[Ynet] Egyptian and Paleostinian leaders are holding talks in Cairo in what Egyptian media reports are branding a "reconciliation" meeting.
Relations between Egypt and President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... ' administration have been tense over a range of issues, including Cairo's contacts with factions in the Gazoo Strip that did not involve Abbas' Paleostinian Authority.
Abbas and Gazoo's rulers, the Death Eater group Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",, are at sharp odds.
Relations also soured when Egypt in December withdrew a draft resolution in the UN. Security Council against Israeli settlements. The draft was later resubmitted by other countries and adopted by the council.
Osama Qawasmeh, front man for Abbas' mainstream Fatah faction, said on Monday that relations with Cairo have been "a little bit cold" recently, but the time was right to "restore this very important and strategic relationship."
[DAWN] Turkish President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... on Sunday launched a scathing personal attack against German Chancellor Angela Merkel ...current chancellor of Germany and the impetus behind Germany's remarkably ill-starred immigration program. Merkel used to be referred to by Germans as Mom... , accusing her of using "Nazi measures" in an intensifying dispute between Ankara and Berlin.
Tensions flared after German authorities refused to allow some Turkish ministers to campaign for a ’yes’ vote in the April 16 referendum on expanding Erdogan’s powers, and he responded by saying Berlin was behaving like Nazi Germany.
"When we call them Nazis they (Europe) get uncomfortable. They rally together in solidarity. Especially Merkel," Erdogan said in a televised speech.
"But you are right now employing Nazi measures," Erdogan told Merkel using the informal ’you’ in Turkish.
"Against who? My Turkish brother citizens in Germany and brother ministers" who went to the country to hold campaign rallies for a ’yes’ vote in next month’s referendum.
Authorities in Germany have blocked some Turkish ministers from holding rallies, infuriating Ankara.
Erdogan said the crisis in relations with Europe over the last days "showed that a new page had been opened in the ongoing fight against our country".
Accusing Europe of backing outlawed terror groups, he warned: "The masked ball is over!" without specifying further.
The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... had earlier expressed fury that German authorities had on Saturday allowed a pro-Kurdish demonstration in Frankfurt to go ahead where many participants carried insignia of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
Germany meanwhile is livid over the jailing ahead of a trial on terror charges of dual Turkish-German national Deniz Yucel, the Turkey correspondent of the German newspaper Die Welt.
Erdogan described Yucel, whose arrest has caused global concern, as a "terror agent" and "supposed journalist" and accused Germany of hosting him for one month at its Istanbul consulate before he went to police for questioning.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/21/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
Does it make me a bad person to be LOL at this?
The men and women who live and work in these border areas have come under attack again from drug cartels who have been blamed for thousands of murders in Mexico.
According to Former Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples:
"It’s a war, make no mistake about it. And it’s happening on American soil. Farmers and ranchers are being run off their own property by armed terrorists showing up and telling them they have to leave their land."
#4
As a general rule, the last group to double down on the violence and brutality wins. At least until Clint Eastwood, the US Marines, or a Texas Ranger shows up.
#5
The cartels are well armed, but they have a bunch of wannabes toting the arms and they rely on a pump and dump/spray and pray to take out their target. The ranchers actually have to hit predators/prey and can reach out from distance and kill.
If they see the cartel, the pendejos die. If the cartel swarms a house in the middle of the night it will be bad for that rancher family.
[DAWN] Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... on Monday ordered the reopening of the Pak-Afghan border with immediate effect, a month after it was closed following the deadly Sehwan blast said to have been carried out by cross-border terrorists, DawnNews reported.
More than 80 people, including women and kiddies, were killed and hundreds of devotees injured in the blast at the Lal Shahbaz Qalandar shrine in Sehwan, Sindh.
The province's inspector general of police, A.D. Khowaja, had claimed that the suspected jacket wallah "appeared to be an Afghan national."
All border crossing with Afghanistan were sealed soon after the attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/21/2017 00:00 ||
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[AA.TR] The U.S. on Monday boycotted a UN Human Rights Council session on Paleostine and other Arab occupied territories, claiming it was biased against Israel.
"The United States will vote against every resolution put forth under this agenda item and is encouraging other countries to do the same," U.S. State Department Acting Spokesman Mark Toner said in a statement.
Toner said it did not "suit the interests of the Council to single out one country in an unbalanced manner".
The United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... last Wednesday accused Israel of imposing an "apartheid regime" on the Paleostinian people -- the first time a UN agency had leveled such an allegation.
However, there's more than one way to skin a cat... Toner’s statement accused the body of "long-standing bias against Israel".
"No other nation has an entire agenda item dedicated to it at the Council. The continued existence of this agenda item is among the largest threats to the credibility of the Council," Toner added.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It annexed the area in 1980, claiming it -- along with West Jerusalem -- as the "unified" capital of the self-proclaimed Jewish state in a move never recognized by the international community.
International law views the West Bank as "occupied territory" -- including East Jerusalem -- and considers all Jewish settlement-building on the land to be illegal.
[RUDAW.NET] The Kurdish flag has been officially raised by the provincial government alongside the Iraqi one in the province of Kirkuk.
"Today, the Kurdish flag will be raised alongside the Iraqi flag," Kirkuk governor Najmaldin Karim said on Monday during a Newroz event.
"Kurdistan’s flag is not only the flag of the Kurds. It is the flag of all the social makeup of Kirkuk. We tell those who want to instigate chaos: this flag is that of the Arabs and Turkmen, as well as the Kurds. It is the flag of Kurdistan which is a place for everyone."
"Kirkuk has always proved to be united against ISIS and all other terrorists," Karim added.
The flag was raised at Kirkuk’s castle. This is the first time the Kurdish flag has been raised at the castle by a government official.
Karim announced last week that Kurdish language would be used together with Arabic in all official provincial communication and the Kurdish flag would be flown at provincial government institutions, as permitted in the Iraqi constitution.
According to Article 4 of the Iraqi constitution, "Each region or governorate may adopt any other local language as an additional official language if the majority of its population so decides in a general referendum."
The Iraqi prime minister’s office is of the opinion that Kirkuk does not have the authority to raise the Kurdish flag.
"The constitution has clearly stipulated the powers of provincial governments and those of the federal government in Baghdad. The powers of governorates which belong to no region are also specified. Kirkuk is one of these governorates," Saad Adisi, spokesperson for the prime minister’s office, told Rudaw.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/21/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
Hope it gave Yippy the shivers
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/21/2017 10:21 Comments ||
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[AA.TR] Jordan’s Court of Cassation, the country’s highest judicial body, has upheld an earlier decision by the Amman Court of Appeals not to hand over a Jordanian citizen wanted by the U.S.
A dual Paleostinian-Jordanian citizen, Ahlam al-Tamimi was convicted by an Israeli court in 2001 of involvement in an attack in Jerusalem -- carried out by Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",’ armed wing -- that killed two U.S. nationals and several Israelis.
The Court of Cassation's decision, which is final and cannot be appealed, came during a Monday court session, Jordan’s official Petra News Agency reported.
According to a local judicial source quoted by Petra, Jordan and the U.S. signed an extradition treaty in 1995 but it was never ratified by Jordan’s parliament.
The treaty is therefore "unenforceable", said the source, who the news agency refrained from identifying.
"Extradition requests sent by foreign countries to the relevant authorities in Jordan cannot be accepted unless they are based on an enforceable [extradition] treaty or agreement," the source was quoted as saying.
The U.S. Justice Department recently requested al-Tamimi’s extradition to the U.S. after the FBI put her at the top of its list of wanted "terrorists".
Al-Tamimi spent ten years in an Israeli prison after being slapped with a 16-year sentence for her role in the attack, in which 15 people were killed -- including the two U.S. citizens -- and more than 100 injured.
In 2011, the Israeli authorities handed al-Tamimi over to the Jordanian authorities as part of a prisoner swap between Israel and Hamas.
A Paleostinian who also carries Jordanian citizenship, al-Tamimi, was born in the Jordanian city of Zarqaa in 1980.
Hamas, for its part, welcomed Monday’s court decision, saying it confirmed "the Jordanian judiciary’s appreciation for the issue of [Paleostinian] prisoners".
"We appreciate Jordan's commendable position," Hamas front man Hazem Qasim told Anadolu Agency.
"We call upon the free people of the world to remember the Paleostinian prisoners still languishing in Israeli jails," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/21/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
Chuckle, chuckle. Court of Cassation I initially read this as castration. My mistake but appropriate here.
[RUDAW.NET] A Kurdish Newroz festival in Jordan wrapped up with an award given to a granddaughter of Saddam Hussein who hailed equality among Kurds and Arabs.
"We are all equal," said Banan Hussein Kamil, daughter of Raghad Saddam Hussein. "There are no differences between us, whether you be a Kurd, Shiite or Sunni. I have two dreams: first, my career, second, I want Iraq to be united and go back to what it was like before," she told Rudaw.
Kamil, a designer living in Dubai, was awarded the best young designer.
"The most important thing for me is to do something which I enjoy doing. I built this career with love," she said.
A number of Kurdish, Arabic, and international fashion models showed of Kurdish and other clothing at the Jordanian-Kurdish Qandil organization’s fourth Newroz festival at al-Ahliyya University in Amman.
"The festival was run very nicely and successfully. Our most important objective was to hold Kurdishness high and show our culture to people here," Suhad Talabani, head of Qandil organization, told Rudaw.
The famous Jordanian pop star Diana Karazon, whose mother is from Diyarbakir, along with Kurdistan’s Miss Beauty, were among the judge-panelists.
"I am very happy to be here today. I have come with my mother to take part in this sacred day which is the feast of Newroz," Karazon said.
Renowned Iraqi singer Hatem al-Iraqi was also present at the event, entertaining audiences with his music.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/21/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
I want Iraq to be united and go back to what it was like before," she told Rudaw.
might wanna clarify what era/circumstances she's referring to.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/21/2017 10:22 Comments ||
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The Russian Army will train the Syrian Kurdish defence forces in Afrin, the YPG announced on Monday.
“The presence of the Russian army units in the Janderis district of the Afrin Canton has taken place as a result of an agreement between our forces and the Russian Army,” People’s Protection Units (YPG) spokesperson Redur Xelil said on Monday.
“The agreement was based on the framework of cooperation in the fight against terrorism and on the military training of our fighters by the Russian army. We have direct relations with Russia,” the YPG said.
“This step is a positive and good step in the fight against terrorism in Syria. After our forces proved themselves against terrorism, many forces want to help our units and arrange a deal with us,” the YPG concluded.
The improvement in relations between the YPG and the Russians comes despite of the normalization of ties between Russia and Turkey in June 2016, and a visit by Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Moscow in the beginning of March.
Turkey rejects any role by the Kurdish YPG forces in northern Syria, and considers the YPG as an affiliation of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)–designated by Turkey as a terrorist organization.
Relations between Turkey and Russia worsened after Turkey shot down a Russian plane in November 2015. Since then the Russians supported the Kurds in Afrin/Efrin, while the US-led coalition supports the YPG in the Cezire (Hassakah) and Kobani cantons.
However, in June 2015, Erdogan apologized to Putin for downing the Russian jet, and Moscow also supported the Ankara-backed Euphrates Shield operation in Syria launched in August 2016 with even air support.
However, there were several signs that Russia did not drop its support for the Syrian Kurds, when Russia keep insisting they do not see the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) as a terrorist organization, and also expressed the need for the Syrian Kurds to participate in the Geneva and Astana talks. This despite the fact that Turkey was against any form of participation by the Democratic Union Party (PYD) –YPG’s political leadership– in the Syrian peace talks, afraid this would give more legitimacy to the PYD.
In the beginning of March 2017, a Russian aid convoy arrived in Manbij to deter Turkey from attacking the city. Moreover, the YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) reached a deal with Russia to hand over a limited number of villages to the Syrian government in the West of Manbij to deter Turkish aggression and plans to attack Manbij.
Russian analysts suggest that Moscow wants to balance the Turks and the Kurds in Syria, and that it does not want to give up its support for the Syrian Kurds.
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.
[DAWN] Turkish President 
The men and women who live and work in these border areas have come under attack again from drug cartels who have been blamed for thousands of murders in Mexico.
