Posted by: Fred ||
07/15/2011 00:00 ||
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Happy Birthday/Daily Gam Shot
Diane Kruger aka Queen of Sparta and wife of Menelaus. Lover of Paris in "Troy" aka Abigail Chase in "National Treasure" aka Bridget von Hammersmark in "Inglourious Basterds" aka Gina in "Unknown" aka Anna Holtz in "Copying Beethoven" aka Mirjana in "The Hunting Party" aka Lisa Aucler in "Anything for Her" aka Anna, Nemo's one true love in "Mr. Nobody" (age 35)
The United States has finally overcome obstacles (mainly diplomatic) to moving its Afghanistan supply lines from the Pakistani port of Karachi, to rail lines running through Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. NATO and the U.S. have negotiated with Russia to allow supplies to move to Afghanistan via Russian rail lines and those of Central Asian nations. These only go as far as the Afghan border. There are no railroads in Afghanistan. Thus from the Uzbek border, the freight containers are trucked south to where most of the U.S. and NATO troops are stationed.
This has been going on for several years, but now about 40 percent of supplies are arriving via the "Northern Distribution Network". The U.S. is rushing to move 75 percent of cargo via the northern route by the end of this year, and all of it within a year. It took five years to negotiate unfettered transit rights for NATO military cargo via Russian and Central Asian railroads. Belarus also became part of the deal.
[Tolo News] A jacket wallah detonated his explosives at a remembrance for President Karzai's brother Ahmad Wali Karzai in southern Kandahar province, local officials said.
Two people were killed and 17 others were hurt in the incident, police officials said.
The suicide bomber had placed explosives in his turban before making his way into the mosque.
Hekmatullah Hekmat, head of Kandahar Clerics Council has been killed in the attack, officials added.
The incident took place in Kandahar central mosque where Afghan officials gathered to remember Ahmad Wali Karzai.
In a separate incident in Loya Wiala area three non-combatants were killed and one other was injured after a roadside kaboom blast hit a police convoy.
On Wednesday the body of Ahmad Wali Karzai, half-brother of President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... and head of Kandahar provincial council, was buried in Karz area of Dand district in Kandahar province.
President Karzai, high ranking government officials, politicians and thousands of others attended the funeral ceremony.
Mr Karzai's special security team had tightened security around the compound during the funeral ceremony.
Some helicopters could be seen circling overhead.
President Karzai, after laying his brother's body in grave, called on the Taliban to stop killing their Afghan brothers.
"Along the convoy of these deaders, peace efforts will continue and will even become stronger. Every problem in this country is because of insecurity and war. Our intention for peace and stability in Afghanistan take more strength now," President Karzai said.
President Karzai assigned Shah Wali Karzai, other half-brother of Karzai, as successor of Ahmad Wali Karzai.
President Karzai returned back to Kabul after the funeral ceremony.
Mr Wali Karzai was rubbed out at around 10:30 am by one of his bodyguards named Sardar Mohammad on Tuesday.
Sardar Mohammad, was also related to Poplazai tribe and a close relative of the Karzai family.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/15/2011 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Sudan's government and a Darfur rebel group, the Liberation and Justice Movement, on Thursday signed a peace accord in Doha, as a key rebel faction rejected the deal.
However, the way to a man's heart remains through his stomach... the main gangs in Darfur -- the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), and factions of the Sudan Liberation Army headed by Minni Minnawi and Abdelwahid Nur -- were absent and did not sign the agreement.
"This is not a peace agreement. It is just a 'jobs' agreements, offering diplomatic positions for those who sign it, and failing to solve the real problems in Darfur," JEM front man Gibril Adam told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Adam said the fundamental issues of human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... violations, power and wealth sharing, holding criminals to account and compensation for the conflict-displaced had not been addressed.
Minnawi himself signed a 2006 peace accord with the Khartoum government in Abuja. But it collapsed last December when he fell out with the government, which he accused of failing to implement the accord.
And Nur vowed on July 8, the eve of South Sudan's independence, to topple the Islamic regime in Khartoum and to replace it with a secular state like in the south.
"We are going to liberate north Sudan and create a liberal, secular and democratic state ... equal to south Sudan," he told AFP by telephone.
"It is our mission ... to change this Islamic fundamentalist regime. The war will not be in Darfur, it will be in Khartoum," he said, and called on "all groups in north Sudan" to join his movement and help it to achieve its goal.
Observers say opposition to the center from Sudan's neglected peripheral regions like Darfur may grow in the wake of the secession of South Sudan, which became independent on July 9.
At least 300,000 people have been killed in Darfur and 1.8 million people decamped their homes since the conflict broke out in 2003 between non-Arab rebels and the Arab-dominated Khartoum regime, according to the United Nations.
The government puts the corpse count at 10,000.
Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court ... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ... for alleged genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur.
But the Sudanese president continues to travel around the world on visits such as the signing ceremony in the Qatari capital on Thursday, as the ICC depends on the goodwill of states to detain him.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/15/2011 00:00 ||
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Posted by: Water Modem ||
07/15/2011 0:40 Comments ||
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[An Nahar] Libyan rebels repulsed loyalists who had retaken the desert hamlet of Gualish on Wednesday and chased them to the outskirts of Asabah, shelling the town from nearby hills, an Agence La Belle France Presse correspondent said.
The rebel breakthrough came as an rebel commander downplayed talk of a political solution, saying strongman Moammar Qadaffy refuses to go.
Dug in on the hills above the town on the highway to Tripoli, the rebels were firing heavy and small arms and loyalist troops were responding with Grad rockets, ...Soviet-developed 122-mm rockets, usually launched from trucks. Newer versions are reported to have a range of up to 30 km.... said the correspondent, embedded with the rebels.
Asabah is strategically located 80 kilometers south of the capital, serving as the last barrier between the rebels and the garrison town of Gharyan.
Earlier on Wednesday, the pro-Qadaffy troops had caught rebels off guard and attacked Gualish, which the Islamic fascisticaptured a week earlier, seizing nearly all of it.
But rebels poured in from surrounding villages and besieged the hamlet, driving the loyalists out and chasing them up the road toward Asabah, some 17 kilometers away.
As the fighting raged in the Nafusa Mountains, a rebel commander in the area said a peace deal was "impossible" because Qadaffy refuses to step down.
"Up to now it is impossible to get a political solution. Qadaffy wants to stay; the rebels don't want," said Colonel Juma Brahim, head of the rebels' operational command for the region.
"To the last moment Qadaffy is looking for a peace solution because he is weak, all the soldiers and equipment are coming to our side one by one," Brahim told AFP.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Abel P. Upshur ... , meanwhile, said at a joint news conference in Washington with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that Qadaffy's "days are numbered" after signs of advances on the field by rebels.
"Although neither of us can predict to you the exact day or hour that Qadaffy will leave power, we do understand and agree that his days are numbered," the chief U.S. diplomat said.
"We will continue to work closely with our international partners including Russia to increase the pressure on him and his regime," Clinton said.
Lavrov played down differences with Clinton over Libya, saying: "We have less misunderstanding with the United States than with some European countries."
"We are united in that we have to start a political process as soon as possible," Lavrov said. "We have different channels, official and not so official."
However, if you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning... the Russian foreign ministry said earlier Wednesday that Moscow would not take part in upcoming discussions on Libya to take place later this week in Turkey, which has also seen itself as a mediator in the conflict.
On Tuesday, French and Libyan officials talked up the chances of negotiating Qadaffy's withdrawal from power and an end to the conflict still wracking the country after months of military stalemate.
Before the latest counter-attack, the rebels in the Nafusa Mountains already faced a tough task in trying to take Asabah, even with allies inside the town fomenting revolution and spies providing intelligence on enemy positions.
While they have been buoyed by a clutch of victories in the mountains, Asabah is home to prominent families close to the regime.
It has a large military base and a population faithful to the regime. The Libyan leader felt comfortable enough to have a country house there.
Since the rebels took Gualish on July 6, they have been awaiting "the green light from NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants... " to advance.
"We don't know when but there will be a battle," said Brahim, the rebel colonel.
In other developments on Wednesday, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands became the latest countries to recognize the opposition National Transitional Council as the Libyan people's legitimate representative, Belgian Foreign Minister Steven Vanackere said.
The announcement came ahead of a meeting Vanackere and his Dutch and Luxembourg counterparts were to hold with a rebel delegation.
The delegation, led by NTC leader Mahmud Jibril, held talks earlier Wednesday with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and the alliance's ambassadors at NATO headquarters.
Following that meeting, Jibril rejected accusations by Human Rights Watch ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world... that anti-Qadaffy forces had been responsible for looting, arson and abusing civilians.
He admitted a "few incidents" of abuse took place in the first two weeks of the insurrection, which began in mid-February, but "this is no longer the case in the liberated areas."
HRW said it "witnessed some of these acts, interviewed witnesses to others and spoke with a rebel commander about the abuses."
The abuses were said to have taken place in June and July -- as recently as last week -- as rebel forces pushed through the Nafusa Mountains.
"The rebel authorities have a duty to protect civilians and their property, especially hospitals, and discipline anyone responsible for looting or other abuse," said the organization's Joe Stork.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/15/2011 00:00 ||
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That Picture of Hillary is goulish, that grin sticks in my craw.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/15/2011 8:58 Comments ||
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Yes, Redneck. They say beauty's only skin deep but ugly goes all the way down to the bone.
Posted by: S ||
07/15/2011 13:00 Comments ||
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#4
Guys, In Hildabeast's defense, I do not think we would be in the economic shape we are in if she had been elected President. I don't think the Pelosicrats would have been able to steamroller her the way they did Obama with the epic fiasco that the stimulus package became.
Hillary and the first man understand economics well enough to know that the stimulus had "Argentina" written all over it.
What do you suppose all of those "change" people are thinking now?
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
07/15/2011 14:20 Comments ||
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Agreed BJ, but careful, if el prez tanks over the next 9 months she will be running again.
[An Nahar] Libyan leader Moammar Qadaffy has a "suicidal plan" to blow up the capital Tripoli if it is taken by rebels, the Kremlin's special envoy to Libya told a Russian newspaper Thursday.
"The Libyan premier told me: if the rebels seize the city, we will cover it with missiles and blow it up," Kremlin envoy Mikhail Margelov said in an interview with the the Izvestia daily.
Margelov met Libyan Prime Minister Baghdadi al-Mahmudi last month.
"I imagine that the Qadaffy regime does have such a suicidal plan," he added, saying that Qadaffy still had plentiful supplies of missiles and ammunition.
But Margelov, who has had rare access to senior Libyan officials, questioned reports that Qadaffy could be running out of arms in the drawn-out conflict.
Qadaffy had still not used a single surface-to-surface missile, he argued.
"Tripoli theoretically could lack ammunition for tanks, cartridges for rifles. But the colonel has got plenty of missiles and explosives."
Margelov met the Libyan prime minister on June 16 in Tripoli after holding talks in Benghazi earlier the same month. He has not met Qadaffy himself.
Russia abstained from a vote on a March U.N. Security Council resolution that opened the way for foreign involvement and has since criticized the campaign -- particularly arms drops by La Belle France.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another John Jay ... on Wednesday for talks on Libya, where Lavrov sought to play down differences between the countries.
However, man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them... the Russian foreign ministry said earlier Wednesday that Moscow would not take part in talks on Libya later this week in Turkey, which has also seen itself as a mediator in the conflict.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/15/2011 00:00 ||
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Hollywood needs to get some film crews there ASAP!
Escape from Tripoli - Staring a new Snake!
Posted by: Water Modem ||
07/15/2011 0:33 Comments ||
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] A grenade blast maimed 21 people in southwestern Rwanda, police said Wednesday, appealing for calm and vowing to hunt down the perpetrators.
The kaboom occurred late on Tuesday at a market in the southern Rusizi district.
"Security organs call upon all Rusizi residents to remain calm while investigations intensify," a police statement said.
It added that police vowed to find the perpetrators and bring them to justice.
Earlier this year, two people were killed and 14 hurt in separate grenade attacks in the capital Kigali.
Nine suspects have been charged over the blasts.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/15/2011 00:00 ||
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American drones and fighter jets hit suspected Qaeda-affiliated militants in southern Yemen early Thursday, killing at least eight fighters sleeping in a police station they had overrun, according to local residents and American and Yemeni security officials.
The strikes were part of an expanded air war in Yemen by the American military aimed at militants who now control large swaths of southern Yemen amid a power struggle in the impoverished desert country.
In recent months, the Obama administration has escalated a campaign of airstrikes carried out by the PentagonÂ’s Joint Special Operations Command with the assistance of the C.I.A. The C.I.A. is building a base in the region to serve as a hub for future operations in Yemen.
According to both American and Yemeni officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the attacks in Yemen are rarely acknowledged publicly, the strike on Thursday hit a police station that had been occupied by 20 militant fighters in the town of Al Wadyia, in Abyan Province in southern Yemen. One Yemeni security official said that eight people had been killed, including the gatheringÂ’s leader, identified as Hadi Mohammad Ali.
Separately, a person close to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the group responsible for a wave of violence in Yemen and several terrorist plots against the United States, said an American strike on Thursday hit a car thought to be carrying Fahd al-Qusaa, a leader of the group and a suspect in the 2000 bombing of the American destroyer Cole. The person said that Mr. Qusaa and a group of aides had left the car moments before the attack, and local residents said he had survived.
ADEN: Airstrikes in south Yemen killed at least seven militants, a security official said Thursday, while armed tribesmen entered the city of Zinjibar to try and wrest it from militant control.
The official said there were likely more casualties in the two airstrikes north of Zinjibar, capital of Abyan province, but that militants had dragged bodies away from the area. At least 35 people were wounded, he said.
A security official said the airstrikes were carried out by the Yemeni air force, refuting reports by residents that the planes looked like American drones. Residents said the strikes hit a government building, where security officials said 50 militants were suspected of hiding.
Later on Thursday, militants raided an Abyan hospital, stealing medicine and kidnapping a medic.
Previous efforts by the Yemeni Army to flush militants out of Abyan had not been successful, but tribesmen said they were getting the upper hand against militants and that some had retreated due to increasing hostility from residents, the military and the tribes.
Tribesmen said they had entered Zinjibar but that militants appeared to have withdrawn from the city where streets were deserted and power was cut. Fearing an ambush by militants, the tribesmen said they withdrew to the outskirts of the city.
Others said they saw militants in the distance heading toward the Hutat Mountains, a militant stronghold, which has served as a refuge for nearly a decade.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/15/2011 00:00 ||
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[Straits Times] A BANGLADESHI court said on Thursday there was enough evidence to prosecute an Islamist leader on charges of war crimes such as genocide, murder and rape during the country's 1971 liberation struggle.
Judges of Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal, set up last year to try people suspected of atrocities during the independence campaign from Pakistain, said charges would be now be framed against Delwar Hossain Sayedee.
Sayedee, a bigwig of the Jamaat-e-Islami, the country's largest Islamic party, has been accused of killing more than 50 people, torching several villages, rapes, looting, and forcibly converting Hindus to Islam.
'The court set August 10 for a hearing when it will formally list the charges against Sayedee,' state prosecutor Syed Haider Ali said.
Defence lawyers said they will appeal against the decision.
Sayedee is jugged along with four other war crime suspects from Jamaat and two from the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).
Posted by: Fred ||
07/15/2011 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] A Dhaka court yesterday issued arrest warrants against BNP Senior Vice-chairman Tarique Rahman and 11 others in the August 21 grenade attack case filed under the explosive substances act.
Metropolitan Sessions Judge Mohammad Zahurul Hoque passed the order as the Sherlocks moved a prayer for warrants showing them runaways in the case.
The others facing arrest are former prime minister Khaleda Zia's Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ... political secretary Harris Chowdhury, BNP politician Kazi Shah Mofazzal Hossain Kaikobad, former director general of Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) Maj Gen (retd) ATM Amin, former DGFI officer Lt Col (sacked) Saiful Islam Joarder, former deputy commissioner (DC-East) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Obaidur Rahman, former DC-DMP (South) Khan Sayeed Hassan, owner of Hanif Paribahan Mohammad Hanif and three leaders of outlawed Harkat ul Jihad al Islami (HuJI) Founded in 1984 by Fazlur Rehman Khalil and Qari Saifullah Aktar. The Bangla branch was established in 1992 with assistance from Osama bin Laden. Recruits come mostly from Deobandi madrassahs. HuJI and Fazlur Rehman Khalil are signators of bin Laden's declaration of war on the west. Omar Abu Humayra alias Pir Saheb Baba, Hafez Moulana Yahiya Babu alias Ratul Babu and Mufti Abdul Hye.
At the beginning of the day's proceedings, the court took into cognisance the charges against Tarique, elder son of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, and 29 others.
It directed officers-in-charge of different cop shoppes to submit reports by July 26 on execution of the arrest warrants.
The judge denied bail to former DG of National Security Intelligence Maj Gen (retd) Rezzaqul Haider Chowdhury.
Police produced former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar, Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, former BNP deputy minister Abdus Salam Pintu, HuJI chief Mufti Abdul Hannan and 25 others before the court yesterday.
Another accused, Ariful Islam Arif, a ward councillor of Dhaka City Corporation and now on bail, was also present in the court.
On July 3, a metropolitan magistrate's court issued arrest warrants against 18 accused in the murder case lodged for killing 24 Awami League leaders and workers in the gruesome grenade attack on an AL rally at Bangabandhu Avenue in 2004.
Earlier on that day, the Criminal Investigation Department submitted supplementary charge sheets in the August 21 blast cases, accusing 30 including the 18.
The next day, the court sent three former top coppers--Ashraful Huda, Khoda Baksh Chowdhury and Shahudul Haque--to jail on their surrender.
Three former CID high-ups--Ruhul Amin, Munshi Atiqur Rahman and Abdur Rashid--also surrendered before the court on July 6. The court turned down their bail prayers and sent them behind bars.
The CID on June 11 in 2008 submitted charge sheets in the cases against 22 people, including Pintu and 21 HuJI men.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/15/2011 00:00 ||
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For a map, click here. For a map of Nuevo Leon, click here. For a map of Monterrey, click here
A total of 22 individuals were killed in and around Monterrey, Neuvo Leon Wednesday and Thursday, including five armed suspects who died in a firefight with the Mexican Army in Cadereyta.
A Mexican Army unit shot and killed five armed suspects in Cadereyta Jimenez Wednesday night. The unit was on patrol on Kilometer 2 of the Cadereyta-Allende bypass in the Bella Vista colony when a vehicle was spotted a suspicious vehicle. Instead of stopping when ordered, the suspects aboard the vehicle opened fire on the soldiers. Return fire by the army stuck and killed all five suspects. The driver crashed the vehicle into roadside brush. Seven rifles were seized in the aftermath.
Armed suspects attacked a joint Mexican Army-Policia Federal patrol in Pesqeria, Nuevo Leon Thursday morning, with return fire killing four suspects. The patrol was on the Apodaca-Zacatequitas road when the firefight took place. The suspects were travelling aboard two vehicles when they ran into the security group. One of the vehicles escaped security forces, and despite support from a helicopter, the remaining suspects were not found.
A roadblock was put up presumably by criminal forces on the Agua Fria bridge, as well as Miguel Alemán-PesquerÃÂa and Antiguo Camino-Agua FrÃÂa roads. All blocks were reportedly moved by Policia Federal units.
Ten individuals were killed in several incidents in and around Monterrey Wednesday.
An unidentified man was found mutilated at a shopping mall in the Cumbres colony. The victim was beheaded and dismembered. A message was left at the scene, but its content was not disclosed.
An unidentified man was found dead at 0700 hrs in Los Olivios colony of Escobedo. The victim was bound hand and foot, and had been mutilated by dogs.
An unidentified men in his 20s was found shot to death 0730 hrs in the village of El Faisan in Santiago municipality. The victim was bound by his hands and shot five times.
A youth was shot to death in a drive by shooting in northern Monterrey. Oscar Alejandro de la Rosa Vera, 17, was shot by armed suspects near the intersection of calles Julio Camelo and Luis Echeverria in the Francisco Villa colony.
An unidentified woman was found buried in the rubble of a house in Juarez, Nuevo Leon demolished by the Mexican Army. The army unit has just completed the rescue of a hostage and the arrest of a suspect at a residence on Avenida Mexico in the America Unida colony when the house was destroyed.
Four armed suspects were killed by a Mexican Army unit in the Cumbres colony at about 1750 hrs. The suspects were apparently changing vehicles when the army unit rolled up on them.
An unidentified man was found shot to death on the National Highway at about 2200 hrs in Santiago municipality.
Two unidentified men were found shot to death in Santa Catarina Thursday. The victims were in Trabajadores colony when they were found.
An unidentified individual was found dismembered in south Monterrey Thursday morning. The remains of the victim were placed in black plastic bags and left near the intersection of calles Alfredo Garza Rio and Bernabe de las Casas in the Arturo B. de la Garza colony.
[Emirates 24/7] Indian Sherlocks turned to CCTV footage on Thursday in their struggle to identify who was behind a series of kabooms in Mumbai that killed 17 people and injured more than 130.
Home Minister P. Chidambaram said there had been no intelligence of an impending attack and, in the absence of any group claiming responsibility, the net of suspicion was flung far and wide.
"All groups hostile to India are on the radar. We are not ruling out anything, we are not ruling in anything. We are looking at everyone," he told news hounds after visiting the scene of the three blasts.
The bombs made of ammonium nitrate - an ingredient for fertiliser commonly used in improvised devices - went off in the space of 15 minutes on Wednesday evening, in two crowded commercial areas of south Mumbai and a central residential district.
"I think they chose the places because of the density of the population and the very congested nature of these areas," Chidambaram said. "They chose places where even a low-intensity blast could have a great impact."
The official corpse count stood at 17. A total of 131 injured were admitted to hospital, of whom 23 were in a serious condition.
Specialist forensic teams, flown in from other cities, combed the blast sites for evidence, but Rakesh Maria, head of the Maharashtra state anti-terrorism squad said monsoon rains were hampering their work.
Maria, who declined to speculate on who might be responsible for the blasts, said Sherlocks hoped CCTV images obtained from all three locations would provide them with a lead.
Crime branch officers have been looking at the footage since last night.
"It's quite a long-drawn process," Maria said, while appealing for public "faith and trust" in the police.
"No matter where the accused are, we will identify and bring them to book," he said.
The Home Ministry said police were interrogating suspected members of the homegrown cut-thoat group Indian Mujahideen A locally recruited auxilliary of Pakistain's Lashkar-e-Taiba, designed to give a domestic patina to Pakistain's terror war against its bigger neighbor... , who had been tossed in the slammer in Mumbai several days ago in connection with kabooms in the western state of Gujarat ...where rioting seems to be a traditional passtime... in 2008.
The strongest of Wednesday's coordinated kabooms hit busy jewellery trading districts in the south of the city, the same area targeted two and half years ago in the traumatic 2008 assault blamed on the Pakistain-based Lashkar-e-Taiba cut-thoat group.
The memory of that attack -- 60 hours of mayhem as 10 gunnies rampaged through the main railway station and luxury hotels, killing 166 -- is still fresh in the minds of Mumbaikars.
Salim Dharolia, a small-time diamond trader who was waiting to collect the body of his son at the Saifee hospital, wondered aloud why more blood had been shed in his city.
"I have lost my only son. He got married two months ago. Why are people of Mumbai being targeted all the time? What is our crime?" he told AFP.
Relatives of the hurt and deceased gathered at the 13 city hospitals where victims were transferred in ambulances, cars and trucks driven by locals who rushed to help.
Among the dead was real estate agent RK Shah, 47, whose distraught wife had identified his body at Saifee hospital.
"He was scheduled to show two shops for rent to his clients," Pratika Shah told AFP. "Before leaving home, he had told me that he would host a big party for his friends if the deals materialised.
"I still can't believe that he is dead," she said.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was due to arrive in Mumbai on Thursday evening to visit some of the injured in hospital.
The blasts came before a visit to India by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Daniel Webster ... next Tuesday and ahead of peace talks between the Indian and Pak foreign ministers that are scheduled for New Delhi in the last week of July.
India's foreign ministry front man said the talks would go ahead.
The United States and the United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... led international condemnation of the attacks, with Clinton calling them "despicable" and vowing to go ahead with her trip.
While the perpetrators were not known, initial suspicions fell on two Islamist groups that have targeted India in the past: the home-grown Indian Mujahideen and the Pakistain-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
The last major bombing in India was in February last year in Pune, when a blast at a packed restaurant killed 16 people including several foreigners.
In 2006, a series of high-powered blasts on suburban trains in Mumbai killed 187 commuters and left 800 injured -- an attack that India also blamed on Pakistain-based cut-thoats.
India broke off a peace dialogue with Pakistain after the 2008 assaults and talks between the two nuclear-armed rivals only resumed earlier this year.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/15/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] At least 15 people, including a woman, were killed and several had been injured in the violence that erupted overnight in Bloody Karachi, Hyderabad and other parts of Sindh, DawnNews reported.
Terror gripped Bloody Karachi as a number of localities in the city descended into violence Wednesday night soon after senior provincial minister Zulfikar Mirza heaped scorn on Muttahida Qaumi Movement ...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead... chief Altaf Hussain.
In a fiery speech, Dr Mirza also confirmed that he had twice met Mohajir Qaumi Movement (Haqiqi) chief Afaq Ahmed and said that if Mr Ahmed was a criminal then Mr Hussain was an even bigger criminal.
"In my view, the real leader of the Mohajir nation is Afaq Ahmed who has been in prison for eight years and not a single case against him has been proved. In fact next to President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... he is the biggest political prisoner of the country," Dr Mirza said while speaking to newsmen at the residence of Awami National Party leader Shahi Syed.
Before being led away by Local Government Minister Agha Siraj Durrani, Dr Mirza urged the people of Bloody Karachi and Hyderabad to rise and rid themselves of these 'kambakht' (the damned ones).
Several vehicles were set ablaze on Thursday and incidents of firing were reported in different parts of Bloody Karachi. The affected areas included Baldia Town, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Gulistan-i-Johar, Orangi Town, Jahangirabad, Golimar, Korangi.
Hyderabad witnessed a similar situation as faceless myrmidons opened fire, leaving one person dead and five others injured.
All examinations scheduled at the University of Bloody Karachi had also been postponed due to the city's law and order situation.
Many flights from Bloody Karachi were delayed because crew members struggled to get to the airport through the violence.
Bloody Karachi, home to more than 18 million people, has a long history of ethnic, religious and sectarian violence.
The latest incidents come after a surge in ethnic and political violence in Bloody Karachi last week, which killed more than 100 people.
Leaders from the PPP sought to defuse the tension, saying Mirza's views were his own and did not reflect party policy, but that was not enough to contain the violence.
"I apologise to the Urdu-speaking people who were hurt by this statement," Interior Minister Rehman Malik Pak politician, current Interior Minister under the Gilani administration. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. He later joined the Pak Peoples Party and was chief security officer to Bhutto. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Näwaz Shärif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. told news hounds in Islamabad on Thursday.
"I am speaking on behalf of our leadership, and our entire leadership has disowned it."
Wasay Jalil, a senior leader of the MQM, also condemned the violence.
"We are always for a peaceful protest and condemn any violence," he said. "There are always forces which try and take advantage of the situation and disrupt the peace of Bloody Karachi."
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[Dawn] Two soldiers were killed and three others suffered injuries when their vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device in the area of Zengara in South Waziristan Agency on Thursday. Officials said that security forces were patrolling the area when roadside bomb exploded.
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[Dawn] A prison official says a bad boy accused in dozens of killings and the 2009 attack on Sri Lanka's cricket team has been sprung on bail after 14 years in jug.
Malik Ishaq, a leader of the banned bad turban group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, ... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ... was tossed in the clink in 1997.
He has been accused of a variety of crimes, including orchestrating the attack on the cricketers, which left six security officers and a driver dead.
Over the years, the cases against Ishaq have faltered as many witnesses have been too scared to testify. "Yer honor, dese guys got nuttin' on me! Da witnesses is all dead!"
"Case dismissed!"
Jail official Malik Mubashar said the Supreme Court granted Ishaq bail on Monday and he was freed Thursday after he posted it. "See youse around, suckers!"
TV footage showed hundreds of Ishaq's supporters greeting him as he left the jail in Kot Lakhpat.
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[Dawn] Kohat: The engineer and driver of the Hungarian oil and gas exploration company, MOL, who were kidnapped from here six months ago, have been released, sources told Dawn on Wednesday.
The MOL Company officials while confirming the release of engineer, Abdur Rasheed, and driver, Moin Khan, did not disclose the tribal area from where they were released, and only said they were not allowed by their head office to comment on the case, the sources said.
A convoy of the MOL Company was going to inspect the Marozai gas project in Lachi on January 20, 2011 when unknown gunniesshot up it from the mountains of Ghurzandi. Six people, including four FC men who were escorting the convoy, were killed in the ambush. The kidnappers kidnapped the engineer and the driver of the MOL Company.
The law-enforcement agencies carried out a search operation but did not find any trace of the abductees. The Lachi police registered the case against unknown Islamic fascistion the complaint of one of the FC men.
The MOL Company said the victims were released from tribal agency whose name could not be disclosed due to security reasons. The victims had reached their homes and were in good health, officials said.
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[Dawn] Unidentified snuffies blew up a bridge in Bara tehsil of Khyber tribal region on the night between Tuesday and Wednesday, officials said.
They said that snuffies planted huge quantity of explosives at a link bridge in Sheen Dand area of Bara. The explosives went off at midnight and destroyed the bridge, they added.
In another incident, a mentally retarded person killed at least three persons, including a woman, and injured four others in Tirah valley of the tribal region on Wednesday.
Sources said that a mentally retarded person entered a house in Tirah and opened indiscriminate firing on the inmates. Three persons were killed and four other received injuries in the incident, they said.
The residents of the area rushed to the scene and overpowered the mentally retarded attacker soon after the incident, they added.
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[Dawn] A number of localities in the city descended into violence on Wednesday night soon after provincial minister Dr Zulfikar Mirza heaped scorn on Urdu-speaking people and Muttahida Qaumi Movement ...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead... chief Altaf Hussain.
In a fiery speech which may widen the growing gulf between the estranged Pakistain People's Party and MQM, Dr Mirza also confirmed that he had twice met Mohajir Qaumi Movement (Haqiqi) chief Afaq Ahmed and said that if Mr Ahmed was a criminal then Mr Hussain was an even bigger criminal.
"In my view, the real leader of the Mohajir nation is Afaq Ahmed who has been in prison for eight years and not a single case against him has been proved. In fact next to President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... he is the biggest political prisoner of the country," Dr Mirza said while speaking to newsmen at the residence of Awami National Party leader Shahi Syed.
Before being led away by Local Government Minister Agha Siraj Durrani, Dr Mirza urged the people of Bloody Karachi and Hyderabad to rise and rid themselves of these 'kambakht' (the damned ones).
About the MQM decision of quitting the government, he said the party had miscalculated the situation and played a wrong card on the advice of its friends.
"Now graffiti demanding a separate province has appeared in the city. No-one has the courage to divide Sindh. This was the province which provided you shelter when you came here hungry without clothes."
Dr Mirza disclosed that at one meeting of the PPP-MQM core committee -- which he said was a 'bore committee' -- Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad had tried to convince him not to own up to meeting Afaq Ahmed. He said he had told Mr Ibad that the MQM-H leader was his prisoner and he was well within his rights to meet him.
As expected, Dr Mirza's diatribe against Mr Hussain and praise for Mr Ahmed incurred the opprobrium of the MQM whose leader Faisal Subzwari said Dr Mirza's leader -- whom he did not name -- was known in the country as Mr 10 per cent and cases against him were filed not only in local courts but also in international courts.
As the night wore on, many city localities echoed with the rattle of gunfire and several vehicles were torched in arson attacks.
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(KUNA) -- Four Afghan refugees were killed and ten others were wounded when explosives, stored in their house, detonated with a huge bang on Thursday in a Pak-Afghan border village, said an official.
The incident took place in Chaman village of Southwestern Baluchistan province. According to a local police official, an explosion ripped through a house, killing four persons and wounding ten others.
The explosion, said the official, was triggered by arms and ammunition stored in the house by unknown persons. However, it was not immediately known whether those killed and wounded were militants or innocent civilians.
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#1
Two children were reportedly lightly injured after IAF aircraft bombed two smuggling tunnels in southern Gaza and four terrorist targets in the northern and central parts of the Hamas-controlled territory, the IDF confirmed.
Must've been Take Your Little Terrorist to Work Day...
On Friday, a teenage boy was gunned down while two villagers were injured in a gun attack at a morning market in Pattani province. Worapot Daengsuk, a 16-year-old student, was shot in the head, according to the superintendent of the Panare police station.
The two other casualties were identified as Rong Yodsi, 51-year-old assistant to a village leader, and Charoen Pansikaew, a 69 year old defense volunteer. Mr Rong was shot in his left hand while Mr Charoen was hit in his left shoulder. The duo were taken to Panare Hospital.
The initial investigation found that a gunman, moving among the shoppers, walked into the morning market. Armed with a 9mm pistol, the attacker shot at villagers who were making purchases in the market, before he fled. At the scene, police found two spent 9mm cartridge cases.
Police said they presumed that the incident, carried out by suspected terrorist insurgent groups, was intended to attack innocent people.
[An Nahar] A number of residents of the Byblos District town of Lasa on Thursday attacked a delegation from the Maronite League which was surveying lands owned by the Maronite Patriarchate in the town, Voice of Leb radio (100.5) reported.
Army troops intervened to end the attack on the delegation, which was accompanied by a Maronite priest and a number of the area's residents, the radio station said.
Talal Douehi, a member of the League's executive council, said "the Maronite League team was attacked by locals and prevented from continuing the surveying of lands owned by the Maronite Patriarchate."
"The attack is not the first of its kind," Douehi added, noting that "every time we try to resume the surveying operation, a number of people gather round and attack us."
Asked about Hizbullah's stance on the issue, Douehi said: "We tried to contact them, but no one answered."
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[An Nahar] Several southern towns in the Nabatiyeh, al-Zahrani and Tyre areas witnessed in the last few days an influx of more than 25 Syrian families fleeing the unrest in their country, Central News Agency reported Thursday.
Municipal sources in the South told the agency that some of the families were accommodated in shops due to overpopulation in the area during this time of year, while others had to reside in houses that are still under construction due to their inability to pay the rent of residential houses.
The sources noted that the families hail from the unrest-hit Syrian areas of Jisr al-Shughour, Idlib, Hama and Daraa. They added that some refugees were asked by influential political parties in the area about the reason behind their arrival in Leb.
Human rights groups say Syrian forces have killed at least 1,300 civilians and tossed in the calaboose more than 12,000 in a sweeping crackdown on dissent following a wave of protests across the Arab world.
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[An Nahar] Interior Minister Marwan Charbel revealed on Thursday that the seven kidnapped Estonians were released at dawn, stressing that nine people were tossed in the calaboose in the case, including Lebanese and different nationals.
He said after leaving the French Embassy in Leb: "The Lebanese state participated from a distance in the operation."
Charbel stressed: "The abductors had no demands and the Estonians will be debriefed to uncover all details."
The minister revealed that the Intelligence Bureau played a major role in the release of the Estonians, while the French Embassy coordinated the issue and followed up on it.
The seven Estonians are Kalev Kaosaar, August Tillo, Madis Paluoja, Priit Raistik, Jaan Jagomagi, Andre Pukk and Martin Metspalu.
They were kidnapped in the Bekaa valley on March 23.
They had been shown appealing for help in videos posted on the Internet in April and May.
A third video was emailed to several of their relatives in June.
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[An Nahar] Seven kidnapped Estonians were freed in Leb on Thursday, almost four months since gunnieskidnapped them as they entered the country on a bicycle tour from neighboring Syria.
Later on Thursday, Military Investigative Judge Fadi Sawwan heard the testimonies of the seven men in his office at the Military Court in Beirut.
During the hearing session, which lasted around six hours, the seven revealed to Sawwan the identities, affiliation, beliefs and ideology of the kidnappers, state-run National News Agency reported. However, Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried... the identity of the kidnappers will not be made public due to the confidentiality of the investigations, NNA added.
The agency noted that the seven men were not threatened by their abductors ahead of their release and that they were not aware whether or not their country had paid a ransom in order to free them. "But they did not personally pay any ransom" to the kidnappers, NNA noted.
The seven, all in their 30s and 40s, appeared on the balcony of the French embassy in the capital Beirut, where they smiled and waved at journalists gathered outside before joining hands and taking a bow.
Estonia's government said the group were being cared for at the French Embassy in Beirut.
The cyclists, who were kidnapped from eastern Leb on March 23, would undergo a medical examination at the embassy before being joined by Estonia's Foreign Minister Urmas Paet, a police official said.
The Estonian minister is scheduled to arrive in Leb Thursday night, said Voice of Leb radio.
He telephoned Prime Minister Najib Miqati to discuss the release of the cyclists and he is scheduled to meet with the premier at the Grand Serail upon his arrival in Leb.
Paet said no force was used to free the hostages and that several countries and their respective intelligence services were involved in the operation.
When asked whether the Estonian government paid a ransom, Paet referred only to the "costs" involved.
"There are always costs involved with such a joint (release) operation," Paet told a news conference in Tallinn, Estonia.
He did not elaborate except to say that "the cost was not minor."
The minister and the cyclists were scheduled to travel Estonia on Thursday night, the police official said, declining to give further details on how they came to be released.
Leb's Interior Minister Marwan Charbel, meanwhile, said he could not confirm reports a ransom was paid to secure their freedom.
"To my knowledge they (the abductors) did not make any demands for a ransom for their release," Charbel told Lebanese television.
He also revealed that nine people, including Lebanese, were tossed in the clink in connection with the kidnapping.
Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi, for his part, said he was pleased with the "happy ending" but underlined that the case was far from over.
"The case is not closed to Leb's judiciary, which will continue its investigation until all details are uncovered and those responsible for the abduction identified," Qortbawi said in a statement.
Estonia, a tiny Baltic nation of 1.3 million, has no embassy in Leb and La Belle France has played a prominent role in the case.
La Belle France's ambassador to Leb, Denis Pietton, said he was happy his country had been able to aid Leb and Estonia in reaching Thursday's "happy ending".
"La Belle France had been solicited for ... logistic and diplomatic aid in the case as Estonia does not have an embassy in Leb," Pietton told news hounds outside the Lebanese foreign ministry.
The abductors -- believed to be a previously unknown group called Haraket al-Nahda Wal-Islah (Movement for Renewal and Reform) -- had reportedly demanded ransom in exchange for the release of the Estonians.
The seven Estonians are Kalev Kaosaar, August Tillo, Madis Paluoja, Priit Raistik, Jaan Jagomagi, Andre Pukk, and Martin Metspalu.
Their plight drew widespread support in their homeland, where leaders had taken to wearing yellow ribbons to symbolize hope that they would be released.
The cyclists had been shown appealing for help in videos posted on the Internet in April and May. A third video was emailed to several of their relatives in June.
In the first video, the seven called on the leaders of Leb, Soddy Arabia, Jordan and La Belle France -- but not Estonia -- to help them.
They did not present any demands on behalf of their captors nor did they specify what country they were in.
Since the kidnapping in the eastern Bekaa Valley, the case had been shrouded in mystery, but several people were tossed in the clink in Leb in connection with the kidnapping.
Sources following the case said Sherlocks at the time determined the video was uploaded in the Syrian capital Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... , leading to speculation the men were moved across the border from Leb.
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[An Nahar] Syrian security forces killed two civilians when they opened fire on protesters in the eastern city of Deir al-Zour on Thursday, said Abdel Karim Rihawi of the Syrian League of Human Rights.
At least five more people were maimed in the shooting, Rihawi said.
"The city is tense and residents are observing a general strike," he added.
The League called for cities throughout the country to strike on Thursday, in a message posted on Facebook page Syrian Revolution 2011, a driving force behind almost four months of protests against President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad's One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor... regime.
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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.
International Criminal Court
Qadaffy refuses to go.
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Clinton
Khaleda Zia's
Hillary Clinton
[Dawn] At least 15 people, including a woman, were killed and several had been injured in the violence that erupted overnight in 
Asif Ali 
Two soldiers were killed and three others suffered injuries when their vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device in the area of Zengara in South Waziristan Agency on Thursday. Officials said that security forces were patrolling the area when roadside bomb exploded.
A prison official says a
[Dawn] A number of localities in the city descended into violence on Wednesday night soon after provincial minister Dr Zulfikar Mirza heaped scorn on Urdu-speaking people and 
(KUNA) -- Four Afghan refugees were killed and ten others were wounded when explosives, stored in their house, detonated with a huge bang on Thursday in a Pak-Afghan border village, said an official.
Najib Miqati
President-for-Life Bashir 
