[PULSE.NG] Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika ... 10th president-for-life of Algeria. He was elected in 1999 and is currently on his third or fourth term. Maybe it's the fifth.... on Monday confirmed he will stay in power beyond his term expiring next month, despite tens of thousands of people demonstrating against his rule.
Bouteflika announced on March 11 he was withdrawing from his bid for a fifth term, initially sparking elation among protesters before they realised he would be remain in office beyond his term.
The ailing 82-year-old also scrapped the election set for April 18 and announced he was rolling out reforms through a "national conference".
Rarely seen in public since a 2013 stroke, Bouteflika issued a statement on Monday which confirmed his new plan would see him stay in power for months beyond the expiry of his term on April 28.
"(I hope) that Algeria experiences, in the near future, a harmonious transition and assists handing over the reins to a new generation," he said in the statement carried by state media.
"This is the ultimate goal that I have committed to making a reality before the end of my presidential mandate, at your side and at your service," added Bouteflika, who has ruled Algeria for 20 years.
While Bouteflika has given no timetable for his national conference, he said the shake-up of Algeria's "political, economic and social systems" would start "in the very near future".
A constitutional review would be put before a referendum, he said, which would be "a prelude to a new electoral process that will see the election of a new president."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2019 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] China says it has incarcerated Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! nearly 13,000 people it describes as Lions of Islam in the traditionally Islamic region of Xinjiang since 2014 and broken up hundreds of "terrorist gangs".
The figures were included in a government report on the situation in the restive northwestern territory that seeks to respond to growing criticism over the internment of an estimated 1 million members of the Uighur and other predominantly Moslem ethnic groups.
China describes the camps as vocational training centres and says participation is voluntary.
Former detainees say they were held in abusive conditions, forced to renounce Islam and swear allegiance to China's ruling Communist Party.
The lengthy report issued Monday also says "law-based de-radicalisation" in Xinjiang has curbed the rise and spread of religious extremism.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2019 00:00 ||
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[PULSE.NG] Ottoman Turkish President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey... drew a sharp rebuke from New Zealand Monday for using controversial video shot by the Christchurch mosque gunman as an election campaign prop.
Erdogan, campaigning for local elections this month, has presented the attack as part of an assault on The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the most dubious NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and structure.... ally.... and Islam more broadly and projected the video of the killings at his rallies over the weekend.
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters protested on Monday that such politicisation of the massacre "imperils the future and safety of the New Zealand people and our people abroad, and it's totally unfair".
Peters announced on Tuesday that he would be travelling to Turkey this week at Istanbul's request to attend a special meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2019 00:00 ||
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#1
such politicisation of the massacre "imperils the future and safety of the New Zealand people and our people abroad, and it's totally unfair".
It also tarnishes our virtue-signaling and reduces the chance that the crocodile will eat us last.
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Ottoman Turkish people will not allow Istanbul to become Constantinople, President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey... said on Monday, in reference to the city’s former Christian name, which was reportedly referenced by the attacker who recently carried out an act of terrorism on two mosques in New Zealand.
"The terrorist attack in New Zealand is a signal of certain circles addressed to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...Qatar's colony in Asia Minor.... . The enemies of Moslems have shown that they continue to hate us. We are ready to resist and speak loudly about it in Canakkale... Ottoman Turkish people will always live on these lands, they will not allow Istanbul to be turned into Constantinople," he said while speaking in the northwestern city of Canakkale which marked the 104th anniversary of the Ottoman Turkish troops’ victory over the Entente powers (Britannia and La Belle France) in the Dardanelles Campaign during World War I.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2019 00:00 ||
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#1
...Istanbul, not Constantinople.
Got it. ;)
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/19/2019 4:27 Comments ||
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#2
Alexis, I'll take cultural appropriation for $200.
[Daily Wire] On Saturday, a Muslim doctor who has been highly critical of radical Islam appeared on CNN and must have given that network heart palpitations as she insisted that in many parts of the Muslim world, not only is President Trump beloved, but so is former President George W. Bush, and that the Trump administration is not Islamophobic.
Dr. Qanta Ahmed, who hails from Great Britain, stated, "One thing the viewers should know, this president and this administration is often castigated as Islamophobic, but I move in the Muslim word, in Egypt, in Oman, in Jordan, in Iraqi Kurdistan, where this president is beloved. This president and the Republican Party going back to George Bush is very dearly held. Today is the anniversary of Halabja, the massacre of 180,000 Kurds at the hands of Saddam Hussein. That only change would [be] because of a Republican president. So it is very important not to lose so much perspective that we start believing our entire government is Islamophobic. That is not the case."
Ahmed added, "I did see his very categorical condemnation of the events in New Zealand and that was gratifying. And I also feel that he needs to do the same about white supremacy, not only the United States, but globally. There is nothing ‐ the president has no responsibility if a fanatic mentions him in a manifesto. A fanatic could equally mention me. So I don't think that is his responsibility. But, yes, I would like to see President Trump condemn all forms of lethal bigotry."
#1
Yes. For lefties, the only way DJT could effectively denounce Charlotte or Christchurch would be to cut his own throat on live TV. OF course, that's neither realistic nor going to happen. So they, lefties, are miffed...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/19/2019 8:07 Comments ||
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#2
We recently had another article about Professor Ahmed. She’s the one who considers herself an accidental Zionist.
[DAWN] The World Health Organisation has conceded that government and its partner organizations in polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set... eradication campaign are responsible for the failure to achieve the target of eliminating the poliovirus.
The world health agency stressed the need for joint efforts to make the country free of the crippling vaccine-preventable childhood ailment.
"As partner of the government in vaccination, we are accountable for polio eradication activities and there is strict accountability framework. There are many examples of termination of services and warning letters given for poor performing staff," Dr Nima Saeed Abid, the WHO representative in Pakistain, told Dawn.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2019 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] The deadly terror attack on two mosques in New Zealand is "another grim reminder" of rampant Islamophobia ...the irrational fear that Moslems will act the way they usually do... sweeping the world, Pakistain's permanent representative to the UN, Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi, told a gathering of delegates on Sunday.
The senior diplomat was addressing a side-event on "Breaking Stereotypes: Moslem Women as agents of change", one of the four events organised by her, at the UN Commission on the Status of Women, a global gathering of women activists,
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2019 00:00 ||
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#1
I associate it with a hatred of and not a fear of Islam
[IsraelTimes] In Geneva, the US ambassador to Germany leads protests outside the UN over what he terms the "bigotry" faced by Israel at the Human Rights Council, as nations weigh condemnations of the Jewish state.
Several hundred people join the protests which are largely focused on the council’s so-called Agenda Item 7, a fixture on the council’s schedule exclusively devoted to resolutions condemning Israel’s treatment of the Paleostinians.
Israel is the only country with a dedicated agenda item, which is one of the main factors that prompted the United States to leave the rights council last year.
"This is not just a form of bigotry. It is a sign of intellectual and moral decay," US envoy Richard Grenell tells the crowd.
"Like a drug-addiction, anti-Semitism is both a disease and a source of comfort" for states that habitually condemn Israel at the UN, says Grenell, who stirred controversy in Germany last year over his stated ambition to promote conservatives throughout Europe.
The protests were organized by the Geneva-based NGO UN Watch, which seeks to flag alleged anti-Israel bias within the UN, among other issues.
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) ‐ Iraqi army chief-of-staff Lieutenant General Othman al-Ghanmi said on Monday that the border crossing between Syria and Iraq will open soon, a step which is expected to help increase the volume of trade exchange between the two Arab neighbors.
"The coming days will witness the opening of the border crossing between Syria and Iraq, as well as the exchange of visits and two-way trade," Almaalomah news website quoted Ghanmi as speaking at a presser in Damascus.
He further highlighted high-level coordination "between the Syrian and Iraqi armies to face terrorism," stressing that Syria’s security is part and parcel of Iraq’s security.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/19/2019 00:00 ||
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[Rudaw] Syrian president Bashir al-Assad’s regime will regain full control over jihadist-held Idlib and northern areas controlled by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) "sooner or later", Syrian defense minister Ali Abdullah Ayyoub told news hounds Monday.
Following a meeting in Damascus with Iran and Iraq’s chiefs of staff, designed to strengthen ties between the three militaries, Ayyoub said the United States has only one card left to play in Syria ‐ the SDF.
"Preserving the unity of the Syrian state geographically and human-wise is not negotiable and not up for discussion," Ayyoub told a presser in the Syrian capital alongside Iran’s Mohammad Bagheri and Iraq’s Othman al-Ghanimi.
"The Syrian state will regain full control over all of its geography sooner or later, whether through reconciliation or military force. Idlib won’t be an exception at all," he added.
US forces are stationed in Syria illegally, Ayyoub said, unlike regime-backers Russia and Iran whose forces were formally invited by the Syrian government. He predicted the US would eventually leave.
"There won’t be any area of Syrian soil outside the government control," he added.
Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib is currently under the control of the former al-Qaeda affiliate Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). An estimated three million people remain inside the province, including thousands who fled former rebel bastions in Daraa and the suburbs of Damascus. A shaky truce brokered by Russia and opposition-backer The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire.... has so far prevented a bloody regime offensive.
Several northern areas, including the Kurdish canton of Afrin, are held by Ottoman Turkish forces and Ottoman Turkish-backed Syrian opposition groups. To the east of the Euphrates River, meanwhile, Kurdish parties have carved out an autonomous administration. Here the SDF is leading the ground war in Deir ez-Zor, near the Iraqi border, to uproot the last holdouts of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS).
Spooked by the prospect of an imminent US withdrawal, the Kurds of northern Syria (Rojava) have expressed a readiness to negotiate with the regime to secure some level of cultural autonomy should the regime retake the territory. Striking a deal with Damascus could prevent a feared Ottoman Turkish offensive.
The Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), negotiating on behalf of the Rojava Kurds, has said the regime appears unwilling to compromise. The regime meanwhile has accused the US of trying to sabotage negotiations.
"America and others will leave Syria as they have left other areas since their presence is illegitimate and rejected," Ayyoub told news hounds.
"As for what is related to the so-called SDF, the rationale of the state and citizenship stipulates for the sons of the homeland to stand by their state and army, irrespective of the existence of differing political visions, but it shouldn’t reach the point of carrying arms against the army dedicated to preserving the security of the homeland and citizen," he said.
The army will "liberate" areas east of Euphrates if the SDF shows it is unwilling to pursue reconciliation and heed the authority of the state, he added.
General Bagheri, the visiting Iranian chief of staff, told reports Tehran is prepared to stand by the Syrian government in its efforts to reassert control over every inch of Syrian territory.
Syrian President Assad has previously made it clear he intends to retake areas outside regime control and has threatened the SDF with military action if it refuses to accept rule from Damascus.
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03/19/2019 00:00 ||
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[Rudaw] The US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff described a media report that said the United States is planning to keep 1,000 forces in Syria as "factually incorrect."
"There has been no change to the plan announced in February and we continue to implement the president's direction to draw down US forces to a residual presence," added Gen. Joseph Dunford in a statement released on Sunday night.
Dunford was refuting a report by The Wall Street Journal published on Sunday. Citing US anonymous officials,
Oh. Well if it was anonymous officials...
the article reported that the United States would keep 1,000 military forces in Syria.
The figure represents nearly half of the forces the Pentagon claims are in the country supporting the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) against ISIS in eastern Syria and at the At Tanf garrison on the Iraq-Syria-Jordan border.
US troops remaining in Syria is at odds with US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... 's announcement in December of a full troop withdrawal.
The report added that the decision to keep troops in Syria comes as The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... , Kurdish factions, Europe, and the United States have failed to establish a safe zone between Ottoman Turkish forces and the predominately-Kurdish SDF.
Additionally, the source reportedly told the WSJ that keeping 1,000 forces in Syria was required because European and regional allies have failed to pledge to deploy their forces in the country, thus allowing for a US draw down.
Dunford struck a positive note, claiming that military planning between Washington and their NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and structure.... allies in Ankara have been "productive."
"Further, we continue to conduct detailed military planning with the Ottoman Turkish General Staff to address Ottoman Turkish security concerns along the Turkey-Syria border. Planning to date has been productive and we have an initial concept that will be refined in the coming days," he added in his statement.
The SDF have repeatedly hinted that they are close to routing a remaining 5,000 ISIS fighters and their families from their final bastion east of the Euphrates in besieged Baghouz.
However, denial ain't just a river in Egypt... the final stage of Jazira Storm has dragged on since May 2018 and the SDF and coalition say they have slowed the operation because the Death Eaters are using human shields.
US Special Representative for Syria Engagement James Jeffrey said at the Munich Security Conference on February 17 that the US withdrawal would not be abrupt.
Damascus (IraqiNews.com) ‐ A pro-Syrian government newspaper has claimed that the military chiefs of staff of Syria, Iran and Iraq will meet soon in Damascus to discuss anti-terrorism efforts.
Al-Watan daily gave no further details about the timing or location of the meeting.
Iran is a key supporter of Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Horror of Homs... and is also a close ally of Iraq.
After withdrawing from the 2015 deal on Iran’s nuclear program, the US reimposed sanctions on Tehran in two rounds, the second of which targeting the country’s key oil and banking sectors took effect on November 5, 2018.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani left Iraq on Wednesday en route to Tehran following a three-day visit to the country, during which he held talks with his Iraqi counterpart Barham Salih, as well as Prime Minister Adil Abdul Mahdi.
The visit was only meant to discuss a role that could be played by Iraq in mitigating the U.S. sanctions against Iran.
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.
Bouteflika
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey...
...the irrational fear that Moslems will act the way they usually do...
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
