[Dawn] Afghanistan's Caped PresidentHamid 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... has told a German newspaper that Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar could run for president in elections next year.
Karzai's government has agreed the Taliban can open an office in Qatar if the group breaks all ties with al Qaeda and renounces terrorism. Karzai was in Qatar Sunday to discuss the issue.
Karzai said in an interview published Tuesday by the German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung that authorities have "sporadic contacts" with the Taliban. He said that the Afghan constitution is valid for all Afghans and "the Taliban also should benefit from it."
Asked whether Mullah Omar ... a minor Pashtun commander in the war against the Soviets who made good as leader of the Taliban. As ruler of Afghanistan, he took the title Leader of the Faithful. The imposition of Pashtunkhwa on the nation institutionalized ignorance and brutality in a country already notable for its own fair share of ignorance and brutality... should seek the presidency, Karzai was quoted as saying: "He can become a candidate for the presidency and give Afghans the opportunity to vote for or against him."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Telling Mullah Omar he can run for office is a blatant invitation to be shot if he even shows himself in public.
Are we sure he isn't a deader already? I mean he's been kinda like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster for a while...so we actually have Elvis sightings on ole Omar?
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
04/03/2013 9:40 Comments ||
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Yet another opportunity for Cause and Effect to meet up at a bar, have a beer, break bottles and slash at each other...
AL-BAIRAT, Egypt Many of this countrys post-uprising troubles wash up here, in a crumbling shack on a dirty canal, where 13 members of the Abdul Latif family have long relied on tourism to keep them from slipping from poverty into ruin.
Adel Abdul Latif supported his family making the Pharaonic alabaster figurines that vendors hawk at the temples around Luxor. He also worked in construction, which depended on the prosperity of the local hoteliers and other businesspeople who hired him.
Then the tourists stopped coming.
It is indeed hard to know where to vacation these days. Cairo, where you can be molested or murdered, Yemen, where you can be kidnapped or murdered, Pakistan, where you can be kidnapped, then molested, then murdered, or Nigeria, where you will just be murdered? But its quaint that, months after American tourists figured out that it was perhaps better to look at the pyramids in photographs rather than in hot air balloons, the New York Times has figured out that Egypt is wait for it unsafe.
Im just surprised that the Childress twins arent blaming all this on white men.
This winter there was so little work during what had been the high season for tourism in Luxor that the family had to rely on cash handouts and free blankets from a local charity staggering from its own financial woes.
For Egyptians taking nervous note of the countrys mounting calamities, with security ebbing and prices rising, the sustained drop-off in tourism has been especially alarming. Tourism provides direct jobs for nearly three million people, critical income to more than 70 industries and 20 percent of the states foreign currency now desperately needed to prop up the plummeting Egyptian pound.
The changes to Egypts complexion have been just as startling, as coveted tourism destinations have become bargain stops, celebrated temples have emptied and residents have directed their anger at the capital, Cairo, the site of the interminable political squabbles and street violence that have kept the tourists away.
We are the ones that suffer, said Ezzat Saad, the governor of Luxor, where in better times tourists relax on Nile cruises or stroll through the Great Hypostyle Hall at the nearby Temple of Karnak. These days, on the streets below the governors office, idle workers spend much of their time talking about the failings of the government. Whatever I do on the local level, Mr. Saad said, whatever the minister of tourism does, it has a ceiling. We will never get back what was without political stability or security.
Tourism plummeted in 2011 with the fall of President Hosni Mubarak and the unrest that followed. Some tourists have started to return, but officials say they are mostly beachgoers rather than the more lucrative cultural tourists who spend 10 days or more in Egypt, and spend accordingly during once-in-a-lifetime vacations.
Every headline about a riot in Egypt deepens the crisis. Cairo has been the hardest hit, with hotel occupancy falling to below 15 percent or worse in parts of the city closest to protests, according to Hani el-Shaer of the Egyptian Hotel Association. From Cairo, the hardship ripples across the country, affecting taxi and horse carriage drivers, boat operators, tour guides and store vendors.
If something goes wrong in Cairo, tourists cancel the whole trip, said Hisham Zaazou, Egypts minister of tourism.
Can't imagine why. Can you?
Officials have thrown up their hands at a problem that no amount of salesmanship seems able to fix.
That's because they're thinking of it as a sales problem rather than a problem of personal liberty, democracy, political discourse and rule of law...
They have already been forced to abandon the grand marketing campaigns of the past; there is little money for advertisements, and in any case, a slick television commercial for Egypt would be useless, if followed by a news report on the latest bloodshed, officials said.
Fox News in particular would delight in ordering the broadcast that way...
The perception is that theyre not welcome, Mr. Zaazou said. That the Egyptian people are hostile. I need to change this.
You're going to change your people? Good luck, sir, and have someone else start your car every morning...
So the countrys promoters are focusing on what they say are inflated fears about Egypts safety,
What's the inflated part? The rapes, the riots or the hot air balloon crashes?
which they are countering with a limited effort to portray the reality, Mr. Zaazou said. One plan is to stream live video of Egypt over the Internet of beaches and tourist attractions like the Egyptian Museum to show that all is well in many of Egypts most treasured spaces.
Many of the spaces, yes indeed, that's a ringing endorsement isn't it...
It is an approach that Mexico has tried as well in its effort to draw attention to the distances, sometimes vast and sometimes not, between a prime beach or plaza and headline-grabbing, drug-related slaughter.
We want to give assurances that Egypt is not just a square four million kilometer where there are disturbances, said Nasser Hamdy, the head of the Egyptian Tourism Authority.
Officials also are pushing to attract tourists from new markets, to replace the American and other visitors sitting out the current crisis. The government has focused on India, and especially Iran, whose relationship with Egypt has started to warm after decades of official animosity.
But even that effort has been troubled by politics: a few days ago, the arrival of the first planeload of Iranian tourists brought a fevered response from ultraconservative Sunni Islamists, who promised new efforts to warn Egyptians about what they called the dangers of Shiite Islam.
For now, Luxor feels like a ghost town, haunted by the trappings of its glamorous past. Cruise ships are idle and moored together in bunches along the Nile. On the Corniche promenade, horse carriage drivers scuffle among themselves over the few tourists who emerge from the grand Winter Palace Hotel, its gardens and restaurants splendid but deserted.
A proprietor at Gaddis & Co., a souvenir shop below the hotel that opened in 1907, called this the most sustained tourism crisis in Luxor since the period between Egypts last wars with Israel in 1967 and 1973. Even after militants killed 60 tourists in 1997 at the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, visitors stayed away for only a few months, said Badawy Fikri, a guard who works at the temple.
Before the uprising, he said, I wouldnt recognize a friend in the crowds.
On a recent Sunday, only a trickle of visitors walked through the temples colonnaded terraces. Ahmed Allam, a frustrated tour guide, said Egypt needed to think outside the box, searching, as many do, for novel ways to make Egypt desirable again. He noted that ancient Egypt had lost its most tireless promoter, the flamboyant archaeologist Zahi Hawass, who was sidelined after the uprising because of legal troubles and his ties to the former government.
We need to make it easier to film movies here, Mr. Allam said. We need celebrities.
You'd think this would be a project that the Ho'wood celebrities would be eager to endorse. Maybe you can't get an A-lister like Clooney, but a D-lister like Lindsay Lohan should be all over this like Lindsay Lohan all over [can't finish this sentence or I'll get Rantburg in trouble]...
Rock n roll bands. Weddings at the Pyramids. This will take years.
There were no visitors at the nearby mortuary temple of Ramses II to see the fallen statue linked by legend to Ozymandias. A group of Egyptian schoolchildren had the Luxor museum largely to themselves, troubled only by a group of tour guides who strolled through mostly, one of the guides said, because they had nothing better to do.
I have colleagues who have tours every three or four months, said Mohamed Aziz, who has worked as a guide for eight years and is on the verge of trying something else. Lots of people are working without salaries. We have hopes and dreams. Reality is something else.
By some estimates, up to 90 percent of people working in Luxor and the surrounding towns like Bairat were dependent on tourism, officials said. A local charity in Bairat that provided aid to poor families, orphans and disabled people said that many of its most important donors like hotel and cruise boat owners had stopped giving.
Abulatta Ibrahim, who sits on the board of the charity, said they had stopped construction on a community center that was to include a school, a manufacturing center for dressmakers and a clinic. If we dont have tourists, he said, we cant do this.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/03/2013 08:54 ||
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I'm just surprised that the Childress twins aren't blaming all this on white men.
Of course it's the White Man's fault. If we hadn't discovered those damn pyramids in the first place...
[Al Ahram] Top US satirist Jon Stewart has dedicated a section of his Daily Show to condemning and mocking President Mohamed Morsi over the interrogation of Bassem Youssef.
The prosecutor-general issued an arrest warrant against TV satirist Bassem Youssef on Saturday after complaints were made against him for allegedly insulting the president, denigrating Islam and spreading false news with the aim of disrupting public order.
Youssef was released on bail of LE15,000 ($2,142).
Stewart mocked President Morsi for targeting media figures and activists instead of dealing with Egypt's growing economic and social problems.
The deteriorating economy, crumbling infrastructure and rising levels of sexual harassment were amongst the things President Morsi should be focusing on, Stewart said.
Stewart wondered what would happen to him if insulting the president was illegal in the US.
"Making fun of the president's hats and less than fluent English? That was my entire career for eight years ... that is all I did," he said, showing a picture of himself wearing a cowboy hat and mocking George W. Bush.
Stewart played a video showing President Morsi describing Jews as the descendants of apes and pigs in order to highlight the weakness and hypocrisy of the accusations against Youssef.
"There are two things he [Youssef] loves with his heart: Egypt and Islam ... He loves Egypt so much even though some crazy guy is threatening to arrest him," Stewart said.
"By the way, without Bassem and all those journalists and bloggers and brave protesters who took to Tahrir Square to voice descent, you, President Morsi, would not have been in a position to repress them," he added.
Youssef appeared on The Daily Show with John Stewart in June last year and has acknowledged that Stewart is an inspiration for his own El Barnameg TV show.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
"Making fun of the president's hats and less than fluent English? That was my entire career for eight years ... that is all I did"
Stewart's been resting on his 'laurels' since then.
[Al Ahram] State body the General Authority for Investment (GAFI) has warned television channel CBC it will revoke its licence if prominent satirist Bassem Youssef's weekly show 'El-Bernameg' does not comply with the standards of the media free zone, where the channel is based.
All television channels that work inside the media free zone, located in the satellite city of 6 October on the outskirts of Cairo, must abide by an ethical code and a number of regulations.
According to the warning sent to CBC, GAFI received complaints against Bassem Youssef and the content he presents in his weekly show on the channel, accusing him of insulting state icons and public figures. The authority also added that the show included profanity and the use of sexual language in unacceptable way.
CBC's administration asserted that it is careful to comply with the law, the media ethics code, and the terms of its broadcast licence. The administration also added that the issue that the warning deals with is currently in the hands of judiciary and a verdict has not yet been issued.
Popular television show host and satirist Youssef is currently facing charges of insulting President Morsi and denigrating Islam. An arrest warrant was issued for him last week and he was interrogated by prosecutors, then bailed on Sunday.
El-Bernameg is filmed at a theatre in downtown Cairo.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2013 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] Upper house of Egypt's parliament, currently endowed with legislative powers, green-lights revised law on political rights to allow use of religious campaign slogans
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2013 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] The Moslem Brüderbund's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) on Tuesday condemned a recent US State Department statement criticising an arrest warrant issued earlier this week for Egyptian television satirist Bassem Youssef.
On Monday, the US State Department declared that ongoing investigations of Youssef and other critics of President Mohamed Morsi indicated a "disturbing trend" of growing restrictions on freedom of expression in Egypt.
The FJP responded to the statement by accusing the US of "flagrant interference" in Egypt's' affairs.
The party went on to clarify that Youssef had been accused mainly of "insulting religion and mocking religious practices," rather than insulting the president, as the US statement had implied.
Insulting religion, the FJP asserted, "constitutes a dangerous violation of law, tradition and social and intellectual norms in Egyptian society."
The US statement, the party added, "can only be seen as a US endorsement of [Egyptian] media personalities who insult religion." The FJP went on to stress its "absolute condemnation" of the state department's assertions.
Monday's strongly-worded statement by US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland was issued one day after Youssef was released on bail following charges that had insulted Egypt's president and the Islamic faith.
Youssef's Al-Bernameg show, which is inspired in part by Jon Stewart's Daily Show, is known for lampooning Morsi -- Egypt's first-ever freely-elected president -- and conservative Islamist holy mans.
Youssef's questioning by the authorities came after arrest warrants were also issued for five prominent anti-government activists accused of inciting violence.
Nuland asserted that the Egyptian government had apparently failed to show even-handedness when investigating cases of police brutality and attacks against anti-Morsi protesters and journalists.
Egypt's Public Prosecution, meanwhile, has denied that the recent arrests warrants were political in nature, asserting that they simply represented the application of Egyptian law.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2013 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] The United States has "real concerns" about the direction being taken by the Egyptian government following recent arrests and political violence, Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... said Tuesday.
"We have put a series of real choices to the government of Egypt, but in the end they have to make those choices," Kerry told news hounds after talks with his South Korean counterpart Yun Byung-se.
Kerry, who visited Egypt in March, unlocking some $250 million in US aid to help revive the economy, admitted President Barack Obama I inhaled. That was the point... and the administration "share real concerns about the direction that Egypt appears to be moving in."
"It is our hope that there is still time to be able to turn a corner," he said.
"But the recent arrests, the violence in the streets, the lack of inclusivity with respect to the opposition in public ways that make a difference to the people of Egypt, are all of concern today."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Even a blind pig can find an acorn once in a while. I wonder if the empty suit handlers will call Lurch in for a chat about not following the sweetness and light script vis a vis the Moslem Thugahood.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
04/03/2013 9:37 Comments ||
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#3
Remorse requires that the one feeling it understands he made a mistake, Pappy. More likely The Second Smartest Man in the Room believes such an expression of concern will result in things turning out as they ought. And if not, it is most certainly someone else's fault.
[Libya Herald] Funerals have been held for the military personnel killed at the headquarters of a southern region military command at Sebha.
The bodies of Colonel Musa Rizkallah Awami, a pilot, and Sami Mohamed Abdullah Abuaisha Barasi, a private, were returned from Sebha by military plane to Abraq Airport. From there they were taken to their respective home towns of Qubba and Beida, according to the Germa News Agency.
The victims' bodies were accompanied by members of the Sebha Local Council and some of their comrades.
The attack took place at 5am on Saturday morning. It is thought to have been carried out by smugglers in Dire Revenge™ for the military crackdown on their operations in the area.
Three other people were maimed in the assault -- two soldiers and one of the attackers. They are being treated in Sebha Medical Centre. One remains in a critical condition in intensive care, while the other two are said to be in a stable condition.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Kuwait's parliament on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed a bill to combat money laundering and funding of terror groups, stipulating jail terms of up to 20 years for violators.
Forty-five members, including all cabinet ministers present, voted for the bill while five MPs abstained. The law becomes effective after it is signed by the ruler of the oil-rich Gulf state.
The bill stipulates a jail term not exceeding 15 years for individuals convicted of funding terror organizations in addition to a fine of up to twice the sums used.
It also sets an imprisonment of up to 20 years for money laundering crimes if the violators are organised criminal or groups deemed terrorist and non-governmental organizations.
The legislation, which replaces an anti-money laundering law issued 12 years ago and described as ineffective, also dictates the confiscation of all funds involved in such crimes.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2013 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] Awami League Joint General Secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif yesterday said the process of banning Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... politics would be initiated soon.
The demand for banning the politics of Jamaat and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir ... the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh... has become louder these days following countrywide violence unleashed by the activists of the organizations.
Hanif made the observation while addressing a rally at Motijheel in the capital.
Jatiya Sramik League organised the rally in protest against the BNP-led 18-party's hartal ... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ... , and Jamaat-Shibir's countrywide violence in the last few weeks.
About Jamaat's attack on law enforcers, Hanif, also a special assistant to the prime minister, directed his party men to build resistance against such activities.
He also urged the opposition leader and BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ... to stop destructive activities in the name of hartal.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2013 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] Bloggers form a human chain before Raju memorial on Dhaka University campus yesterday demanding an immediate release of jugged Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! bloggers.
The blogger community, Shahbagh activists and ordinary citizens yesterday strongly condemned the arrest of three bloggers on charges of defaming Islam.
Terming the arrests an infringement of freedom of speech and an insult to democracy, they demanded immediate release of the bloggers.
The government has targeted the bloggers instead of taking action against the Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... and its allies, who are killing people, resorting to yellow journalism, spreading communal hatred and instigating violence, they added.
Imran H Sarker, the Gonojagoron Mancha spokesperson, said it saddened the nation that a government, which came to power pledging a "digital Bangladesh", had shut down a whole blog based on a few entries.
"When the very government that formed a tribunal to try war criminals takes a position against free-thinking and pro-liberation blogs, then the new generation asks, Et tu, Brute [You too, Brutus]?"
He was addressing a presser at Shahbagh yesterday afternoon.
In an overnight drive starting around 10:00pm Monday, law enforcers picked up the trio from different parts of the capital for placing "derogatory contents about Islam and Prophet Mohammad (PTUI!)" on various internet platforms.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2013 00:00 ||
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With only two weeks to go until yet another election in Venezuela, the campaign for the highest office in the land is becoming heated and very personal. Miranda State Governor Henrique Capriles Radonski has abandoned his deferential tone of 2012 to pound acting-President Nicolás Maduro with withering attacks both professional and personal. For Maduro's part, he has been desperately attempting to channel the spirit of Hugo Chávez.
[Maduro's] style is off-putting and he is seen as too scripted, like he is reading cue cards and getting instructions
While this is the first election in 15 years that does not feature the now-deceased president, you wouldn't know it to look around. Maduro talks almost exclusively about Chávez. His plan of government is the same one that Chávez ran on in 2012; on campaign stops he stands in front of huge posters of Chávez as he holds up pictures of Chávez; his hand gestures and speaking style are carefully coached to mimic the bombastic former president; and his campaign song features prominently a recording of Chávez' voice and the chorus goes "Chávez forever; Maduro President" (in Spanish it rhymes and is in fact quite catchy).
Only one major problem, Maduro is not Chávez.
Unfortunately for the un-inspiring Cuban-trained Marxist and former bus driver, the Venezuelan people are starting to realize this. According to a recent article in the Nuevo Herald citing internal polls and surveys, Maduro's campaign is suffering from a series of missteps.
First, they are overusing the image of Chávez which the voters correctly construe as attempts at manipulation. Maduro is seen as disingenuous, with many respondents believing he lied to the Venezuelan people about President Chávez's condition. His now-infamous botching of the funeral (reportedly causing PresidentsCristina Kirchner and Dilma Roussef to leave early) caused wide consternation.
His style is off-putting and he is seen as too scripted, like he is reading cue cards and getting instructions (which feeds into the narrative that the Cuban government controls him something which appears to be at least somewhat true).
All of this has led to a collapse in his polling by nine percent and to negatives that now exceed his positives. Even pro-government news sites only put him at 53 percent, with Miranda Governor Capriles climbing rapidly in the polls. According to the Herald, the difference is now only 7 percent.
This has led National Assembly deputies Stalin González y Freddy Guevara to denounce an aggressive campaign aimed at promoting opposition abstention at the polls (mostly through voter intimidation). If true, this is an odd move for the Maduro campaign, since in Venezuela abstention historically favors the opposition. In the constitutional referendum of 2007, the only vote that Chávez ever lost, abstention was at 44 percent compared to high turnout rates in the seventies in other votes.
If rumors of consternation in the Maduro camp are true, they are caught in a trap of their own design. After having used their endless unfair elections to legitimize the dismantling of their representative democracy and revoking all the corresponding natural rights and civil protections, they now have no other option but to push forward with their unpopular candidate. They are using all the same tricks that Chávez used for more than a decade; abuse of state resources, blanketing propaganda, threats and TV airtime takeovers. But this time, they are backfiring.
After having emptied their treasury for the 2012 elections, they have little money to hand out. In fact, Maduro has had to devalue the currency twice in 100 days to simply pay the bills, which has caused an increase in inflation and shortages. And the television airtime seems to be playing against Maduro; the more the Venezuelan people see him on TV, the less they like him.
To be sure, it is still an uphill battle for Venezuela's beleaguered opposition. The entire apparatus of a coercive state have been deployed against them. However, history has on different occasions shown that elections are not as easily controlled as the Maduro regime would wish. They have watched in Nicaragua, Zimbabwe, Serbia, Russia, Iran and Peru as elections marked a turning point for those regimes. Will Venezuela be next?
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/03/2013 00:00 ||
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Cults of personality tend to evaporate rapidly when the personality dies and you can't run a corpse for political office, although, in Chavez case, a corpse was running the government for about six months.
I guess the freezer burn and the green fuzz growing on Hugo was a give away. It's one thing to be duped by the hero, its another to be duped by his incompetent boob satrap.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
04/03/2013 9:32 Comments ||
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#2
After having emptied their treasury for the 2012 elections, they have little money to hand out
Sounds quite familiar, eh Ms. Wasserman?
Seriously, that Hugo's party is broke is likely the only thing keeping Maduro from being a shoo-in. The question is whether there'll be an anonymous benefactor prior to crunch-time.
#3
There is bluster and then there is insanity. Kimmie has pushed too far. If he does not start an incident or a war, he will be removed by Nork generals, in my semi-ignorant opinion.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/03/2013 17:54 Comments ||
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#4
...given the Chinese are about to make their 'historic' claims to the place to preclude some idiot pulling a trigger. I don't think the Chinese are prepared for an American grass roots boycott of anything 'Made in China'. Making and sticking lots of counterfeit stickers 'Made in -" is going to take time and stuff in transit becomes just write off.
#5
It is China that will order the Conventional andor Nuclear strikes that NOKOR will carry out.
Can vassal state North Korea survive overlord China's "post-US", future World #1 "Manifest Destiny" to be able to reunify wid the South???
As per FOXNEWS + CNN this Guam AM, North Korea = Jong-un has claimed any Nucstrike agz CONUS, etal. will not only be "merciless" but also "DIVERSIFIED" - IMO this latter term strongly infers utility of Advanced Nukes-WMDS aka NBC or CBRN(E) Weapons, to include covert transfer of advanced CHINESE WEAPONS to North Korea whose Military + Rocket Forces are actually controlled by a PLA Chinese General, NOT KIM JONG-UN + PYONGYANG BOYZ.
Again, by most accounts the DPRK lacks the LR milassets to hit Guam, Hawaii, + CONUS-NORAM.
Personally, I'm more concerned about a PLA-controlled, LR "DPRK" ICBM or Commando strike agz the CONUS Milbases/homeports of "sequestered" USDOD assets, E.G. SEVERAL "SEQUESTERED" USN NUCLEAR AIRCRAFT CARRIERS + USMC GATOR CARRIERS DOCKED AT NORFOLK NAVAL BASE UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE I.E. UNTIL THE US NAVY-DOD FINDS THE $$$ TO FUEL + PUT THEM BACK IN NORMAL OPERATIONS.
IOW, "DPRK" = SSSSSHHHHH CHINESE PLA "LIMITED STRIKES" AGZ HIGH-VALUE CONUS USDOD BASES + LIKELY WASHINGTON, DC ITSELF.
Preemptively cutting off the US-Allies MLS of COMMUNICATIONS, SUPPLY/LOGISTICS, + REINFORCEMENT [Intervention], ETC. FROM BACK IN CONUS = THE SOURCE.
Widout China + PLA espec PLA 2nd Arty, DPRK per se = IRAN + RADICAL ISLAM = ONLY DO [Nuke-WMD?]COMMANDO + TERROR STRIKES AGZ CONUS???
#6
Joe - I see tramp ships with Panamanian or Liberian papers, owned by Iranian controlled front companies approached at sea by NKor subs that offload NKor and other commie nukes onto these suicide ships. The ships then steam close to US land or assets. The Jihadist manning them then seek their paradise via a deadman switch.
Since the US is watching the NKors their hope is the Iranian angle is missed. In this bluster period leading up to the attack... while we watch NKor Iran works like a busy bee and the Chinese suzerainty of Pakiwakiland prepares its path to paradise too. A Trinity cluster F. with (a nod to the Golden Bow) secret forth (required of a Trinity) China being properly disassociated.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
04/03/2013 22:23 Comments ||
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#7
Tramp steamer is a good way to deliver a nuke if the other side is slow-witted and not looking. But a nuke is big, it emits radiation under the best of circumstances, and there's always the chance of an intel leak that gives the game away before the ship is where it has to go. An ICBM with an 80% probability of launch has better odds of getting your nuke where you want it to go.
But if we're distracted and not on guard, a tramp steamer of obscured registration, etc, etc, etc could slip by I suppose. I only imagine our bright boys and girls in the Navy have thought of this.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/03/2013 23:09 Comments ||
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ICBM - with %80 odds... Not likely from NKor.
Even if the Chinese or Paks give them primo equipment they are likely to screw it up. Look at their launch success rate. Actually the most likely delivered nuke is one built inside their embassy to the UN in NYNY.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
04/03/2013 23:20 Comments ||
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#10
Also, since forever the NKors have been running drugs out of their embassies all over the planet so they have an existing under the table criminal network that moves quantities of material all over the planet. Drugs, weapons, a-bombs its all covert freight and warehouses. They have the network now.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
04/03/2013 23:25 Comments ||
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The Pentagon said on Wednesday it was sending an advanced ballistic missile defense system to Guam in the coming weeks, describing the move as a precaution against North Korea's regional ballistic missile threat.
The Defense Department is deploying a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense System (THAAD), which includes a truck-mounted launcher, interceptor missiles, a AN/TPY-2 tracking radar and an integrated fire control system.
"The United States remains vigilant in the face of North Korean provocations and stands ready to defend U.S. territory, our allies, and our national interests," a Pentagon spokeswoman said.
#4
Personally, I'm more concerned about LR Submarine COMMANDO = SPECOPS agz Guam, as followed by massive PLA Airborne assault + strategic heavy bombing [CAS]. IMO at worse Guam may suffer one eor more EMP strikes in high atmosphere to knockout or disable local USDOD Communications + SIGINT, LANS + WANS.
GIVEN THE DISTANCE FROM NE ASIA + CHINA'S COASTS, GUAM = TAIWAN = PLA MAY HAVE DECIDED THAT HIGH CASUALTIES AMONG ITS TROOPS IS NOT A MAJOR FACTOR - ALL THAT MATTERS IS THAT GUAM = TAIWAN IS TAKEN BY AIRBORNE + COMMANDO/SPECOPS COMBAT ASSAULT NO MATTER THE LOSSES.
GUAM = TAIWAN = DAMAGED, BUT NOT DESTROYED NOR HEAVILY RADIOACTIVE FOR USE AS A PLA MILBASE.
China is an Old World Power rediscovering its gonads - as wid any other World Nation it does NOT want its economy or country to be destroyed or heavily damaged, nor to rule over foreign same.
"RISING" CHINA = ACTUALLY "RESURGENT/REASSERTIVE" CHINA, + IS MILPOL "EXPANSIONIST".
Again, China desires to ...
> have the ROK + Japan leave the US Security Umbrella + realign wid China. 'MAHANIST" RISING CHINA WANTS IT OVERSEAS MILBASES FOR THE PLA VEE TAIWAN + THE "FIRST ISLAND CHAIN".
> China-led "ASIAN UNION" wid ROK + Japan, etc. as members.
> To keep SCO-CSTO + "strategic partner" Russia neutral, which won't be iff radiation clouds fly over the RFE from China-nuked/destroyed Japan + ROK.
> CHINA HAS SAID ON THE MSM-NET THAT IT DOES NOT WANT TO SEE ITS MODERNIZING GLOBAL ECONOMY DAMAGED OR DESTROYED VIA REGIONAL WARFARE.
China wants "strategic access", espec vee control of TAIWAN, but its NOT getting it, HENCE MAY HAVE DECIDED TO FORCE THE ISSUE IN EAST ASIA.
CHINA HAS TIMES SAID ON THE MSM-NET THAT IT FAVORS "SHARING" ASIA-PACIFIC OR THE PACIFIC WID THE US, BUT ALL IT SEES IS THE US ENTRENCHING EVERYHWERE WHILE CHINA REMAINS ISOLATED TO ITS COASTS.
Taken collectively, the above strongly infers that the "DPRK" = China may resort to LOCAL?MIXED/HYBRID WARFARE using Conventional forces as well as Limited Nuclear Strikes [Tactical].
LEST WE FERGIT, as per 1990'S NET > ...
> SINO-RUSSIAN "WAR AGZ THE US IS NOT ONLY POSSIBLE, BUT DESIRED", circa Year 2018 plus-minus.
> CHINA MAY NEED UP A MINIMA 1/2 [OR MORE?] OF CONUS OR CONUS-NORAM FOR "LIVING SPACE" DUE TO ITS MASSIVE POPULATION [current + projected].
> SINO-RUSSIAN ANTI-US "BATTLE ZONE/LOCAL ZONE" = "BATTLE GROUP", "ACTIVE DEFENSE" MIL OR WAR STRATEGIES, utilizing Airborne, Rapid-deployment/Reaction, SPECOPS forces, INTEL-PYWAR, Rapid Reinforcement espec Nuclear Arty units, + using High Technology or New Technologies.
Nuclearized, Enemy Military-controlled/defended enclaves as formerly part of US sovereign territory(s), as also supported by "Great Power " Nuclear "Brinkmanship".
* WORLD NEWS > [Sky News] NORTH KOREA ARMY: "WAR COULD BREAK OUT TODAY [or Tomorrow]".
FOX NEWS, CNN AM > "The MOMENT OF EXPLOSION" COULD OCCUR ANY TIME.
* ALso from SKY NEWS > SOUTH KOREA WARNS
MILITARY ACTION AN "OPTION".
* WORLD NEWS > [The Australian] "REAL + PRESENT DANGER" FROM PYONGYANG, SAYS US DEFENSE SECRETARY CHUCK HAGEL OF NORTH KOREA.
* DRUDGEREPORT > [Free Beacon] MILITARY BUILDUP CONTINUES IN CHINA NEAR NORTH KOREAN BORDER AS TANKS, ARMORED VEHICLES [ + Fighter Aircraft] SPOTTED, in Liaoning + Heilongjiang Provinces.
* 1ST HEADLINES > [Boston Globe] FORMER OBAMA WMD CZAR [Gary Samore]: "VERY UNLIKELY" THAT DIPLOMACY [alone] WILL END IRAN, NORTH KOREA NUKE PROGRAMS.
-----------------
Iff things don't work out well for the US, I suspect that HUGO CHAVEZ' + 1960's-70's GUAM TAOTAMONAS' LAND-SINKING "TECTONIC/EARTHQUAKE BOMBS" MAY BE AN OPTION FOR THE US IFF CHINA DEMANDS IT ROLL BACK ACROSS THE PACIFIC TO AVOID A NUCLEAR WAR.
Again, CHINA = reiterated it would like to see US power-n-influence isolated or contained to EASTPAC - US West Coast + Hawaii only - come 2020
or ASAP afterward. PROB SAFE TO PRESUME THAT CHINA WILL DEMAND THAT THE US SERIOUSLY DOWNSIZE PEARL HARBOR + US PACIFIC COMMAND, ETC. ASETS/FORCES BASED IN HAWAII.
[CELINE "TITANIC" DION, CAPT. GEORGE "PERFECT STORM" CLOONEY, + USN BATTLESHIP USS "OKALAHOMA" here].
The U.S. Navy has moved a sea-based radar platform and a state-of-the-art guided missile destroyer to waters off the Korean Peninsula to track possible North Korean provocations.
The U.S. Navy moved the sea-based X-band radar platform from the Pacific closer to the North Korean coast, according to CNN. The SBX radar platform has the advanced capability to track ballistic missiles. It was the U.S. Navy's first response to the North's ever-ominous belligerent rhetoric.
When the North launched a rocket late last year, the U.S. Navy sent the SBX radar platform from Hawaii to waters near the Philippines to monitor the North's military moves, a U.S. Defense Department official said.
The SBX radar platform is a key part of the U.S.' missile defense system. It is a floating, self-propelled mobile radar station mounted on a semi-submersible drilling rig and is 85 m high and 116 m long. It costs W1 trillion (US$1=W1,119). It is capable of tracking an object the size of a baseball about 4,800 km away, monitors missile launches, and send information to a missile interceptor base.
The U.S. also moved the USS McCain guided missile destroyer nearer to the Korean Peninsula. "The USS McCain was last dispatched here ahead of the impending North Korean rocket launch last December," a Defense Ministry official said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/03/2013 10:31 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
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#1
This is serious. It is one of the few ways the North can get hard currency and is very important. Closing this may mean that they aren't blustering. They are going to war.
Hopefully it is a bluff and they open it in a few days again, but I would have all western units on full alert.
Pudge is using the same playbook as dear departed Kimmie, make a lot of racket, get provocative, turn on the lights down at the local reactor, and march your tin soilders around next to the DMZ.
The UN, ROK, Japan, China, and the US are supposed to rush in and throw money and food at NORK so they will make nice.
I think we should call his bluff. His army is phoney, they haven't fought a war in a bizzilion years, their leadership is corrupt and how do you get so many medals for doing nothing but march in parades on some one's birthday?
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
04/03/2013 9:27 Comments ||
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#3
Negotiating with a gun to their own head. All a ploy for money and food aid.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/03/2013 9:42 Comments ||
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#5
Well, apparently *someone* is listening north of the border. Analysts were running around saying "oh, Kaesong is still open, this is all playacting" in the English press. So, they closed Kaesong. Now they're super cereal. It's a better sign than if they had started out with the industrial park closed, but it's still not great.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
04/03/2013 10:28 Comments ||
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#6
Well, apparently *someone* is listening north of the border
Well, yes. The Chinese have moved additional, additional troops to the border.
#7
Unlike the US, the Chinese are very discriminating with regard to people who wish to cross their borders. Attractive, young Nork housemaids are one thing, but hundreds of thousands, or a few million refugees suffering from radiation sickness is yet another.
#12
The paranoid take I've seen is that the Chinese are moving more to restrain US than the Norks.
That's logical rather than paranoid. Any ransom we pay to Kim is a direct subsidy to China. This is why giving Kim any money is a mistake. China will keep Kim standing at any financial cost. If China pushes into North Korea, I expect South Korea will do the same, while demanding that Chinese troops retire to the Yalu River. It's even possible that North Korean troops will turn their guns on the Chinese.
#13
"It's even possible that North Korean troops will turn their guns on the Chinese."
I'll order more popcorn. :-D
Posted by: Barbara ||
04/03/2013 18:43 Comments ||
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#14
a few million refugees suffering from radiation sickness is yet another.
To a Western country that provides humanitarian assistance to refugees, having too many of them is a problem. The Chinese let them fend for themselves. At worst, they set aside a Superfund site as a mass grave for all the dead refugees. They talk a good game about being worried about refugees, but what they're really worried about is not refugees per se, but the prospect of Kim's collapse. Regardless of all the propaganda out there, it's always the people who feed the government rather than the other way around. As it is, under the current economic system, there aren't enough North Koreans to keep the government fed, which is why the Chinese are sending Kim billions in annual subsidies. Losing a few million productive North Koreans might precipitate the collapse of the regime. It was these massive population movements that precipitated the collapse of the Warsaw Pact, as border controls were lifted.
MANILA, Philippines--It continues to be "business as usual" in South Korea despite a declaration of war by North Korea, but the Philippines has readied a contingency plan for its nationals in case the situation worsens, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).
Assistant Secretary Raul Hernandez, the DFA spokesman, said the Philippine Embassy in Seoul had long put in place a step-by-step plan to protect the 40,000 or so Filipinos on the Korean Peninsula in the event tensions between North and South exploded. Reports indicate situation is grave. Champ appears to be staying close to home.
A veteran technocrat who led North Korea's tentative economic reforms a decade ago has again become prime minister of the impoverished country. According to the official KCNA news agency on Monday, Pak Pong-ju's appointment was confirmed by the Supreme People's Assembly.
Pak already served as prime minister from 2003 until 2007 with the backing of former leader Kim Jong-il. A government official here said it is rare for a figure with no blood ties to the ruling family to make a successful comeback. "Pak's life is like a movie," the official added.
A horror film, in fact...
Pak's appointment was anticipated on Sunday, when the Workers Party's Central Committee appointed him to the 15-member Politburo. North Korea's eminence grise Jang Song-taek and his wife Kim Kyong-hui, Kim Jong-il's sister, are also members.
Pak is a career technocrat and has held several key posts. He came to the leadership's attention when he was a secretary at a state-run chemical factory from 1983 to 1993 and was given a vice ministerial post overseeing light industry. In 1998, he was appointed minister for the chemicals industry, and in 2002 he visited South Korea with Jang as part of an economic delegation.
Bet he was a good slurper in that time too, made sure the money went to the right places and kept Kimmie in cognac...
He was first appointed prime minister in September 2003. Kim Jong-il, shocked during visits in 2000 and 2001 by Chinas rapid economic development, entrusted Pak with overhauling the moribund North Korean economy.
But things turned sour in 2005, when the open-air markets that were springing up across North Korea struck hardliners as one economic freedom too far. South Korean products began to appear in the markets, sparking fears of a full-scale invasion of capitalism.
We could have wished; they would have ended up like East Germany which is just what the hardliners feared.
Reactionaries like then-party finance director Pak Nam-gi struck back, causing Pak Bong-ju to lose most of his powers until he was sacked in 2007 and sent to manage a textile factory in South Pyongan Province.
But in August 2010 he was back as vice minister for light industry, his appointment coming just a month before Suet Face Kim Jong-un was anointed as his father's successor to the North Korean throne.
North Korea watchers doubt Pak will be as bold as in the past. Ryu Dong-ryeol of the Police Science Institute said, "There is a chance of limited and cautious reforms being announced, but Pak will play it safe because he won't want to get sacked again."
Some intelligence officials here even speculate that Pak is being set up as the fall guy for the North's dismal economic state.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/03/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
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#1
As per BHARAT RAKSHAK, Jong-un repor has GERMAN ADVISORS counseling him on the DPRK Economy???
#2
Pak Pong-ju has been in and out of NORK govt since the early 1960s. Rumor is that the PRC demanded that he be appointed and that one of the important Pak Pong-ju assignments is making sure that only PRC allies are able to steal govt funds.
Posted by: lord garth ||
04/03/2013 9:53 Comments ||
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[An Nahar] U.N. chief the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... warned Tuesday that the Korean peninsula crisis could spiral out of control, after North Korea announced it would restart a nuclear reactor to feed its atomic weapons program.
"Nuclear threats are not a game," Ban said, responding to a series of aggressive statements by Pyongyang that have prompted the deployment of nuclear-capable U.S. B-52s, B-2 stealth bombers and a U.S. destroyer to South Korea.
The North's announcement earlier Tuesday that it would reopen Yongbyon reactor -- its source of weapons-grade plutonium -- triggered international alarm.
The Korean peninsula has been caught in a cycle of escalating tensions since the North's February nuclear test, which followed a long-range rocket launch in December.
Subsequent U.N. sanctions and annual South Korea-U.S. military exercises have been used by Pyongyang to justify a wave of increasingly dire threats against Seoul and Washington, including warnings of missile strikes and nuclear war.
The U.N. secretary general called for calm.
"The current crisis has already gone too far," the former South Korean foreign minister told a presser in Andorra.
"Things must begin to calm down," he said, adding that negotiations were the only viable way forward.
"I'm convinced that nobody intends to attack the DPRK because of a disagreement about its nuclear system... however I'm afraid that others will respond firmly to any military provocation," he said.
The United States called on China and Russia to do more to rein in North Korea, after Beijing earlier voiced regret over Pyongyang's announcement.
White House front man Jay Carney said the North's decision to reopen its Yongbyon plant was "another indication" of Pyongyang "violating its international obligations."
"It is not a mystery to anyone that China has influence with North Korea," Carney told news hounds.
"We have in the past and are now urging China to use that influence to try to affect North Korean behavior. That is also true of our (conversations) with the Russians."
The U.N. atomic agency described the North's decision to restart the reactor as "deeply regrettable".
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Commies
#1
...and yet precious metals are closing lower than they opened today. Smoke screen? Are we watching the wrong, although riveting, ball...?
SEOUL -- Thumbing its nose again at the international community, North Korea announced Tuesday that it would restart a nuclear reactor that was closed in 2007 under a six-nation disarmament agreement. Although Pyongyang claimed in the past that the reactor's purpose was to generate electricity, this time the regime declared outright it would also be "bolstering up the nuclear armed force both in quantity and in quality."
Yongbyon was meant first and foremost to produce new plutonium for bombs. Any electricity it generates is a by-product of that.
"I have to say this is one of the most dangerous moments since 1953," said Shi Yinhong, a professor of international relations at Beijing's Renmin University, referring to the end of the Korean War.
North Korea's sole nuclear reactor, located in the Soviet-era Yongbyon nuclear complex 55 miles north of Pyongyang, was mothballed in October 2007, when a disarmament deal was hammered out with the U.S., China, Japan, South Korea and Russia. At the time, North Korea theatrically blew up the cooling tower in front of television cameras to show its sincerity.
Cooling towers are easy enough to rebuild, as we'll see in the coming days.
The plutonium used in two previous nuclear tests, in 2006 and 2009, was extracted from spent fuel rods from the Yongbyon plant. It is not clear whether the most recent nuclear test in February used plutonium or uranium. In any case, North Korea's announcement Tuesday, quoting a spokesman for the General Department of Atomic Energy, said a uranium enrichment plant was among the facilities to be restarted.
"North Korea is putting into practice what they said earlier -- that they would strengthen the economy and the nuclear program," said Dr. Park Syung-je, an analyst with the Seoul-based Asia Strategy Institute. "North Korea has led the rest of the world on with lies, saying that nuclear power generation is their top priority. However, with such an announcement, North Korea has proven themselves that nuclear development was their actual priority."
Some of us knew that all along...
Although brinkmanship and blusters are hallmarks of Pyongyang's negotiating strategy, this time experts are more alarmed because of the inexperience of 30-year-old leader Kim Jong Un, who took over after the death of his father, Kim Jong Il, in December 2011.
"Kim Jong Il, for all his faults, turned out to be very savvy about just how far he could go. He was very good at keeping North Korea in the position of public enemy No. 2," said Scott Snyder, an analyst at the Council on Foreign Relations. "I'm not sure Fat Boy Kim Jong Un has that sense. He is on the verge of becoming public enemy No. 1, and that could be a fatal mistake."
Pudgy might want to remember what happened to Saddam...
You mean back when George W. Bush was the president?
Snyder said he did not believe North Korea intends to start a war.
"The risk is really related to miscalculation," he said.
The Chinese, ordinarily the closest allies of the Communist state, have supported the U.N. Security Council measures against North Korea and are clearly frustrated.
No, they aren't clearly frustrated until they stop shipping fuel oil across the border.
Last week, Deng Yuwen, an editor at the Party School, Beijing's top institute for training Communist cadres, was suspended from his duties for writing in an editorial in the Financial Times that China should abandon its alliance. But the thought has been widely expressed among Chinese foreign policy experts.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/03/2013 00:00 ||
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[4 views]
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#1
Please send them Jimmy Carter again, but this time tell the NORKs not to return him.
Posted by: lord garth ||
04/03/2013 1:05 Comments ||
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#2
It is a 5 MW graphite moderated research reactor. Negligible electrical generation capacity. About one bombs worth of plutonium produced a year.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/03/2013 13:39 Comments ||
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[Dawn] The construction of a border checkpost has sparked a new feud between Pakistain and neighbouring Afghanistan, with the latter already having accused the other of cross-border shelling and trying to undermine prospects of peace with the Afghan Taliban.
In a meeting with Pakistain Ambassador to Afghanistan Mohammad Sadiq on Monday, Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Jawed Ludin expressed his concerns over what it called "Pak military's unilateral construction and physical reinforcement activities along the Durand Line."
According to the Afghan deputy foreign minister, the construction of the Pak military checkpost close to the Goshta district of Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. province is "against all accepted international norms, provocative and unacceptable to the Afghan government."
"According to Afghan border police reports, these unilateral activities began a while ago along the Durand Line near the villages of Hatam Kalai and Kodzarai in Goshta district," said a blurb issued by the Afghan foreign ministry.
Pakistain, however, brushed aside Ludin's concerns, calling the construction work routine renovation on an old post.
"Pakistain has an old post called Gursal well inside Pak territory bordering Nangarhar Province of Afghanistan, which is under routine renovation," said Foreign Office front man Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry on Tuesday.
According to recently signed agreements, both countries are required to inform the other of any new construction closer to border areas.
"Despite being a renovation work Pakistain as a gesture of goodwill shared this information with the Afghan side. The same was also shared with the Afghan visiting delegation to Mohmand Agency ... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar... on 24 January 2013," said a Pak foreign office blurb.
"Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Jawed Ludin's recent concerns about construction and physical reinforcement along the Afghan border are therefore not in keeping with the spirit of the understanding on good border management and the recently signed Tripartite Border SOP," it added.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
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#1
The "tensions" come from the tolls and bribes the PAK Frontier Corps will collect from the newly renovated border post. The PAK renovations will no doubt be matched by establishment of a new post and toll collection point by Afghan Border Patrol (ABP). The smuggling will continue, it will simply cost a bit more.
Time to start seething, must be Rama dama ding dong time.
Thousands of Palestinian prisoners began a planned three-day hunger strike this morning in protest of the death of a Palestinian inmate who died of cancer yesterday, while in Israeli custody.
The Palestine News Network writes that some 4,500 Palestinian prisoners sent back their food this morning as part of a protest over the death of Maisara Abu Hamdiyeh, a 64-year-old Hamas member who was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in February. The Palestinian establishment widely blames his death, the cause of which has not yet been conclusively determined, on Israel for failing to provide him with adequate care, reports Haaretz.
"The Israeli refusal to address our appeals to release [Abu Hamdiyeh] led to a deterioration in his condition," Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said. "We turned to many countries and to the international community to act on behalf of the Palestinian prisoners but Israel did not sway from its position."
#1
Sounds to me like this could be a problem fixing itself. Since 3 days isn't sufficient, just stop giving them food and ensure they have lots and lots of water. Wouldn't want them to suffer dehydration.
For some infinitely small probability above zero, sure.
[An Nahar] Khaled Meshaal's reelection as leader of Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, provides a chance for the Islamist group to improve ties with the international community, analysts say. Just another Arab tough guy. I dunno how different things are today than they were the day before he was "reelected."
The veteran leader was chosen Monday to serve another four-year term despite indications he might be forced aside by the movement's powerful and more radical leadership in Gaza.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] The Military Appeals Court ordered on Tuesday the release on bail of a man suspected of involvement in a deadly attack on the army in the northeastern town of Arsal, the state-run National News Agency reported.
The court's presiding judge, Alice Shabtini, ordered the release of Naufal al-Hujairi on a LL1 million bail, NNA said.
Her ruling came despite a request by Military Examining Magistrate Fadi Sawan to uphold the decision to keep him in jug.
The news agency said that four other suspects have requested Sawan to order their release.
Two Lebanese soldiers were killed in February when members of an gang ambushed their patrol that was in the area to pursue a suspect wanted on terrorism charges.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2013 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.
[Al Ahram] State body the General Authority for Investment (GAFI) has warned television channel CBC it will revoke its licence if prominent satirist Bassem Youssef's weekly show 'El-Bernameg' does not comply with the standards of the media free zone, where the channel is based.
[Al Ahram] The United States has "real concerns" about the direction being taken by the Egyptian government following recent arrests and political violence, Secretary of State 
[Bangla Daily Star] Awami League Joint General Secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif yesterday said the process of banning 
The U.S. Navy has moved a sea-based radar platform and a state-of-the-art guided missile destroyer to waters off the Korean Peninsula to track possible North Korean provocations.
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
Mohmand Agency
