hailing from Galmudug state have held a meeting in Mogadishu on Thursday to discuss the standoff between Galmudug parliament and president Abdikarim Hussein Guled. Mohamed Hassan Haad, a prominent Elder attended Thursday’s meeting in Mogadishu said they will travel to Adado city, and hold talks with the MPs and Guled to discuss the standoff.
“It is unacceptable and misfortune the ongoing deadlock in Galmudug over the leadership. We, as elders will leave no stone unturned to seek solution for the crises in Adado,” he said.
He urged Galmudug state leaders to end their differences through peaceful dialogue and avoid any kind of violence that could annihilate the newly established fragile administration.
The standoff emerged after several Galmudug lawmakers have lodged a controversial no confidence motion against the current elected president HE Abdikarim Hussein Guled. The president and parliament speaker have similarly dismissed the motion by the MPs, and termed it as “illegitimate”, and against to the state’s constitution.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/27/2017 00:00 ||
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[AlAhram] Egyptian authorities will open the Rafah border crossing with Gazoo on Saturday for four days to allow the passage of humanitarian aid, state news agency MENA announced Thursday evening.
The crossing in northern Sinai, which will be opened for traffic in both directions, is the only way for 1.8 million Paleostinians living in Gazoo to enter and exit the strip.
Gazoo has been under Israeli siege since 2006.
Since October 2014, the crossing has been closed by Egyptian authorities due to security concerns, though Cairo periodically opens the border temporarily to allow civilians with foreign passports, Paleostinian students, and those with medical needs to travel back and forth.
The crossing was last opened temporarily in mid December 2016.
[FRANCE24] The murder in 2013 of RFI journalists Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon may be related to botched negotiations for the release of kidnapped Frenchies held by al Qaeda's North African branch, according to a report by La Belle France 2.
Dupont, 57, and Verlon, 58, were kidnapped and murdered on November 2, 2013, in northern Mali, where they were covering an election campaign for Radio La Belle France Internationale (RFI), FRANCE 24's sister radio station.
Their killing was claimed by al Qaeda’s regional branch AQIM (al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb), which spoke of retaliation for La Belle France’s military intervention to drive Islamist Lions of Islam out of northern Mali.
According to an investigative report by La Belle France 2, to be aired on Thursday evening, the murder of the two French journalists may be linked to the release, days before, of four kidnapped Frenchies held by AQIM.
The report, which follows a year-long investigation by La Belle France 2 journalists, says French negotiators paid tens of millions of euros to the terrorist organization in exchange for the hostages, who were kidnapped in 2010 in neighbouring Niger.
But it claims competition between rival agencies involved in the negotiations delayed the deal, suggesting the RFI journalists may have been murdered in retaliation for a hitch in the ransom’s payment.
In a disturbing twist, the report reveals that Dupont’s personal computer, which she had left in Gay Paree, was hacked and her mail box emptied moments before her abduction.
A French investigation into the murders has made little progress since its launch in April 2014, to the dismay of the slain journalists’ families and their lawyers. They fear the killing of several suspects in French raids on al Qaeda cells will further hamper the inquiry.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/27/2017 00:00 ||
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[LIBYANEXPRESS] After nearly three years of fierce festivities between the forces of Operation Dignity led by 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... and the fighters of Benghazi Revolutionaries Shura Council in Benghazi in general and Ganfouda area in particular, the former said his forces have captured the district, without giving details about the fate of neither the civilians nor the fighters who were inside.
The front man of the Operation Dignity, Ahmed al-Mismari, said on pro-Haftar media outlets on Wednesday that their forces fully controlled Ganfouda.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
01/27/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
I forget. Who are the good guys and who are the bad guys?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/27/2017 12:33 Comments ||
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#2
It does become a bit confusing. Just safe-side it and go with 'all bad.'
TRIPOLI: A counter-terrorism unit in the Libyan capital Tripoli said it suspected Saturday’s car bomb near the recently reopened Italian Embassy was planted by backers of the powerful Libyan National Army (LNA) based in the eastern part of the divided country.
The blast occurred in central Tripoli about 350 meters from the Italian Embassy. The bodies of two men were recovered from the wreckage of the car.
Tripoli’s Special Deterrence Force said in a statement released late on Wednesday that the men had been trying to target the embassy, but had been prevented from parking their car near the embassy compound’s walls.
Tripoli is home to myriad of armed groups with shifting and conflicting loyalties.
In 2014 fighting between armed alliances backing opposing political factions resulted in rival governments being set up in Tripoli and the east.
Since March last year a third, UN-backed government has been trying to establish itself in the capital, but it has been unable to win support from groups in the east aligned with the government there and with the eastern-based LNA.
The LNA has made significant gains over the past year in its “Operation Dignity” campaign against opponents in the eastern city of Benghazi, and has pushed west to control key oil facilities. It has said it is preparing to “liberate” Tripoli.
Many doubt it has the capacity to do so, but the claim has led to speculation that it is trying to lay the ground for a military takeover.
“According to the investigations the perpetrators of the terrorist act are connected with what is known as Operation Dignity, but it’s still unclear if it was an individual act or on Operation Dignity’s orders,” Rada said in its statement.
“This terrorist act is a result of political conflict between east and west and aims to show the capital as unsafe.”
It gave the names of the two suspects whose bodies had been found in the car, naming a third suspect who it said was still at large.
There was no immediate response from eastern officials.
[Daily Mail, Where America Gets Its News] After Trump authorized construction on the wall, an aide to Enrique Pena Nieto said the Mexican president might cancel his scheduled visit to Washington
Pena Nieto did not say one way or another in a national address Wednesday
But he clearly stated: 'Mexico will not pay for any wall'
Trump said Thursday that Pena Nieto shouldn't come to the White House for talks on Jan. 31 if Mexico won't cough up the cash
And he renewed his assault on the North American Free Trade Agreement
Pena Nieto said later on Twitter: 'This morning we informed the White House that I will not attend the work meeting planned for next Tuesday with the POTUS'
Posted by: Fred ||
01/27/2017 00:00 ||
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#2
Have it your way, Enrique. But I have a feeling that one way or another you will pay.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/27/2017 9:25 Comments ||
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#3
on a serious note, i have seen nothing about how this affects maquiladoras; US owned companies ship raw material to Mexico and the lower cost labor completes the product and ships it out, through a US- based bonded warehouse. title on the goods remains w/ the US company. at least 3 of my major suppliers operate this way and our contracts with our ustomers were priced on this model. might get a bit dicey up in comptroller-land.
#4
You know, if you shut the dumping down, all this would go away. Ever grasp that? Must be a lot of graft and political pressure to keep the peasants down in play in Mexico.
#5
The argument for maquiladoras was that if Mexicans could get jobs in Mexico they wouldn't come here. Nobody stopped to think that, either way, they are taking jobs from Americans. You could counter argue that with the fact that a lot of American labor unions demand more pay for their workers than the workers are worth. The best bet would be to bring these jobs back to right to work states.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/27/2017 12:22 Comments ||
Top||
#6
I suspect Trump will have a meeting with friendly latin american nations in the near future. Bi-lateral trade pacts and such to show Mexico isn't the only game in town. I'd love to see a photo op of Trump signing a deal with Guatemala right next to the Mexican Southern Wall.
[AnNahar] The jihadists behind the Gay Paree and Brussels terror attacks had planned to kidnap well-known figures in a bid to trade them for their brethren locked away Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! in Belgium, media outlets reported Wednesday.
Investigators came to the conclusion after discovering a recorded conversation in a laptop found in a dustbin in the Brussels neighbourhood of Schaerbeek, from where the perpetrators of the March 22 attack on the Belgian capital's airport had left, public broadcasters RTBF and VRT reported.
The conversation was between an 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 jihadist in Syria and Ibrahim El Bakraoui and Najim Laachraoui, who blew themselves up at the airport, and Khalid El Bakraoui, a jacket wallah who attacked the Maelbeek metro station.
The Sherlocks have identified the jihadist in Syria as Osama Atar, a Begian-Moroccan veteran turban in his 30s who served time in US prisons in Iraq, RTBF said.
The three men, who had been hiding in Brussels, planned several terrorist acts including kidnapping "one or two" personalities to demand the "liberation of brothers and sisters" locked away Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! in Belgium, including Mehdi Nemmouche, who killed four people during a May 2014 attack on the Jewish Museum in Brussels.
"It will be a great victory" for IS, Lachraoui was quoted as saying. The men finally did not carry out the kidnapping plan but killed 32 people and injured hundreds more in their attacks on the airport and the metro station.
Belgian prosecutors refused to comment on the reports when contacted by AFP.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/27/2017 00:00 ||
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[AlAhram] Austrian police enjugged ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... eight suspected murderous Moslems Thursday in a series of early-morning raids in the country's two largest cities that mobilized heavily armed SWAT teams and hundreds of officers supporting them.
A statement from the public prosecutor's office in Graz, one of the cities involved, said those detained were suspected of involvement with 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.... holy warrior group.
Police also struck simultaneously in Vienna, in twin operations that the statement said utilized 800 police.
The raids come less than a week after police in Vienna detained a 17-year-old they describe as belonging to "radical Salafist" circles who they said has confessed to experimenting with building a bomb.
But the statement said Thursday's sweeps had been planned for "a longer time," suggesting no immediate link. Instead, they appeared connected to investigations of followers of a Serbian-born Islamic holy man sentenced last year in Graz to 20 years in prison for recruiting dozens of young men to fight for the Islamic State group.
The 35-year old preacher has been identified only as Mirsad O., who also goes by the alias of Abu Tejma, in accordance with Austrian privacy laws. The holy man, who also was found guilty of inciting others to murder and of coercion, has denied all charges.
Interior Ministry figures show that approximately 300 people have left or tried to leave Austria to fight for radical groups in the Middle East since 2012. Of these, 90 have returned while 50 are listed as having been killed in fighting.
Austrian police tossed in the slammer Please don't kill me! 14 people on Thursday on suspicion of belonging to the Islamic State following raids in Vienna and the southern city of Graz, prosecutors said.
The statement gave no more details, but a front man said the people taken into custody included three Austrian nationals with a migrant background, two Bosnians and a Syrian. The nationalities of the other suspects were not immediately known.
The front man said "there was no acute danger" and no indications of a concrete attack.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/27/2017 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] American consulate says ’extremist groups’ are persisting in ’frequent and aggressive efforts to attack US citizens’.
The United States embassy in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... on Thursday warned against the risk of attacks against its citizens in the country after a rise in anti-American rhetoric.
Turkey has been hit by a slew of attacks over the last months claimed by jihadists and Kurdish turbans that have left the country on edge.
The attacks prompted claims in the radical conservative press that the United States had a hand in the violence, although the allegations have been repeatedly and angrily denied by the embassy.
"An increase in anti-American rhetoric has the potential to inspire independent actors to carry out acts of violence against US citizens," the embassy said in a travel warning.
It said new attacks could occur at major events, tourist sites, restaurants, nightclubs, shopping centres, places of worship, and transportation hubs.
An October order for family members of employees posted to the US Consulate in Istanbul to depart Turkey temporarily remains in place, it added.
Meanwhile, ...back at the shattered spaceship, Fffflirgoll the Arcturan slithered stealthily toward the control room, where the humans had barricaded themselves... all US government travel to Istanbul is subject to State Department approval, it said.
This is based on intelligence "indicating bad boy groups are continuing frequent and aggressive efforts to attack US citizens and foreign expatriates in areas of Istanbul where they reside or frequent," it said.
Several Turkish officials and media outlets blamed the United States for the failed July 15 coup aimed at toppling President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... , allegations ridiculed by Washington.
Turkish holy manFethullah Gulen ... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world... at his residence in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania on July 18, 2016. (AFP/Thomas Urbain)
Turkish holy man Fethullah Gulen at his residence in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania on July 18, 2016. (AFP/Thomas Urbain)
The alleged criminal mastermind of the plot, the preacher Fethullah Gulen, lives in the United States but has denied any links to the putsch.
Washington has so far not yielded to persistent Turkish requests to extradite Gulen, increasing tensions in relations and raising the hackles of Erdogan’s supporters.
In another sign of the poor atmosphere, Erdogan on December 27 accused the United States of supporting "terror groups" in Syria, even including 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.... jihadists.
#1
knock knock: are you fethulah gullen?
"yes? are you mormons? I'm a bit busy right now, no time ..."
No, i'm here to ask you if you fomented a coup in Turkey.
[BREITBART] President 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... reacted to a column written by Chelsea Manning ...formerly Bradley Manning before he decided to become a girl. He, or she or whatever it was, was a misfit Army intel analyst who decided to leak all the secrets he could lay hands on. Currently doing 35 years in Leavenworth and writing editorials for the New York Times.... , criticizing former President Barack Obama Because I won... ’s presidency.
"Ungrateful TRAITOR Chelsea Manning, who should never have been released from prison, is now calling President B.O. a weak leader," Trump wrote on Twitter Thursday morning. "Terrible!"
Manning wrote that Obama should have been an unapologetic liberal, complaining that when he served in the military he heard people criticize the former president.
"The one simple lesson to draw from President B.O.’s legacy: do not start off with a compromise," Manning wrote. "They won’t meet you in the middle. Instead, what we need is an unapologetic progressive leader."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/27/2017 00:00 ||
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[REUTERS] A debate is under way in the Trump administration about whether the United States should declare the Moslem Brüderbund a terrorist organization and subject it to U.S. sanctions, according to U.S. officials and people close to President 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... 's transition team.
A faction led by Michael Flynn, Trump's National Security Advisor, wants to add the Brotherhood to the State Department and U.S. Treasury lists of foreign terrorist organizations, the sources said.
"I know it has been discussed. I'm in favor of it," said a Trump transition advisor, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.
The advisor said Flynn's team discussed adding the group to the U.S. list of terrorist groups but said it was ultimately unclear when or even if the administration ultimately would go ahead with such a move.
Other Trump advisors, as well as many veteran national security, diplomatic, law enforcement and intelligence officials argue the Brotherhood has evolved peacefully in some countries, according to officials and people close to Trump's entourage.
They worry that a U.S. move to designate the entire Brotherhood a terrorist group would complicate relations with The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... , a key American ally in the 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.... , and where the Islamist-rooted AKP Party that dominates the Turkish government of President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... is in power. Tunisia's Islamist Ennahda Party has also participated in democratic elections.
The Moslem Brüderbund in Egypt, the country's oldest Islamist movement, was designated as a terrorist organization in that country in 2013.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/27/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
Do it. You have the momentum, don't cloud the message by pausing to reflect and listen to the wrong voices...
THEN HOPEFULLY ASIO WILL MOVE AGAINST THE MUSLIM BRODERBUNDS INFILTRATING HERE
wal.eed aly, han.an dover, lyd.ia shelley, key.sar trad, all of afic and all its member groups, all of islamic council of victoria, all the halal certifiers... round them all up
#5
They're peaceful until the get power and then they start killing Christians.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/27/2017 12:40 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Patrick Poole posted and excellent breakdown of the For argument a few days ago, highlighting the MB efforts to support terrorism after they supposedly renounced it. Designate them, then grind them into dust
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
01/27/2017 17:43 Comments ||
Top||
...secretary of Marine le Pen's National Front party...
on ‘private visit’ to gain support for France’s upcoming elections meets with political, military, figures, though Israel shuns the party.
It's been absolutely fascinating watching how their local Jewish communities and Israel have suddenly become terribly important to right wing populist parties, even as Jew hatred blossoms on the left. Geert Wilder started it, I suppose, but the pilgrimages that have been made to Israel and the attempts at rapprochement with Jewish communities at home as the next round of elections approach in Europe has been wonderfully confusing for most involved. Even the alt-right in America, accused so loudly of antisemitism, apparently splits between those who deeply admire Israel and those spewing the kind of vicious nonsense that would have made Hitler very happy indeed.
Israel has no official ties to the National Front because of its far-right ideology and history of anti-Semitism. The party’s leader Marine Le Pen is a leading French presidential candidate in the April and May election.
Emmanuel Nahshon of Israel’s Foreign Ministry says Nicolas Bay was on a private visit and would not meet Israeli officials.
But Bay tweeted photos of his meetings with Israeli Health Ministry’s deputy director general, an Israeli medical commander, a leading member of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, the leader of the party’s youth organization, and other civil society leaders. Bay’s photo of meeting with an army colonel and the Health Ministry official later disappeared from Bay’s Twitter.
Israel’s Haaretz daily reported that Bay was visiting to meet French citizens living in Israel and shore up French Jewish support, and to meet Israeli politicians.
His meetings come as members of other far-right parties in Europe have paid visits to Israel and sought to forge ties with the Jewish state.
"The meeting with Mr. Bay was unofficial and took place by coincidence," said David Shayan, head of the Likud party’s youth group. "Likud Youth has no interest in involvement with the political process and elections in La Belle France." He declined to say what was discussed in the meeting.
The Health Ministry and the Israeli army had no immediate comment.
Since Marine Le Pen, a leading presidential candidate, took over the leadership in 2011, she has worked to scrub away the anti-Semitic image inherited from the long reign of her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, a party co-founder convicted of racism and anti-Semitism. She had her father expelled as a party member, though a court ruled he remains honorary president for life.
The National Front had no comment on Bay’s visit to Israel.
Johann Habib, front man of the Israeli Frenchie-loving Federation, called the visit "shocking" and "a provocation."
"This party does not share our values of democracy and equality and tolerance," Habib said. "The party is anti-Semitic." He questioned why Israel allowed him into the country.
Two weeks ago, Marine Le Pen made her own surprise visit, this one to Trump Tower in New York. She did not meet with anyone in the Trump team, but George Lombardi, a Trump Tower resident and co-founder of Citizens for Trump, said he held a gathering for her with a group of entrepreneurs, industrialists and diplomats.
#1
It's been absolutely fascinating watching how their local Jewish communities and Israel have suddenly become terribly important to right wing populist parties
The appropriate Hebrew expression is: respect and suspect
#2
The strongly pro_Israel Burg is probably more representative of the political Right, and the anti-semitism is mostly confined to the wackier extremes. Although, you only have to read the comments at ZH to see such wackiness still exists.
The strange thing has been how many Jews outside Israel support the political Left.
[IsraelTimes] Announcement comes 2 days after over 2,500 settlements housing units approved throughout the West Bank.
Israeli officials on Thursday gave final approval to build 153 housing units in East Jerusalem, two days after approving construction for some 2,500 homes in the West Bank, most in existing settlement blocs Israel hopes to keep in any peace deal with the Paleostinians.
Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Meir Turgeman told AFP the approvals by a city planning committee for homes in the neighborhood of Gilo were among those held up due to US pressure during 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... ’s presidential term.
On Sunday, a Jerusalem planning committee approved the construction of 566 housing units in East Jerusalem, in the neighborhoods of Ramot, Ramat Shlomo and Pisgat Ze’ev, on the heels of a phone conversation earlier that day between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President 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... , in which the two discussed their plans for the region.
The almost week-old Trump administration has so far remained silent on Israel’s construction plans -- announcements that likely would have earned Israel a sharp rebuke from the previous administration. Germany and, to Israel’s surprise, Australia issued statements condemning the announcement Sunday. A UN Security Council meeting over the plans on Wednesday yielded no decision.
Following Trump’s inauguration last Friday, Turgeman spoke of plans for some 11,000 homes in process for annexed East Jerusalem, captured by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War.
"I’m going to deliver permits for thousands of homes in Jerusalem in the coming months," Turgeman said.
Syrian rebel group Ahrar al-Sham announced Thursday that at least six rebel factions had joined its ranks in northwestern Syria in order to counter a major assault by a powerful extremist group.
Ahrar al-Sham, which presents itself as a mainstream rebel group, sided with the FSA groups. It said that any attack on its members of was tantamount to a “declaration of war”.
Rebel factions Alwiyat Suqour al-Sham, Fastaqim, Jaish al-Islam’s Idlib branch, Jaish al-Mujahideen and al-Jabha al-Shamiya’s west Aleppo branch said in a statement they had joined Ahrar al-Sham.
The Ahrar al-Sham statement also mentioned a sixth group, the Sham Revolutionary Brigades, and said “other brigades” had joined.
On the other hand, a deal struck in October for Syria to buy one million tons of wheat from its ally Russia to prevent bread shortages in regime-held areas has not been fulfilled and may never be, Russian authority sources told Reuters.
A source at Russia’s agriculture ministry told Reuters he did not think the contract would ever be fulfilled because the company that won it, Zernomir, could not source the wheat at the agreed price, which was too low.
The contract was awarded at 150 euros ($161.37) a ton, on a cost and freight basis. That compares with the Black Sea price of $185 per tonne on a free-on-board basis (before adding the cost of freight) for Russian wheat with 12.5 percent protein for February supply quoted at the end of last week, according to Russian agricultural consultancy IKAR.
A Syrian regime official with knowledge of the deal said a final contract had still not been agreed and blamed bureaucratic delays, but added that there were no shortages.
An official at Russia’s agriculture ministry said the core problem was that the little-known firm that won the tender lacked experience and set the price too low.
Syrian buyer Hoboob set three separate tenders to buy an unprecedented 1.35 million tons of wheat last year, after continued fighting from the country’s nearly six-year war and poor rainfall halved the nation’s harvest to 1.3 million tons, the lowest in 27 years.
The German Parliament on Thursday voted to extend the trainings mission of Kurdish Peshmerga forces for another year and increased the number of German soldiers to 150.
The training includes the handling of chemical weapons, medical skills, logistics and weapons, the German government said.
The German government underlined that the training support is provided at the request of and in agreement with the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Regional Government.
Moreover, Germany increased the number of its soldiers in Iraqi Kurdistan from 100 to 150 in order to continue the recent successes of training the Kurdish Peshmerga forces in the fight against Islamic State’s (ISIS) extremists.
“Military successes such as the recapturing of the town of Sinjar, have shown that the Peshmergas are well equipped and well-trained fighters,” the German government said in a statement on Thursday.
The German army has trained Kurdish Peshmerga forces for at least two years as part of the Kurdistan Training Coordination Centre (KTCC)–established in the summer of 2015.
The German army will take over responsibility of the training in coordination with international partners.
Germany has so far trained over 4,800 Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers both in the Kurdistan Region and in Germany, which also included training for religious minorities such the Ezidis and Kakayis.
The German government said that the Iraqi army and Kurdish Peshmerga forces have succeeded with support of the international coalition to push ISIS on the defensive, and that the German government will continue to provide stabilization, assistance and development support.
In addition to training, the German army has provided more than 1,800 tons of weapons, ammunition and equipment to anti-ISIS forces in Iraq since 2014, worth more than 70 million euros.
“I welcome the extension of the support provided by Germany, but I hope that Germany will provide even more help for the KRG in the future. Medicines, field hospitals with staff and financial support for the IDPs and refugees are essential,” said Tobias Huch, a politician of the Liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) who regularly visits Kurdistan.
[WASHINGTONTIMES] President Trump on Wednesday ordered the Homeland Security Department to begin releasing a name-and-shame list of sanctuary cities, listing the specific crimes such as murder or robbery committed by those who have been released back into their communities under the sanctuary policies.
That was one of a number of less-noticed but potentially far-reaching moves tucked inside two new executive orders erasing decades of previous immigration enforcement policy and replacing it with the Trump plan, which calls for aggressive enforcement of existing laws.
Border Patrol and interior enforcement agents have been unshackled from the limits imposed by former President Barack Obama They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them... , as Mr. Trump said he wants to see them doing the jobs they were hired for.
He said he wants to enlist those local police and sheriff’s offices that are eager to enforce immigration law, and will punish those that throw up roadblocks -- including the new name-and-shame list.
Some 279 cities and counties refused to cooperate on at least some deportations in 2016, accounting for 2,008 immigrants colonists who were shielded, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Each of those immigrants colonists’ convictions will now be publicly listed so residents can see the level of crimes committed by those released into their communities, under the Trump orders.
Analysts said that list could help rally internal opposition to sanctuary cities, which are already rallying to defy Mr. Trump.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/27/2017 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.
[AlAhram] Austrian police 
[BREITBART] President 
The German Parliament on Thursday voted to extend the trainings mission of Kurdish Peshmerga forces for another year and increased the number of German soldiers to 150.
