Hattip Instapundit. Just a blog post as JD Johannes arrives in Kabul. Photos, a brief video, some information about the Afghan election campaign. Go read the whole thing, then go to his home page to get the background in his previous posts.
Sounds like the set for a joke, but I was met at the airport by two Afghans who work with a friend of mine in the logistics business.
Kabul International is a busy airport. Several regional airlines run daily flights around Afghanistan and between international destinations like Dubai and New Delhi. The baggage claim system in the new terminal works well and as an airport, it could compare with smaller, regional airports in places like Topeka, KS.
I was met by two local Afghans who took me on a driving tour of Kabul and then on to Bagram. JD is short for Jawad, he is a Hazar, an ethnic group in the north/central part of Iraq. And Haji, my driver, is Haji because he has made the Haj. Haji fought for the Taliban back in the day before taking up a career as a chauffer.
We took the scenic route, winding through Kabul from the airport to the Intercontinental Hotel, where I we had lunch with a friend of mine from Iraq who is working with NDI running a team of election monitors.
The drive in a regular Toyota 4-Runner was a thrill. No armor, no weapons, just three guys driving across town—but that isn't what made it a thrill—Kabul is a relatively safe city and driving low profile, looking like every other Afghan on the road, is the safest way to move around the city.
What made it dangerous is Afghans love playing chicken on the pot-hole strewn roads which lack lane markings or any of the conventions of western roads. And Haji is one fearless Pashtun. I'm beginning to think a traffic accident is going to kill me before a bullet.
The Afghan voting system is very rare. In fact I had never heard of such a thing until it was explained to me today. I'm not even sure if I can describe it yet.
But it looks like campaign season. Signs are everywhere. Candidates are advertising. Karzai signs are everywhere. The national candidates are all running negative campaigns. No one has a positive agenda. Much of the politics is based on ethnicity and tribal loyalty so the national candidates are trying to build ethnic/tribal coalitions.
Politics is fun. More fun than simply gunning down the opposition, after which they're dead and can't seethe impotently properly appreciate that you won and they lost. And it allows the common folk to air their concerns to their future rulers, which is so much more satisfying to the dears than being cannon fodder. Finally, what could be better than everywhere seeing large posters of oneself looking ever so handsome, and turning on the television to catch yet another report of oneself surrounded by adoring crowds? Then too, there is the handing out of favours and the wheeling and dealing to look forward to, both demonstrating to the onlooking world how terribly clever and powerful one is.
[ADN Kronos] NATO on Wednesday rejected claims by Afghan villagers that an overnight air strike by alliance helicopter gunships killed four civilians in southern Afghanistan, saying those killed were insurgents.
Residents in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar's Arghandab district said a NATO airstrike killed four civilians, including three children, and wounded two others.
But a statement by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) issued in Kabul said that an alliance helicopter identified four insurgents carrying "weapons and plastic jugs" who were possibly placing roadside bombs in Arghandab.
"ISAF engaged the insurgents with rockets and small arms fire from a helicopter, killing the insurgents," the statement said. ISAF denied bombs were dropped and claimed a large secondary explosion, possibly caused by explosives from the insurgents, occurred.
Meanwhile, six civilians including two tribal elders were killed in a roadside bomb explosion on Wednesday in the eastern province of Nangarhar region, a government spokesman said. No group took responsibility for Wednesday's attack, but the Taliban make heavy use of roadside bombs against NATO-led troops.
Civilian casualties during the international military operations have caused mounting resentment among Afghans and have become an inflammatory issue ahead of the 20 August presidential election.
President Hamid Karzai, who is seeking re-election on August 20, has repeatedly urged foreign forces in the country to avoid civilian deaths. At a campaign rally last month, he pleged to forge a "new agreement" with ISAF if he is re-elected.
Wednesday's incidents came as NATO's new secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, visited Afghanistan on Wednesday on just his third working day in his new job, the alliance said.
Rasmussen, formerly Denmark's prime minister, was due to meet Karzai, the head of NATO's military mission in the country, General Stanley A McChrystal, and UN special envoy Kai Eide, NATO announced in a statement.
Rasmussen, who began work on Monday as NATO's chief, has already listed Afghanistan as his top priority for his four-year term of office.
He was also due to meet other candidates for the presidential election scheduled, and with some of NATO's 64,500 ground troops.
Last week, the United Nations said civilian casualties in Afghanistan increased by nearly 26 percent during the first half of 2009 compared with the same period last year.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/06/2009 00:00 ||
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[Quqnoos] Senators and civilian advisors to President Barack Obama has pressurised the new US administration to double the size of Afghan National Army and police to at least 400,000 personnel from the current 175,000, Bloomberg News reports.
"Any further postponement of a decision to support a surge in Afghan forces will hamper US efforts to quell an insurgency in its eighth year," influential US senators wrote to the White House in a July 21 letter.
President Obama also highlighted the training and bolster of Afghan security forces in his Afghan strategy that unveiled last March. He underlined to build up an Afghan Army of 134,000 and a police force of 96,000 in the next three years -- a commitment that costs $7.5 billion.
The US administration and lawmakers emphasise to boost Afghan security forces despite a record level of foreign troop surge to Afghanistan to overcome a growing Taliban-led insurgency.
In a part of the new US strategy for Afghanistan, President Obama is to send 4,000 US trainers by the end of September, exclusively to train the Afghan security forces.
General Stanley McChrystal, the new US and NATO commander in Afghanistan also recommends a speedier expansion of Afghan forces. He will officially make the suggestion in a report to US Defence Secretary, Robert Gates, and new NATO Secretary-General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, in the coming weeks, the report added.
Senators argued in their letter to the White House that building Afghanistan's own forces is far cheaper than sending American soldiers -- a show of support to any requests for funds to train and equip Afghan troops.
"For the cost of a single American soldier in Afghanistan, it is possible to sustain 60 or more Afghans," the senators wrote in the letter.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/06/2009 00:00 ||
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But, but, but we don't have the money.
(Deliberately, we don't)
Goal achieved, America is too poor to fight.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/06/2009 14:17 Comments ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] Banned militant outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) had planned to assassinate either Sheikh Hasina or Khaleda Zia in its failed bid to foil the ninth parliamentary polls.
This chilling information was revealed by Zahidul Islam Sumon alias "Boma" Mizan during interrogation, say sources in the elite Rapid Action Battalion (Rab), which arrested him in Mirpur in the capital on May 14. Mizan also told the interrogators they had even hired about a dozen JMB members from India to execute the blueprint, says an investigator on the understanding of anonymity.
The investigator who interrogated Mizan on several occasions says the militant leader admitted that JMB has a network in West Bengal in India which is weakening gradually.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
08/06/2009 00:00 ||
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[Maghrebia] Scottish Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill will visit convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi on Wednesday (August 5th) to decide whether to return the ailing Greenock Prison inmate to Libya on "compassionate" grounds, the Daily Record reported. Al-Megrahi, who is serving a minimum term of 27 years for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over the village of Lockerbie, was diagnosed with prostate cancer last year. Al-Megrahi will be able to return to Tripoli within a week if the minister approves his request.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/06/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
you can live for decades and decades with Prostate Cancer....
#4
Handcuff his hands to a wheelchair.
Place a regulation noose around his neck.
Deliver him straight to the Scotland Police Gallows.
Let him sweat the whole way home.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/06/2009 14:13 Comments ||
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The Executive branch of government is preparing a new wave of nationalizations in the food sector, which were announced by President Hugo Chavez on Tuesday in a mandatory nationwide radio and TV broadcast.
Chavez said that the government is preparing a study to expropriate Fama de América's and Café Madrid's coffee processing plants, which have been temporarily occupied by the authorities. "We were delayed. We have intervened these two big companies. We are preparing a study to expropriate them. They will become property of the people, property of the nation. Enough is enough," he said.
Chavez argued that those companies "have a monopoly, and monopolies are prohibited by the Constitution."
Chavez said that the coffee roasters buy cheap coffee to producers and afterwards they take it to Colombia and sell it four times more expensive, and subsequently they bring it to Venezuela as Colombian coffee. "I took the decision to intervene these two big coffee companies. And the decision was fulfilled," he said.
However, the coffee processing plants are not the only industries that the government wants to expropriate. Venezuelan authorities are expected to nationalize all food industries. "We have to do this (expropriate them) with all companies that have the same behavior," Chavez insisted.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/06/2009 00:00 ||
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Chavez said that the coffee roasters buy cheap coffee to producers and afterwards they take it to Colombia and sell it four times more expensive, and subsequently they bring it to Venezuela as Colombian coffee. "I took the decision to intervene these two big coffee companies. And the decision was fulfilled," he said.
So basically he says they sell it at high price in Columbia so they can buy it there and take it back to Venezuela?
#2
because theres nothing like rich, smooth, colombian coffee.
Better coffee, millionaire's money can't buy.
Posted by: liberal hawk ||
08/06/2009 10:47 Comments ||
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A man is thrown in a Soviet prison cell and the other inhabitants of the cell crowd round him. "How long you in for," they ask.
"Ten years," the new man laments.
"And what did you do?" "Nothing. I did nothing". "You liar," the prisoners shout. "For nothing you get five years!"
#5
Since when has coffee ever been food? Oogo will just do the same thing with it, but he'll sell it for only 3x what it originally cost, and he and his cronies will pocket the profits.
Ignacio Echevarría Landazábal, an alleged member of ETA, the Basque separatist group, may continue living in Venezuela, as he has done for the past 15 years, since the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ) denied the extradition petition made against Echevarría. The decision was adopted on Tuesday by the Criminal Court, Supreme Tribunal of Justice, which upheld the allegations filed by the Attorney General Office that the crime charged against Echevarría lapsed, sources of the TSJ reported.
Echevarría has been charged with terrorist murder (homicide) by the Spanish judicial authorities. They argue that he participated in 1981 in a failed attack against a newspaper in Bilbao. A journalist was injured in the attack.
The last action of the Spanish judiciary system against the alleged ETA member, before asking for his extradition from Venezuela this year, came in November 1993, that is, more than 15 years ago. Under the Venezuelan law, that is the time limit for prosecution of murder cases. Under the extradition treaty between Venezuela and Spain, if the crime allegedly committed by a person in either of the two countries lapses, the relevant authorities have no obligation to hand over the defendant.
His victims are still dead, right? What's the rush? And it makes you wonder if Zappie didn't plan it this way to avoid an embarrassment ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/06/2009 00:00 ||
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The UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Frank La Rue, said on Wednesday that he is concerned about the closure of 34 radio stations in Venezuela. He considered that "it is a serious and massive violation of the freedom of expression without precedent in the hemisphere."
Great, Frank, great. Any plans to have the UN actually do anything about it? Can we at least get a sternly worded statement of concern?
The Guatemalan human rights lawyer explained that the closure of radio stations was made on the grounds of administrative offenses committed by the owners of the radio stations that were shut down. La Rue added that these infractions could be resolved through normal administrative and legal procedures without the need of closing the media, reported the private TV news network Globovisión.
La Rue said that the closure of a media outlet can not be the result of a "simple political decision of a government, since it lends itself to arbitrariness and abuse of power."
No kidding. Really. Hard to imagine that a socialist would do such a thing, huh.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/06/2009 00:00 ||
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Your noise pollution has been banned, live with it.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/06/2009 14:21 Comments ||
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Your Top 40 station has changed it's format to the Top 40 Chavez speeches channel. On the bright side, there is no daily repetition since each speech lasts 4-8 hours. Enjoy muchachos!
Posted by: ed ||
08/06/2009 23:21 Comments ||
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Sound effects: Oogo's tanks, manned by party militia since regular troops have fled in terror of the consequences, prepare to invade Colombia over a border bridge:
#7
Sound effects: Oogo's tanks, manned by party militia since regular troops have fled in terror of the consequences, prepare to invade Colombia over a border bridge:
American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee have arrived at Burbank Airport in Los Angeles after more than four months in detention in North Korea. The reporters were released in a deal brokered by former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who landed with the women in California early Wednesday.
There were tears and hugs as the two journalists met with their families inside an airport hangar, following a whirlwind round of private diplomacy by former President Clinton. The two women, who were reporting on North Korean refugees, were arrested in March for allegedly entering North Korea illegally from China and committing what were called hostile acts. In June, a court sentenced them to 12 years at hard labor.
Speaking inside an airport hangar in Los Angeles, Ling said the pair feared at any moment they could be sent to a labor camp. Just 30 hours before their tearful reunion, they were summoned to a meeting and, walking through the door, saw former President Clinton. "We were shocked, but we knew instantly in our hearts that the nightmare of our lives was finally coming to an end," Ling said. "And now we stand here home and free."
Nice to see you both home. Sure hope our country didn't pay too high a price for you. Now then, mind telling us what the hell happened? And why you went there in the first place?
Following the surprise visit by former U.S. president Bill Clinton to North Korea to win the freedom of two detained reporters, Washington maintains that it regards them as a humanitarian matter quite separate from political issues including denuclearization and the six-party talks.
U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Robert Wood indicated Washington will continue to focus on UN sanctions to pressure North Korea to take tangible steps toward denuclearization, rather than on concessions. "We have always said that. That hasn't changed," Wood said.
For Washington, irreversible denuclearization is a precondition for dialogue with North Korea that would lead to normal diplomatic ties.
North Korea on Wednesday expressed hope of continuing dialogue with the U.S., with the official media saying Clinton and leader Kim Jong-il "reached consensus about solving issues through dialogue" during the visit.
Diplomats speculate that Washington and Pyongyang could find a compromise about the form any such dialogue should take in bilateral talks or with the help of China, the chair of the six-party talks.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/06/2009 00:00 ||
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[Kyodo: Korea] Relatives of Japanese victims of North Korean abductions expressed their gratitude and expectations on Wednesday after U.S. media reported former U.S. President Bill Clinton had urged North Korea to release Japanese abductees as well during his trip to Pyongyang that resulted in the release of two U.S. journalists who had been detained by the reclusive state. ""I"m surprised that he (the former president) remembers that,"" said Sakie Yokota, 73, whose daughter Megumi was taken to the country in 1977 at age 13. ""The abduction issue has been at a standstill so I hope it (the government) will continue negotiating (their release) at any cost.""
Posted by: Fred ||
08/06/2009 00:00 ||
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Whatever you do, your Dicks++ker past will taint it. No medals for you.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/06/2009 14:24 Comments ||
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It's official. The U.S. is no longer engaged in a "war on terrorism." Neither is it fighting "jihadists" or in a "global war." It's simple. Call it something else and you can pretend it's gone. It no longer exists.
President Obama's top homeland security and counterterrorism official took all three terms off the table of acceptable words inside the White House during a speech Thursday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. "The President does not describe this as a 'war on terrorism,'" said John Brennan, head of the White House homeland security office, who outlined a "new way of seeing" the fight against terrorism. The mind boggles. What the hell does that mean? Terrorism isn't something that can be looked at in a "new way".
The only terminology that Mr. Brennan said the administration is using is that the U.S. is "at war with al Qaeda." "We are at war with al Qaeda," he said. "We are at war with its violent extremist allies who seek to carry on al Qaeda's murderous agenda."
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in March that the administration was not using the term "war on terror" but no specific directive had come from the White House itself. Mr. Obama himself used the term "war on terror" on Jan. 23, his fourth day as president, but has not used it since.
Mr. Brennan's speech was aimed at outlining ways in which the Obama administration intends to undermine the "upstream" factors that create an environment in which terrorists are bred. There is no way to "undermine the upstream factors etc. And just what does that mean? This is rediculous and shows that this administration does not understand the nature of our enemy. Quick spelling tip: ridiculous is spelled with two "i"s, and no "e".
The president's adviser talked about increasing aid to foreign governments for building up their militaries and social and democratic institutions, but provided few details about how the White House will do that. Par for the course. Talk about generalities and hope everything works out all right.
He was specific about ways in which Mr. Obama believes words influence the way America prosecutes the fight against terrorism. Mr. Brennan said that to say the U.S. is fighting "jihadists" is wrongheaded because it is using "a legitimate term, 'jihad,' meaning to purify oneself or to wage a holy struggle for a moral goal" which "risks giving these murderers the religious legitimacy they desperately seek but in no way deserve."
"Worse, it risks reinforcing the idea that the United States is somehow at war with Islam itself," Mr. Brennan said. We are. If we aren't, we should be.
As for the "war on terrorism," Mr. Brennan said the administration is not going to say that "because 'terrorism' is but a tactic -- a means to an end, which in al Qaedas case is global domination by an Islamic caliphate."
"You can never fully defeat a tactic like terrorism any more than you can defeat the tactic of war itself," Mr. Brennan said. So is he saying that we can never defeat Al Queda?
He also said that to call the fight against al Qaeda and other terrorist groups -- which he said remains "a dynamic and evolving threat" -- should not be called "a global war." Why not when it's a Global Stage?
While Mr. Brennan acknowledged that al Qaeda and its affiliates are active in countries throughout the Middle East and Africa, he also said that "portraying this as a 'global' war risks reinforcing the very image that al Qaeda seeks to project of itself -- that it is a highly organized, global entity capable of replacing sovereign nations with a global caliphate."
The president's adviser said that in discussing counter terror operations, Mr. Obama "has encouraged us to be even more aggressive, even more proactive, and even more innovative" than they have been proposing. Why haven't we seen any actions if that's what he wants?
But Mr. Brennan lamented "inflammatory rhetoric, hyperbole, and intellectual narrowness" surrounding the national security debate and said Mr. Obama has views that are "nuanced, not simplistic; practical, not ideological." There's that word again. I much prefer someone who is direct. I know exactly what they mean.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/06/2009 15:44 ||
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Great! Who won?
Posted by: Grenter, Protector of the Geats ||
08/06/2009 16:12 Comments ||
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How about The Overseas Contingency Operation Against Man Caused Disasters?
Is that still on?
#6
"President" OBumble is an idiot. The war of terror was declared against us. We either fight and win, or we surrender. The majority of the people in the United States are not willing to surrender. All this semanticism is just a front to hide behind if things go wrong during OBumble's watch.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/06/2009 17:41 Comments ||
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JohnQC, if more buildings fall it will be for the same reason as the last ones fell - to enrich Chimpy McHalliburton BusHitler. I know it is true cuz I read it on the intarwebs someplace.
#12
The president's adviser said that in discussing counter terror operations, Mr. Obama "has encouraged us to be even more aggressive, even more proactive, and even more innovative" than they have been proposing.
#15
AFAIK no one has told the COMMIES + ISLAMISTS. IOW, Radical Islam will be free to continue their rampage = Jihad in ASIA, AFRICA, etc, destabilizin' and a'nuclearizin' at their will.
WMF > GREAT CIRCLE OF BATTLE/WAR: CHINA'S PLA TRAINS IN NORTH CHINA TO FIGHT SEVERAL WARS AT ONCE; + JAPAN PANIC: THE CONSEQUENCES OF CHINA SENDING TROOPS INTO AFGANISTAN [under UNO or "militarized" SCTO].
To wit,
* North Korea
* Afghanistan = AFPAK
* Iran?
* Tibet = INDIA
* US MILBASES in CENASIA = Kyrgyzstan?
* CHINA SEAS
Lest we fergit, agz the US Navy, CHINA > has no qualms about PREEMPTIVELY NUKING JAPAN'S MAJOR CITIES [25 Nuctargets] AND THEN TURNING ITS MISSLES AGZ THE US NAVY + US CITIES. DITTO FOR SINO-US WAR OVER TAIWAN.
#1
As with Hillary Clinton's regret statement, on Drudge right now, that the US has not joined the ICC, the message is clear:
"Take no prisoners. Leave no witnesses."
In the 19th Century, the federal courts ordered the US Navy to return pirates captured off the African coast to the US for civilian trial.
This nonsensical decree was met by the US Navy discovering that when they captured pirates, they were invariably in British waters, so had to turn the pirates over to the British Navy for immediate execution.
The British would then hang the pirates on their own, slowly sinking pirate boats, both to prevent their own decks from being soiled, and as a message to other pirates.
To the Special Forces, in fact to all combat servicemen, the message is the same, but without the convenience of friendly executioners. So they must no longer take prisoners, nor permit witness to their execution.
Kathmandu: Maoist chief Prachanda has made a sensational charge that India and the US had planned to launch an anti-China campaign, even a possible attack on the Communist giant, using Nepalese territory.
"I had to quit the post of prime minister as my party was opposed to allow our territory to be used against China," Prachanda was quoted as saying by the Rajdhani daily.
"The US-India plan had to face challenge from our party and that triggered the conspiracy against my government," Prachanda, who quit following a rift with his coalition partners over the controversial decision to sack the army chief, said at a training programme of the Maoists here.
Prachanda had earlier blamed India for toppling his eight-months old government in May this year. The Maoist chief said he was quoting a senior Indian professor while making these statements but did not name the Indian scholar.
He alleged that reactionary and conspiratorial elements have been deceiving the Nepalese people by acting as agents of the foreign powers. "But we will never bow down before any power for the establishment of peace and writing the constitution," he said.
Conspiracy is being hatched to sabotage against the writing of the constitution, he pointed out.
Prachanda's allegations came ahead of a month long protest programme by his party starting tomorrow with the aimed at maintaining "civilian supremacy" and forming a government of national consensus under Maoists' leadership.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/06/2009 09:32 ||
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I don't think even the Chinese believe this one.
[Geo News] Justice Iqbal Hamiduddin and Additional and Sessions Judge Muzaffar Hussain Shah visited the Christian Colony Gojra in order to begin judicial inquiry into the recent tragic incident.
According to sources, the judges examined the burnt houses and met with the victims.
Father Shafiq apprised the judges about the condition.
As part of the inquiry, 450 people got their names along with phone numbers registered at the Additional and District Sessions Court Gojra.
Meanwhile, WAPDA restored the power supply to the area after installing 45 electric meters.
Government has also set up dispensary camp while NADRA mobile van is preparing national ID cards in the affected area.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/06/2009 00:00 ||
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[Geo News] Lahore High Court Wednesday directed the federal government to submit its reply in case filed for Dr Afia Siddiqui's release or transferring her case to the International Court of Justice.
The petitioner Barrister Iqbal Jaffery said in his plea that Islamabad High Court ceased to function under recent Supreme Court's verdict; therefore, the case of Afia Siddiqui should be transferred to Lahore High Court.
The petition requested that an order should be delivered that Dr Afia should be brought to Pakistan or Pakistan government should be directed to transfer her case to International Court of Justice.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/06/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
She committed crimes against the United States. The US has her in custody. The US will conduct the trial, and assess any necessary punishment. Accept those facts, and take your lawfare elsewhere - we don't play.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/06/2009 18:11 Comments ||
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They think to play us like they are playing India in the Mumbai attack, Old Patriot.
At least 25 extremist and militant groups and welfare organisations affiliated to them have so far been banned because of their involvement in terrorist activities.
In a written reply submitted on Wednesday in response to a question in the National Assembly, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that the banned organisations included Al Qaeda, Sipah-i-Muhammad, Tehrik Nifaz-i-Fiqah Jafaria, Sipah-i-Sahaba, Jamatud Dawa, Al Akhtar Trust, Al Rasheed Trust, Tehrik-i-Islami, Jaish-i-Muhammad, Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, Islamic Students Movement, Khairun Nisa International Trust, Tehrik-i-Islam Pakistan, Tehrik Nifaz-i-Shariat Muhammadi, Lashkar-i-Taiba, Lashkar-i-Islam, Balochistan Liberation Army, Jamiat-i-Ansar, Jamiatul Furqan, Hizbut Tehrir, Khuddam-i-Islam and Millat-i-Islamia Pakistan.
Mr Malik said Jamaatud Dawa, Al Akhtar Trust, and Al Rasheed Trust were banned on Dec 10, 2008, after they were named in the United Nations Security Council Resolution No 1267 and the Sunni Tehrik was placed on the 'watch list'.
He said law-enforcement agencies were closely monitoring their activities and stern action was being taken against people taking part in objectionable activities.
He said various steps, including strengthening of intelligence networks, extensive police patrolling and regular raids on criminals' hideouts, were being taken to curb sectarian terrorism during Muharram.
Occasional ban on pillion riding, picketing and regular snap-checking was also being carried out to improve the law and order situation. He said all banned organisations were being watched and people suspected of making hate speeches were also under continuous surveillance.
He said the government of Punjab had issued a 'red book' for arresting most-wanted sectarian terrorists.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/06/2009 00:00 ||
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[The News (Pak)] A number of bottle bombs, filled with lethal explosive material, were used in the Gojra communal violence, which caused a great loss of life and reduced dozens of houses to ashes.
"Credible information and splinters of partly-exploded bottle bombs were collected from the violence-hit area of Gojra," intelligence sources told The News here on Tuesday. They maintained that the explosives-packed bottles caused a huge fire in houses belonging to the Christian families, as many residential units were razed to the ground due to its intensity. "Even the girders of many houses melted within a few hours."
Elaborating, the sources said an ordinary match could not melt iron-made girders (used in the construction of upper portion of a single-storey house). "We did not find even a single complete form of the bottle bomb, as there were only pieces.
"Involvement of a foreign hand or a banned outfit is under investigation according to the latest information collected from Gojra," they added. Two more victims of communal riots succumbed to their injuries on Tuesday.
Minister for Minorities Shahbaz Bhatti confirmed the development. "Highly dangerous explosives were used in the form of bottle bombs and the destruction was mainly due to this kind of sabotage activity carried out mostly by members of some banned religious outfit."
Bhatti ruled out an immediate withdrawal of Rangers from the violence-hit areas. The minister said an inquiry had been started to expose those responsible for the incident. "The inquiry will be made public."
Bhatti did not blame the Punjab government, but said the DCO, DPO and officials concerned were responsible for not checking the spread of violence. When asked about an update, the minister said nominees in the FIR were being arrested and interrogated.
He said the government had decided to build new houses for the affected families in Gojra. "We have been asked by the president and the prime minister that the Centre will build new houses for those who have lost their houses." He said engineers and other relevant officials had been sent to the site at Gojra to submit a comprehensive report within the shortest-possible time to build the houses.
It will be interesting if this actually comes to pass. I am not sanguine, however.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/06/2009 00:00 ||
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[Mail and Globe] The blast walls that have divided Baghdad communities and turned its streets into canyons of concrete since the United States-led invasion in 2003 will be removed within 40 days, Iraq said on Wednesday.
The move comes about a month after US combat forces withdrew from Iraqi urban centres and redeployed to bases on the outskirts, in accordance with a bilateral security pact that requires all US troops to leave Iraq by the end of 2011.
"It has been decided ... to lift all the concrete walls from the main and side streets of all Baghdad neighbourhoods without exception and reopen them within 40 days," said an official decree attributed to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
Violence has fallen sharply in Iraq in the last 18 months, and removal of the concrete walls is a show of confidence in Iraqi security forces' ability to manage without US help. The number of civilians killed in July fell to 224 from 373 in June.
However, insurgents are still capable of conducting frequent, large-scale attacks -- a series of bombs outside five Shi'ite Muslim mosques killed 31 people in Baghdad last Friday.
The concrete barriers were installed after the US invasion more than six years ago, and are particularly concentrated around the government and military Green Zone complex, US and Iraqi bases, embassies and other high-security buildings.
Baghdad is a maze of blast walls, road blocks, razor wire, checkpoints and barricaded neighbourhoods, making commuting a time-consuming nightmare for its inhabitants.
The number of concrete walls in the capital grew rapidly in 2006, often dividing districts, when sectarian violence threatened to plunge Iraq into all-out civil war between Sunnis and Shi'ites.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/06/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Terrorism to rise drasticly in 41 days.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/06/2009 14:09 Comments ||
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It looks like the Israelis weren't crazy when they allowed all sorts of people free passage to this congress.
The second day of Fatah's first congress in 20 years was marked by acrimonious rows on Wednesday as delegates demanded accountability from the leadership of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's party.
Hundreds of delegates at the gathering in the West Bank city of Bethlehem protested the lack of administrative and financial accounting by the Fatah leadership since the last congress in 1989.
They rejected the explanations of the party's governing bodies that Abbas's opening speech on Monday amounted to a report on Fatah's management over the past 20 years.
Delegates interrupted a speech by central committee number two Ahmed Ghneim, who angrily left the podium.
Abbas, who did not take part in the debates, was called into the hall to help calm things down. 'I admit we have committed errors, even sins, but the rendering of accounts must be done during committee meetings and not through chaotic interventions,' he said.
But Abbas himself was interrupted. Security forces briefly intervened as a delegate ordered out by Abbas refused to leave the room. 'We are here to put Fatah back on track, not to settle scores,' Abbas said.
Fatah, which is at the helm of the Palestinian Authority, exercised undivided power among Palestinians before it was trounced by the rival Islamist Hamas movement in a 2006 parliamentary election.
Longstanding Hamas-Fatah tensions boiled over in June 2007 when the Islamists seized control of Gaza after a week of deadly street clashes, confining Abbas's power base to the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Infighting and corruption allegations have helped weaken the dominant position in Palestinian political life that Fatah enjoyed before the 2004 death of its founder and iconic leader Yasser Arafat.
In his opening speech, Abbas listed a litany of errors he said Fatah had committed but urged delegates to learn from them and use the congress as a platform to give Fatah a new start.
The meeting is scheduled to conclude on Thursday but could last another day or two because of disagreements between delegates and the leadership over the agenda.
Meanwhile Fatah members in the Gaza Strip who were prevented by Hamas from leaving the enclave to attend the congress, demanded that they be allocated a quota of positions in the party's governing bodies -- the Central Committee and the Revolutionary Council.
'Gaza will have adequate representation,' congress spokesman Nabil Amr said, avoiding using the word 'quota.'The congress is due to adopt a new political programme and replace some of the top leaders of Fatah. It is only the sixth such conference since the party was founded by Arafat in the late 1950s.
Over the years, Fatah has moved away from the armed struggle but has been losing credibility and strength as peace efforts have failed to produce tangible results.
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08/06/2009 00:00 ||
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Two of Asia's most oppressive regimes may have joined forces to develop a nuclear arsenal, according to strategic experts who have analysed information supplied by a pair of Burmese defectors.
The men, who played key roles in helping the isolated military junta before defecting to Thailand, have provided evidence which suggests Burma has enlisted North Korean help to build its own nuclear bomb within the next five years. Details supplied by the pair, who were extensively interviewed over the past two years by Professor Desmond Ball of the Australian National University and Thai-based Irish-Australian journalist Phil Thornton, points to Burma building a secret nuclear reactor and plutonium extraction facility with the assistance of North Korea.
What on earth would Burma do with a nuclear bomb? North Korea at least has a target on its southern border. Who threatens Burma?
Thitinan Pongsudhirak, the head of Thailand's Institute of Security and International Studies, said: "The evidence is preliminary and needs to be verified, but this is something that would completely change the regional security status quo. It would move Myanmar [Burma] from not just being a pariah state but a rogue state -- that is one that jeopardises the security and well-being of its immediate neighbours," he said.
The nuclear claims, revealed by The Sydney Morning Herald at the weekend, will ring alarm bells across Asia. The newspaper said the testimony of the two defectors brought into sharp focus the hints emerging recently from other sources, supported by sightings of North Korean delegations, that the Burmese junta, under growing pressure to democratise, was seeking a deterrent to any foreign moves to force regime change.
Their evidence also reinforces concerns expressed by Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, in Thailand last week about growing military co-operation between North Korea and Burma. "We worry about the transfer of nuclear technology and other dangerous weapons," she said at a regional security conference.
The two defectors whose briefings have created such alarm are both regarded as credible sources. One was an officer with a secret nuclear battalion in the Burmese army who was sent to Moscow for two years' training. He was part of a nuclear programme which planned to train 1,000 Burmese. "You don't need 1,000 people in the fuel cycle or to run a nuclear reactor. It's obvious there is much more going on," he said.
The other is a former executive of the regime's leading business partner, Htoo Trading, who handled nuclear contracts with Russia and North Korea. The man, who died in 2008, provided a detailed report which insisted that Burma's rationale for a nuclear programme was nonsense. "They [the generals] say it is to produce medical isotopes for health purposes in hospitals. How many hospitals in Burma have nuclear science? he asked. "Burma can barely get electricity up and running. It's a nonsense," he said.
Professor Ball and Mr Thornton reported that the army defector claimed that there were more than five North Koreans working at the Thabeik Kyin uranium processing plant in Burma and that the country was providing yellowcake -- partially refined uranium -- to both Iran and North Korea. The authors concluded that the illicit nuclear co-operation was based on a trade of locally refined uranium from Burma to North Korea in return for technological expertise.
What is missing in the nuclear chain at the moment is a plutonium reprocessing plant, but according to the army defector, one was being planned at Naung Laing in northern Burma, parallel to a civilian reactor which is already under construction with Russian help.
Is Vladimir Putin so naive as to think that none of his nuclear clients will subsequently turn on Russia afterward?
The secret complex would be hidden in caves tunnelled into a nearby mountain. Once Burma had its own plutonium reprocessing plant, it could produce 8kg of weapons-grade plutonium-239 a year, enough to build one nuclear bomb every 12 months.
If the testimony of the two defectors proves to be correct, the secret reactor could be operational by 2014, The Herald reported. "These two guys never met each other, never knew of each other's existence, and yet they both tell the same story basically," said Professor Ball.
"If it was just the Russian reactor, under full International Energy supervision, then the likelihood of them being able to do something with it in terms of a bomb would be zero," Professor ball said. "It's the North Korean element which adds danger to it."
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/06/2009 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] The second hearing in the trial of about 100 protesters, including top reformists, has been postponed to give the defense more time, the official IRNA news agency said on Wednesday.
The session, scheduled for Thursday, will now take place on Saturday, the report said. "The session has been postponed because 10 lawyers defending some of the accused needed more time to study individual charges. So the court gave them two more days," IRNA quoted a court statement as saying.
A lawyer defending three accused reformists confirmed the defense team needed more time.
Last Saturday, about 100 people who disputed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election went on trial in a revolutionary court in Tehran on various charges, including rioting after the June 12 vote.
Several top reformists and aides of opposition leaders backed down in the first session from earlier allegations, saying that Ahmadinejad's victory was clean and there had been no fraud in the election.
Another 10 protesters were put in the dock in a separate trial on Sunday.
Iran's main opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi and former reformist president Mohammad Khatami have denounced the trials.
Mousavi said on Sunday that confessions made by protesters at a closed-door trial were made after they were put through "medieval-era torture." Khatami added that the court had relied on "confessions taken under certain circumstances which are not valid."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/06/2009 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] The female wing of Iran's paramilitary volunteer militia the Basij played a crucial role in suppressing the protests of women in the aftermath of the 2009 presidential elections, according to a prominent Iranian-American activist.
Janet Afary, Iranian American researcher and feminist activist, the Basij Sisters is a group of militia women founded by Marziyeh Dabbagh, the most prominent woman fighter in Iran.
Dabbagh was arrested and tortured in 1972 for associating with Khomeini and was later released after her health deteriorated. She went to Europe where she formed Iranian cells that she personally supervised.
"Dabbagh became Khomeini's confidant and became his guard in Paris in 1978," Afary told Al Arabiya. "She took part in the Iran-Iraq war where she was a military commander and joined the Revolutionary Guard where she was in charge of liquidating opposition groups."
In the late eighties, she was sent to Moscow to meet former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and throughout the past two decades has been the head of the government-affiliated Islamist Women's Society. She also became Majlis (Iranian Parliament) deputy in its first, second, and fifth sessions.
The ages of women who join the Basij, Afary added, range between 18 and 38, but the militia also includes older women who have been there since its establishment.
When war with Iraq started in 1980, Iran established special military training camps for women that included thousands of Basij volunteers, many of whom were related to male soldiers.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/06/2009 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Lebanon's Hezbollah has stockpiled more than 40,000 rockets and has ground missiles capable of hitting Tel Aviv, The Times of London said.
A senior Israeli army officer of the Northern Command interviewed by the newspaper in Jerusalem described the current situation along the Israel-Lebanon border as a fragile calm. The calm that has reigned in the area in the past three years since the end of the Second Lebanon War could 'explode any minute,' Brig. Gen. Alon Friedman warned.
Danny Ayalon, Israel's deputy foreign minister told the British newspaper in the past three years Hezbollah has not only replaced munitions but has upgraded its missiles.
Details of The Times report were published in Israeli newspapers Wednesday.
Video obtained by the newspaper shows Hezbollah operatives scouring the site of last month's explosion in a south Lebanese village trying to salvage rockets and other munitions, The Times said. At the same time, other operatives placed obstructions along the route to prevent soldiers of the United Nations Interim Forces In Lebanon from reaching the site to investigate, the paper said.
The Times said Alain Le Roy the head of the U.N. peacekeeping operations, told the U.N. Security Council that all indications of the blast show the site was 'an actively maintained' Hezbollah depot and not an abandoned one.
Hezbollah operatives undergo basic military training which includes the handling of firearms at camps in the mountains flanking the Bekaa Valley, the report said.
Are none of these camps visible by satellite? Otherwise, Israeli missiles are no doubt already programmed.
Hundreds of operatives travel to Iran to participate in more specialized courses including bomb making, and the handling of anti-tank missiles and surface to surface rockets, the paper said.
No doubt the Iranian camps are equally invisible to satellites.
Based on western intelligence sources, The Times said Hezbollah hopes to receive an improved version of the Iranian-made Fateh 110 rocket which can carry a 1,100 pound warhead more than 125 miles.
They may have to wait a bit. It turns out certain fuzes are altitude-sensitive -- the transport plane blew up a few days ago.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/06/2009 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] Iran's Foreign Ministry has released an annual report on the challenges that Muslims face in Western countries because of human rights violations.
How droll -- Iran prating about human rights violations.
The report was released on August 5, a day which has been dubbed as "Islamic Human Rights Day" by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).
The report has focused on the problems that Muslim communities face in some Western countries, including the US, Canada, Britain, Germany and France.
So which are the good Western countries?
It also condemned "the promotion of Islamophobia" in the West after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US, noting that fighting terrorism has turned into a pretext for some Western states to launch a crackdown on mosques and other Islamic institutions.
Did some Iranian agents get caught, along with the Saudi and the Pakistani ones?
According to the report, some European governments are adopting policies that promote "Islamophobia among the public".
The document also cited discrimination against women who observe the Islamic dress code, insulting Muslims beliefs and sanctities, discrimination in employing Muslims and adopting strict immigration policies against Muslim applicants as examples of the violation of Muslims' rights. The report also expressed concern about the unexplainable rise in the number of Muslim prisoners in European countries and police prejudice against Muslims.
Truly, it is inexplicable that jihadi behaviour is considered unacceptable by Western police and security organizations when kufrs bow their heads in silence to such behaviour back home.
It also warned that some Western countries were following policies which contribute to inciting hatred against Muslim communities.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/06/2009 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] Hezbollah responds to Tel Aviv's accusations that Lebanon had not complied with a UN resolution, describing them as 'lies to boost the morale among Israelis'.
"So's your mama!"
Hezbollah's Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem said on Wednesday that Israel has been routinely breaching the UN Resolution 1701 that ended the 33-day war in 2006.
"And twice on Sundays!"
Qassem believes that Israel's frequent border violations aim at improving the morale inside the Israeli army, which suffered a heavy defeat in Lebanon and Gaza.
For a certain definition of defeat, anyway.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak had earlier warned that Tel Aviv would not distinguish between the Lebanese government and Hezbollah in case of any security development on the Israeli-Lebanese border. "Hezbollah and the Lebanese cabinet will be equally responsible should any decline on the northern border take place, and we will not differentiate between them," Barak said during a meeting held by the Foreign Affairs and Defense committee on Tuesday.
The perils of joining the government, despite the advantages of direct access to political spoils.
He went on to say that Lebanon had failed to comply with the UN Resolution 1701.
Barak made the remarks after some Western media alleged that Hezbollah was stockpiling 40,000 rockets near the Israeli border and was training its forces to use ground-to-ground missiles capable of hitting Tel Aviv.
Tel Aviv's accusations against the Lebanese resistance movement come while the United Nations peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL) have repeatedly warned about Israel's daily violation of Resolution 1701. "We have daily air violation of Lebanese territory (by Israeli planes), we have repeatedly asked the Israeli government to refrain from breaching the UN resolution", Andrea Teneti, UNIFIL Deputy Spokesman said.
Have you bothered to ask Hizb'allah to stop stockpiling weapons in contravention of Resolution 1701, Mr. Deputy Spokesman?
Posted by: Fred ||
08/06/2009 00:00 ||
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Amid ongoing opposition to Iran's disputed election, former presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi says the vote and its 'bitter aftermath' have led to a "treasured achievement" for the nation.
"There is a treasured achievement in the [post-vote] events," said Mousavi, who has emerged as the leader of the opposition after losing to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The former prime minister, speaking to a group of youth on Tuesday, said the election had brought to surface "grave and complicated crises" facing the establishment 30 years after the Islamic Revolution.
The re-election of President Ahmadinejad with almost two-thirds of the votes on June 12 generated great waves of discontent in Iran.
The result of the vote prompted a vast outpouring of anger by supporters of Mousavi and another presidential candidate, Mehdi Karroubi, who took to the streets to protest what they call a "rigged" election.
The opponents and critics of Ahmadinejad have harshly slammed the president, who enjoyed windfall oil revenues in his first term, over what they call mismanaging the economy, stoking inflation and damaging Iran's image in the international community.
"These problems would not have been unveiled, if it weren't for the election," said Mousavi, whose credentials are well-known since the 1979 revolution. "This is a great achievement."
The defeated candidate went on to say that the nation now fully feels the problems that were raised during the course of the election, Ghalam News reported.
On the issue of protesters who face trial on charges of plotting to topple the government, Mousavi said that arrests of opposition figures and activists would not stop the movement opposing Ahmadinejad's re-election.
Mousavi and his supporters claim that the election was stolen from him in a widespread "fraud" in favor of the incumbent. The charges have been disputed by Iran's electoral watchdog.
"I noticed the birth of a strong national feeling during the course of the election... which has united different groups in the society," he said. "Some thought that by arresting several people who they believe are protest leaders, the whole story will be finished."
"But the fact is that this movement has stayed alive, showing that the arrests will not be effective."
Iranian authorities arrested thousands of opposition figures, protesters and journalists in the aftermath of the election, many of whom have been released since.
Despite the defiant opposition, President Ahmadinejad, who was sworn in before Parliament on Wednesday, struck a tone of unity, calling on officials and the people to work with his government.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/06/2009 00:00 ||
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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was sworn in for a second term on Wednesday, vowing more defiance of the West at a ceremony boycotted by his rivals, as police in riot gear broke up protests by opposition.
The 52-year-old took the oath of office for another four years at a ceremony in parliament after his landslide election victory in June that triggered the worst turmoil in the country's history.
Prominent opposition leaders were absent from the ceremony, and outside a force of about 1,000 riot police and Basij volunteer militiamen used pepper spray on demonstrators who claim his election was rigged.
In a speech outlining his plans for the future, Mr Ahmadinejad said he would continue to resist 'oppressive powers,' dismissing the US stance towards Iran and hailing his election as a sign of major change in Iran.
Prominent opposition leaders were absent from the ceremony, and outside a force of about 1,000 riot police and Basij volunteer militiamen used pepper spray on demonstrators who claim his election was rigged, witnesses said.
The ceremony was boycotted by powerful cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mr Ahmadinejad's main challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi. Some foreign diplomats were present, including envoys from Britain, France and Sweden, which currently holds the EU presidency.
President Ahmadinejad now has two weeks to form a government. 'We will resist oppressors and try to correct the global discriminatory mechanisms in order to benefit all the nations of the world,' he said. 'The June 12 epic is the start of major change in Iran and in the world.'
He said Iranians should play a 'more effective role' in global affairs, and pledged to fight for social justice.
Mr Ahmadinejad took aim at the United States after the White House acknowledged him as the 'elected' president of Iran but stopped short of declaring him the legitimate president and said it had no plans to congratulate him. 'This means they only want democracy which serves their interests and they don't respect people's votes and rights,' Mr Ahmadinejad retorted. 'Iranians will neither value your scowling and bullying nor your smiles and greetings.'
Posted by: Fred ||
08/06/2009 00:00 ||
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[Khaleej Times] TEHRAN, Iran - Iran says it will prosecute security forces and officials accused of abusing civilians in unrest following the disputed June 12 election.
State news agency IRNA says security personnel and judicial officials could be among those charged. Pro-reform leaders have called for trials against those accused of killing or torturing demonstrators. At least 30 people have been killed and hundreds detained in clashes sparked by claims of fraud in President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election.
More than 100 people, including prominent reformists, are facing a mass trial on accusations of seeking to undermine the state.
At least 30 people have died in the unrest that followed the vote, according to figures from a parliamentary investigation, and hundreds have been detained. Human rights groups believe the death toll is likely far higher.
Ahmadinejad also faces discontent from fellow conservatives in Iran's ruling hierarchy over the harsh crackdowns and accusations that some of those detained in the unrest have been mistreated.
Ahmadinejad last month also opened a brief -- but potentially disruptive -- confrontation with the supreme leader's ruling theocracy by refusing to drop his top deputy, Esfandiar Rahim Mashai. Mashai had angered conservatives last year when he made friendly comments toward Israelis. But the president eventually relented and dropped Mashai.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei formally endorsed Ahmadinejad for a second term as president on Monday. Though both men were smiling, it was a noticeably cooler reception than four years ago, when Khamenei allowed Ahmadinejad to kiss his hand and then drew him close and kissed him on both cheeks. Still, Khamenei has firmly backed Ahmadinejad as the election winner from the beginning of the dispute and continued to give him support.
Calls for more street protests present the government with a serious challenge. It is eager to choke off the protest movement, but a harsh response by security forces could ignite another sustained wave of unrest. Sporadic clashes broke out in north Tehran late Monday after security forces boosted patrols, witnesses said.
Many of Tuesday's protest appeals included instructions to shift the rallies to main squares if the security presence is too strong at the first sites. They called for key opposition figures -- including Mousavi and his pro-reform election rival, Mahdi Karroubi -- to join the marches. It was not immediately clear whether they would attend.
In a sign of Iran's seemingly unbridgeable rifts, both men were among the list of no-shows at Monday's ceremony with the supreme leader. Karroubi, in a newspaper interview published Tuesday, pledged that he and Mousavi would continue to lead the opposition to the president. "We are going to continue protesting," he said in the interview with the Spanish daily El Pais. "We are never going to cooperate with this government. We don't want to harm it but we are going to criticize its actions. We are not going to help it in any way."
On Monday, Khamenei bluntly told the opposition and others who have said the election was marred by abuses that they had simply failed. "This election was a test. People passed the test ... and some of the elites failed. This election made some (figures) the losers," state TV quoted Khamenei as saying.
The ruling establishment has sought to hobble the opposition by bringing many of its prominent figures before a court in a mass trial. More than 100 activists and reformist political figures are being tried for allegedly supporting the postelection unrest. The trial is scheduled to resume Thursday.
On Sunday, Ahmadinejad's main conservative election challenger, Mohsen Rezaei, demanded trials for those accused of killing protesters. Pro-reform groups, including clerics, have condemned the mass trial as a sham and said confessions from two prominent activists had been coerced.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/06/2009 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.
The Executive branch of government is preparing a new wave of nationalizations in the food sector, which were announced by President Hugo Chavez on Tuesday in a mandatory nationwide radio and TV broadcast. 
The UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Frank La Rue, said on Wednesday that he is concerned about the closure of 34 radio stations in Venezuela. He considered that "it is a serious and massive violation of the freedom of expression without precedent in the hemisphere." 
Another Aaaaay-Peeee story, so here are the highlights:
[Kyodo: Korea] Relatives of Japanese victims of North Korean abductions expressed their gratitude and expectations on Wednesday after U.S. media reported former U.S. President Bill Clinton had urged North Korea to release Japanese abductees as well during his trip to Pyongyang that resulted in the release of two U.S. journalists who had been detained by the reclusive state. ""I"m surprised that he (the former president) remembers that,"" said Sakie Yokota, 73, whose daughter Megumi was taken to the country in 1977 at age 13. ""The abduction issue has been at a standstill so I hope it (the government) will continue negotiating (their release) at any cost.""
Kathmandu: Maoist chief Prachanda has made a sensational charge that India and the US had planned to launch an anti-China campaign, even a possible attack on the Communist giant, using Nepalese territory.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was sworn in for a second term on Wednesday, vowing more defiance of the West at a ceremony boycotted by his rivals, as police in riot gear broke up protests by opposition.
[Khaleej Times] TEHRAN, Iran - Iran says it will prosecute security forces and officials accused of abusing civilians in unrest following the disputed June 12 election.
