and makes muzz women sterile. Watch the fun...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/31/2016 9:36 Comments ||
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#3
Maybe Kerry can piss off India before Barack leaves office?
Posted by: John Frum ||
12/31/2016 13:34 Comments ||
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Terming China's decision to again block a proposal to list Masood Azhar as a designated terrorist under the 1267 sanctions committee of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) as "surprising", India on Friday said the decision confirms the prevalence of double standards in the fight against terrorism.
"This decision by China is surprising as China herself has been affected by the scourge of terrorism and has declared opposition to all forms of terrorism. As a consequence of this decision, the UNSC has again been prevented from acting against the leader of a listed terrorist organisation," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said.
"We had expected China would have been understanding of the danger posed to all by terrorism and would join India and others in fighting the common challenge of terrorism," he added.
Describing the decision as unfortunate, Swarup said Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad which is proscribed by the UN has been responsible for innumerable terrorist attacks on India including the Pathankot air base attack.
"The inability of the international community to list its leader Masood Azhar is an unfortunate blow to the concerted efforts to effectively counter all forms of terrorism and confirms prevalence of double standards in the fight against terrorism," Swarup added.
Swarup further asserted that India would use all its options available to bring perpetrators of terrorist violence to justice.
China is the lone member among the 15-member UNSC to oppose the ban on Azhar. Previously, while opposing the ban against Azhar, the Chinese Foreign Ministry had said that the country firmly supports combating all forms of terrorism, stronger international cooperation against terrorism, and supports the central and coordinating role of the UN in international counter-terrorism cooperation.
Posted by: john frum ||
12/31/2016 00:00 ||
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[RUDAW.NET] The leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and member of its executive council Murat Karayilan says that his group will withdraw its forces from the Shingal region and that they are currently in negotiations with Erbil over the issue.
In a statement published on PKK’s Sterk TV on Thursday, Karayilan said that there was no need for Erbil to use the threat of force with regards to the presence of his fighters in Shingal because such issues could only be solved through dialogue.
Karayilan said that Kurdish unity mattered to the PKK especially at this "critical juncture".
"The period we are in is an important period in which the fate of our people will be determined. At such a time, the unity of the Kurdish people is more valuable than ever. We take this issue in a strategic way. Therefore, we want to solve all existing problems with dialogue."
"We are also fond of overcoming the internal and external problems of the Kurdish people with dialogue." Karayilan’s statement reads.
It goes on to say: "Even if these problems are not overcome, we have to build a platform, a common roof. In this sense, national unity is very important in terms of the future of our people. It is always in the interests of our people to be in a national unity as a Kurdish people so that the blood of the deaders is not wasted."
Karayilan referred to remarks by Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani who told al-monitor news outlet last week that he was ready to use force against the PKK if they did not leave Shingal voluntarily.
The PKK leader said that negotiations have been underway with the Region’s ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) over the issue of their presence in Shingal and that the PKK was ready to leave the area at the conclusion of the talks.
He added that this was the first time he revealed to the media that there were such talks between the PKK and the KDP.
Karayilan also dismissed remarks by Turkish leaders that the PKK might turn the Shingal region into another Qandil, the rugged mountains where the group maintains its bases and leadership.
"The AKP government is constantly trying to attract different points of the agenda, saying that Shingal will be a second Qandil," he said. "First of all, I must point out that the geographical conditions of Shingal are not suitable for being a second Qandil. We are talking about a place that is remote and all flat."
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[Breitbart] A senior Islamic State jihadist told Breitbart Jerusalem that there has been an escalation in tensions between Hamas and IS, following a wave of arrests of Salafist militants in Gaza and growing cooperation between Hamas and the Egyptian security services.
Abu Baker Almuhajer, an Islamic State operative active in the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula, told Breitbart Jerusalem that in the last few days the Wilayat Sinai group, a local offshoot of IS, intercepted a Hamas arms shipment intended to be smuggled into the enclave through underground tunnels leading into Sinai.
According to Almuhajer, the shipment contained explosives, missile components and thousands of cigarette packs. The cigarettes were meant to be sold by Hamas, he said.
The Wilayat Sinai jihadists demand the release of their associates incarcerated by Hamas, Almuhajer says.
Speaking to Breitbart Jerusalem, a senior Hamas operative confirmed the report, adding that the Salafist group also demanded 20% of the cost of cigarettes and other products that were supposed to be smuggled into the coastal enclave.
The Hamas official said that on Sunday Mousa Abu Marzook, the deputy chief of the Hamas politburo, traveled to Egypt to meet with senior intelligence officials and discuss further rapprochement between the sides after weeks of preliminary contacts.
In recent weeks there has been a detente between Egypt and Hamas that saw the Egyptians begin to repair the Rafah border crossing and allow Gaza businessmen to pass through it. Egypt further intends to set up a trade and commerce zone adjacent to the crossing that would ease the burden of Israel’s blockade of the territory.
Almuhajer said the visit was part of a "trend in Hamas of pledging allegiance to the infidels that control Egypt, and promising them further harmonization in exchange for persecuting the faithful and the Mujahedin." He added that the number of Islamic State jihadists arrested by Hamas in the last few weeks passed the 500 mark.
[MIDDLEEASTMONITOR] The Jordanian government yesterday said it held Israel, as the occupying power, fully responsible for any violation against the al-Aqsa Mosque compound, Jordan’s Petra news agency reported.
State Minister for Media Affairs and government front man, Mohammed al-Momani, said any attempt by Israelis to storm or enter the al-Aqsa Mosque compound is illegal and an aggressive act against the Islamic holy site and the feelings of Moslems.
The minister also reaffirmed Jordan’s stance on maintaining the status quo at al-Aqsa.
The minister was commenting on the storming of the al-Aqsa Mosque by 149 Jewish settlers yesterday.
Earlier, the Islamic Waqf in Jerusalem said in a statement that about 15,000 Israelis stormed the al-Aqsa Mosque compound during the current year.
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[MIDDLEEASTEYE.NET] The British government on Thursday distanced itself from harsh criticism of Israel by US Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, unsuccessful presidential candidate, and utterly failed Secretary of State... , saying peace between Israel and the Paleostinians cannot be brokered solely on Israeli settlement construction.
British Prime Minister Theresa May's spokesperson said Britannia supports a two-state solution and considers the construction of settlements on Paleostinian lands illegal.
However the statement added that the issue of settlements was only part of the problem.
"But we are also clear that the settlements are far from the only problem in this conflict," the spokesperson said.
"In particular, the people of Israel deserve to live free from the threat of terrorism, with which they have had to cope for too long,"
Without referring to the secretary of state's comments, the British government's comments appeared to criticise Kerry's speech, even though the UK voted in favour of the Security Council resolution last week that deemed Israel settlements beyond the 1967 border illegal.
"We do not, therefore, believe that the way to negotiate peace is by focusing on only one issue, in this case the construction of settlements, when clearly the conflict between the Israelis and Paleostinians is so deeply complex," May's spokesperson said.
"And we do not believe that it is appropriate to attack the composition of the democratically elected government of an ally. The government believes that negotiations will only succeed when they are conducted between the two parties, supported by the international community."
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12/31/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
"No need to be impolite to people we're trying to railroad to extermination"?
#4
The UK voted for the UNSC resolution because, the avowed Israel-lover PM May explained, it is balanced. She objected to Secretary Kerry's subsequent speech (after Israeli PM declined to meet with her in response to that vote), because it was unbalanced.
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] A front man for the Syrian hard boy militia Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, formerly called the Nusra Front, criticized a nationwide Turkish- and Russian-backed cease-fire in Syria Friday, saying the political solution under this agreement would "reproduce the criminal regime."
The group, which changed its name and announced in July that it was severing ties with al-Qaeda, condemned the deal for not mentioning Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators... 's fate.
"The solution is to topple the criminal regime militarily," the group's front man said in a statement.
The conflict pits Assad, helped by Russian air power and Iranian-backed Shiite militias, against an array of mostly Sunni rebel groups, including some supported by The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... , the United States and Gulf monarchies.
Clashes, shelling and air raids in western Syria Friday marred the first day of the ceasefire, which aims to end nearly six years of war and lead to peace talks.
The Syrian army said Thursday that the cease-fire agreement did not cover the radical Islamist group ISIS, fighters from the former Nusra Front, or any factions linked to them.
But several rebel officials said the agreement did include Jabhat Fatah al-Sham.
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[RUDAW.NET] Damascus will not tolerate any mention of a separate region, federal or otherwise, in the north of the country, says a Syrian official, referring to the Kurds' recent announcement of a federation.
"Imposing federation and talking about northern Syria is not accepted," Basam Abu Abdullah, adviser to the Syrian Ministry of Information told Rudaw.
Any system to run any part of the country should be voted for by the Syrian nation, Abdullah explained.
He added that Kurds are not the only ones living in northern Syria. Aside from Kurds, he said, many other ethnic groups live in the north.
The government advisor also said that "the Syrian government sees the Kurdish nation as an important and main element in Syria as they are important for Syria and have been effective and important for the history of Syria."
Earlier this week, the Democratic Federal System of Northern Syria was declared by the founding members of the self-declared Kurdish enclave in northern Syria.
Tensions between Kurds and the Syrian government have since escalated over the future of the Kurdish autonomous enclave, especially since the liberation of Aleppo by government forces earlier this month where the Kurds were in control of some neighborhoods.
The government asked the Kurdish representatives to drop their demand for a federal system and hoist the Syrian flag on all government buildings and offices.
And on Wednesday Kurdish authorities announced they had dropped the word Rojava--a Kurdish word for Western Kurdistan--from the official name of the federation of northern Syria.
The Democratic Union Party (PYD), which is the main group in Syria’s Kurdistan and rules over that area, declared in mid-March that the region was a federal entity within Syria. The PYD has called the new region the Democratic Federal System of Northern Syria and said its government and society will remain polyethnic.
Damascus has since rejected the declaration of the federal region and described the move as "unlawful action" that "jeopardizes the country’s territorial integrity."
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[IsraelTimes] Tourists already there urged by Counter-Terror Bureau to avoid crowded areas and New Year’s parties, especially in Goa, other southern states.
Israel’s Counter-Terrorism Bureau issued a travel warning for India on Friday, urging Israelis not to travel to the country and cautioning those already there that Islamist groups may try to carry out terror attacks in the immediate future.
The warning is defined a "concrete basic threat," according to Channel 2 television.
The bureau singled out Western and tourist hot-spots as being at increased risk, with the alert at its highest in southwest India, in particular in Goa and adjacent states.
The bureau recommended that travelers avoid beach parties and nightclubs with a high concentration of tourists, as well as busy markets, festivals and shopping centers.
Families with relatives traveling in the country were asked to alert their loved ones to the advisory.
"Israeli tourists in India are asked to remain alert and listen to local media and the instructions of security officials," the warning said.
In Europe, which has seen multiple deadly terror attacks over the past two years, many cities are preparing for the possibility that Islamist Lions of Islam will also try to disrupt and spoil New Year festivities.
In Berlin, where 12 people were murdered in a truck-ramming attack earlier this month, police closed the square opposite Brandenburg Bridge. An additional 1,700 extra officers will also be deployed across the city during the New Year festivities.
In Italia, major cities including Rome and Naples have banned the entry of trucks to city centers, and coppers are patrolling near tourist attractions, Channel 2 reported.
Additional security measures have also been taken in Spain, Belgium and La Belle France.
An Nahar adds:
Some 2,000 extra officers have been deployed for New Years Eve celebrations in Sidney Harbor after a man was tossed in the clink Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! for allegedly making online threats.
There were a number of other reported threats this holiday period, in Asia-Pacific and elsewhere.
In Melbourne, police foiled a "significant" 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.... -inspired Christmas Day terror plot.
Indonesia said it foiled plans by an IS-linked group for a Christmas-time suicide kaboom, and 52 died in the Philippines in kabooms blamed on Islamist Death Eaters.
- Safety measures -
Security concerns have hit many New Year events with truck blockades a new tactic to try to prevent vehicles ploughing into crowds. Sydney is using garbage trucks as safety barriers.
The German capital has beefed up security after the December 19 carnage, deploying hundreds more police, some armed with machine-guns.
"This year, what's new is that we will place concrete blocks and position heavy armoured vehicles at the entrances" to the zone around Brandenburg Gate, a police front man said.
In Cologne ...a lovely city in Germany. They invented perfume there... , after a wave of sexual attacks last year, 1,800 police will be deployed -- compared to just 140 in 2015.
In neighbouring Austria police will hand out 6,000 free pocket alarms to help stop assaults on women.
In Gay Paree, there will be a firework display again, after muted 2015 celebrations following the November 13 massacre of 130 people.
Nearly 100,000 police, gendarmes and soldiers will be deployed across La Belle France against the jihadist threat.
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.
[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] Thousands of People rallied in Diraz area in rejection of the regime’s steps to normalize relations with the Israeli entity after a Zionist delegation visited the capital Manama.
...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
[AnNahar] Suspected Berlin truck attacker Anis Amri considered heading to Rome before finally plumping for Milan where police shot him dead, Italian media reported Friday. 
[DAWN] US Secretary of State 
Terming China's decision to again block a proposal to list 
[Gulf News] Slain Afghan Taliban supremo Mullah Mansour was issued a Pakistani national identity card in 2005, Interior Minister says
[Breitbart] A senior Islamic State jihadist told Breitbart Jerusalem that there has been an escalation in tensions between Hamas and IS, following a wave of arrests of Salafist militants in Gaza and growing cooperation between Hamas and the Egyptian security services.
[MIDDLEEASTEYE.NET] The British government on Thursday distanced itself from harsh criticism of Israel by US Secretary of State 
Simply more of the same. 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
