h/t Instapundit
More people in Europe are dying than are being born, according to a new report co-authored by a Texas A&M University demographer. In contrast, births exceed deaths, by significant margins, in Texas and elsewhere in the U.S., with few exceptions. what would Kipling say?
#3
The US is NOT officially Secular Marxist-Socialist, or in alternate Anti-Secular Islamist Theo-Socialist, YET.
["DRAGNET" THEME here].
Not-America AMERIKA still has until Year 2025 to be born.
Moreso as the Socialists per se widin the US DemoLeft still adamantly refuse to publicly reveal themselves as such like the HONEST, RESPECT-THE-WILL-N-DIGNITY-OF-THE-PEOPLE INTELLECTUALS, ETAL. THEY AREN'T.
PERHAPS THE 2016 ELECTION OF SELF-DESCRIBED DEMOSOCIALIST BERNIE SANDERS AS THE US' FIRST SOCIALIST POTUS WILL CHANGE THINGS???
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott wants to amend the Constitution. His proposed changes:
Prohibit Congress from regulating activity that occurs wholly within one state.
Require Congress to balance its budget.
Prohibit administrative agencies -- and the un-elected bureaucrats that staff them -- from creating federal law.
Prohibit administrative agencies -- and the un-elected bureaucrats that staff them -- from preempting state law.
Allow a two-thirds majority of the states to override a U.S. Supreme Court decision.
Require a seven-justice super-majority vote for U.S. Supreme Court decisions that invalidate a democratically enacted law.
Restore the balance of power between the federal and state governments by limiting the former to the powers expressly delegated to it in the Constitution.
Give state officials the power to sue in federal court when federal officials overstep their bounds.
Allow a two-thirds majority of the states to override a federal law or regulation.
...The real fear, I suspect, is that the proposals urged by Abbott, which would roll back much of the political class's successful power-grab over the past century, would prove popular enough to pass. If that happened, the federal government would become both smaller and more accountable, two political-class nightmares.
#1
Anything out of a convention will still require 3/4 of the states to approve. Note well before you go crying about the convention being taken over by the existing power groups.
One amendment that would pass within a month or two would be the one outlawing any federal mandate from the legislative, executive or judicial that requires the raising or levying of any new taxes or the expenditure of any state budget resources.
You can bet that 3/4 largely of those smaller states without major metro areas would pass that at first opportunity.
#3
You would think, after all the Obama abuses with administrative agencies (EPA, IRS, DOJ, etc) that Republicans in Congress would be eager to roll back administrative authority. You would think.
#4
A new constitution is not needed. Congress can fix this by limiting the power of both the executive and the Supreme Court. It has the existing power. The weasels in Congress however lack the will and intestinal fortitude to fix the problems.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
01/18/2016 17:32
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#5
I would like to see a constitutional amendment that limits Congresscritters to 2 terms in the Senate, and 6 terms in the House. And no pension or medical care after they leave office.
The states could pass this. Congress never will, because they like their perks.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
01/18/2016 18:03
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#6
And they have to live by the same laws as everyone else. No special exemptions!
Congress is reported to have recently repealed its ban on a Ukrainian militia accused of being neo-Nazi, opening the way for American military assistance. Iran, Neo-Nazis (and they are, they are), various Sunni terrorists, Paleos---a "big tent" indeed.
#1
Damn, leave it to the congress critters to find so many ways to squander money.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/18/2016 12:40
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#2
Yah, I can be called a neonazi by various Jews for.being against giving money to.the Russian/Iranian axis whose lies about not.existing you repeat.to.me. 20/years of being called a denier for.not.wanting to deindustrialize has taken its toll. You're the same as all the other fucking communists; anyone who doesn't want to be conquered by your charismatic asshole of the week is automatically a nazi. I'm not impressed anymore.
[Daily Caller] Sen. Marco Rubio ďťżslammed Barack Obama for negotiating with Iran over the Americans held in captivity saying Obama has "put a price on the head of every American abroad."
Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday, Rubio said, "Our enemies now know if you can capture an American, you can get something meaningful in exchange for it."
#1
IIRC MARCO RUBIO had also said that the US is in a de facto WAR TO THE DEATH = WAR OF ANNIHILATION agz the ISIS - "EITHER THE US WINS, OR THE ISIS WINS"!
* Also, FORMER ACTING CIA DIRECTOR MICHAEL MORELLI [paraph] = claimed that "THE ISLAMIC STATE/ISIS INTENDS TO EXTEND ITS GLOBAL CALIPHATE TO THE US ITSELF".
Artic Title + Morelli statements to that effect.
Proverbial "Bottom Lines"???
D *** NG IT, NOT SURE HOW THE ISIS + ALIGNED HARD BOYZ ARE GONNA ACHIEVE THIS IFF CHINA TAKES OVER MINIMA 1/2 OF CONUS-NORAM FOR "LIVING SPACE" AS INDIC BACK IN THE LATE POTUS CLINTON 1990'S!?
[LI] RBS urged investors to sell everything amid warnings that oil prices could fall to the lowest level in 17 years which may spark a meltdown as severe as the 2008 financial crisis.
The bank told investors stock markets could fall 20 per cent this year as it urged them to sell with a stark warning, saying: 'In a crowded hall, exit doors are small. Risks are high.'
Analysts warned of a 'cataclysmic year' ahead for investors and the global economy, BP said it would have to slash 4,000 posts around the world including 600 in the North Sea.
A recession has occurred in the U.S. about every five years, on average, since the end of WWII; and it has been seven years since the last one — we are overdue.
Most importantly, the average market drop during the peak to trough of the last 6 recessions has been 37 percent. That would take the S&P 500 down to 1,300; if this next recession were to be just of the average variety.
But this one will be worse.
A major contributor for this imminent recession is the fallout from a faltering Chinese economy. The megalomaniac communist government has increased debt 28 times since the year 2000. Taking that total north of 300 percent of GDP in a very short period of time for the primary purpose of building a massive unproductive fixed asset bubble that adds little to GDP. 'Cataclysmic years' come and go. Sell everything and you're an instant loser.
#5
If we have a recession every 5 years, but didn't actually recover from the last one despite the funky numbers coming out of Washington, are we still due?
I believe we are in a recession right now. I'm not an economist but think with the right President tearing up regulation and freeing up the economy we could see a really bright 2017 and teh market, seeing that coming might respond early.
#6
With the Fed driving down interest rates so that the stock market was nearly the only place to park money, stocks were inflated and banks could make money by buying treasury notes. Raise rates and like a pin, the stock market bubble bursts.
We haven't had rocket scientists running this country.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
01/18/2016 17:03
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#7
>With the Fed driving down interest rates so that the stock market was nearly the only place to park money, stocks were inflated
Yes raising the price and cost of investment ius the best way to grow the economy.
Keynesianism is establishment bailout (at the people's expense) idiocy .
[Rooters] Oil prices hit their lowest since 2003 on Monday, as the market braced for a jump in Iranian exports after the lifting of sanctions against the country over the weekend.
The U.N. nuclear watchdog on Saturday said Tehran had met its commitments to curtail its nuclear programme, and the United States immediately revoked sanctions that had slashed Iran's oil exports by around 2 million barrels per day (bpd) since its pre-sanctions 2011 peak to little more than 1 million bpd.
On Sunday, Iran - a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) - said it was ready to increase its exports by 500,000 bpd.
"Iranian exports come at a very bad time," said Barclays analysts. A chronic global surplus of a million barrels or more of crude daily has pulled down oil prices by over 75 percent since mid-2014 and by over a quarter since the start of 2016.
#2
I won't be content until see leftards collecting money for starving Saudi children in front of Tel Aviv U main entrance (their favorite place for collecting for their favorite causes in my neck of woods).
[Breitbart] "I know how much money influences the political decision-making," Clinton said, not acknowledging the irony of the statement, considering her years of Wall Street campaign contributions. Bloodly well right she does, she keeps the receipts in her Chappaqua potting shed.
#10
AFAIC, as went the Bammer Admin's response in Benghazi, or LACK OF SAME, so also amy the Bammer Admin respond as per agz CHINA in the China Seas andor IOR, + agz IRAN in ME.
There's also Darth Vlad = RUSSIA, but I'm not too worried about a US MilPol confrontation wid Moscow their MSM-Net rhetoric to the contrary.
As a reminder per various MSM-Net Artic Reposts...
* WAFF > [Business Insider] "PROVOKE AT YOUR PERIL": OBAMA ADMIN IS SENDING A MESSAGE TO SAUDI ARABIA.
* WORLD NEWS > [SCMP] 2016 COULD PROVE TO BE A AMEK-OR-BRAEK YEAR, AS [Unilateral, MilPol = Geopol aggressive] NEW CHINA STRATEGIES TO BE BORN.
* LUCIANNE, DAILY BEAST > THE YEAR OF [America = US-Allies] LIVING DANGEROUSLY: OBAMA AND YEAR 2016
As a matter of Anti-US US OWG Globalist POTUS OBama-led US Foreign Policy + related, THE USDOD IS A "POSER", NOT A DEFENDER OR FIGHTER, FOR US INTERESTS INCLDU AGZ US REGIONAL OR OVERSEAS ALLIES.
THE BAMMER WILL ORDER THE DEPLOYMENT OF SELECT US MILASSETS TO WORLD TROUBLE SPOTS FOR THE DIPLOM + PCORRECT-DENIABLE PHOTO-OP, NOT TO STOP THE EXPANSION OF OWG CO-SUPERPOWERS CHINA, IRAN, + RUSSIA [Other?] AGZ US REGIONAL ALLIES???
[AnNahar] The United States is to repay Iran a $400 million debt and $1.3 billion in interest dating to the Islamic revolution, 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 Sunday.
The repayment, which settles a suit brought under an international legal tribunal, is separate from the tens of billions of dollars in frozen foreign accounts that Iran can now access after the end of nuclear sanctions.
But the timing of the announcement, one day after the implementation of the Iran nuclear accord, will be seen as pointing to a broader clearing of the decks between the old foes.
U.S. President Barack Obama I am not a dictator!... defended the settlement in a televised statement from the White House, saying it was for "much less than the amount Iran sought."
"For the United States, the settlement could save us billions of dollars that could have been pursued by Iran. There was no benefit to the United States in dragging this out," he said.
Kerry said the claim was in the amount of a $400 million trust fund used by Iran to purchase military equipment from the United States prior to the break in diplomatic ties, plus $1.3 billion in interests.
Iranian-U.S. ties broke down in 1979 after revolutionaries -- angered at U.S. support for the Iran's deposed monarch -- stormed the American embassy and took hostages.
In 1981, the Iran-U.S. Claims tribunal was established in The Hague to settle outstanding debts between the two countries, and Tehran filed a suit demanding the arms payment be returned.
Kerry described Sunday's payment of the 35-year-old trust as a "fair settlement," but it is sure to draw the ire of those in Washington who think he had already made too many concessions to secure the nuclear deal.
"Iran will receive the balance of $400 million in the Trust Fund, as well as a roughly $1.3 billion compromise on the interest," he said, in a statement. Better than a 300% return. Not bad, not bad at all. Sure beats the Social Security Trust Fund.
"Iran's recovery was fixed at a reasonable rate of interest and therefore Iran is unable to pursue a bigger tribunal award against us, preventing U.S. taxpayers from being obligated to a larger amount of money."
Kerry went on to say all of the U.S. claims against Iran at the tribunal had long been settled and had netted American companies and individuals $2.5 billion.
But he added there are more Iranian claims pending and that the United States would try to negotiate to resolve them.
#1
U.S. President Barack Obama defended the settlement in a televised statement from the White House, saying it was for "much less than the amount Iran sought."
They asked for a trillion dollars and the nuclear bomb. He only gave them $1.7B and the nuclear bomb.
#3
U.S. President Barack Obama defended the settlement in a televised statement from the White House, saying it was for "much less than the amount Iran sought."
This from a man who spends $8,000,000. on a two week Hawaii vacation.
#14
To continue the thought to the next level: members of the Master Religion may not pay interest. Dhimmis exist to be sheared like sheep and harvested like a field of grain, so them (us!) paying compound interest that increased the amount we have to hand over by an order of magnitude is just fine.
#15
It is clear to me that outrage is beyond the emotional scope of many of the people who live here. They literally accept any tripe as appropriate, and Champ and ValJar have destabilized the middle east to the point of war. As soon as the funds were released the Iranians pledged to buy 114 airbus aircraft, a huge act to dissuade any European power from participating in the SnapBack snactions that we are going to claim after they violate every aspect of this ridiculous agreement with Iran. Kerry is as dumb as he sounds, and Champ is anything I ever imagined an American President could be and not be impeached.
#18
The US as per Nuke Deal is repor also supposed to halt any + all US-led INTERPOL investigations of a number of Iranian nationals = Bad Boyz/Shias???
[Rudaw] 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.... s (ISIS) has tossed in the calaboose Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! two preachers in their stronghold of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... for violating the group's rules and regulations on Friday sermon preaching.
According to a Kurdish military official east of Mosul, the preachers were arrested for refusing to mention or praise ISIS as required by a new ISIS law issued last week for all mosques where Friday prayers are performed.
Preachers are also required to praise ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdad in their preach.
The two arrested preachers led Friday prayers in Mosul's Falah and Barid neighborhoods.
ISIS has appointed its own Friday preacher in Mosul who conveys the group's message to the local population and encourages support for jihad among people.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/18/2016
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[IsraelTimes] Victim Dafna Meir, 38, from settlement of Otniel tried to fight off assailant; army launches manhunt for Paleostinian attacker
An Israeli woman was stabbed and killed in an attack inside her home in the West Bank settlement of Otniel, outside of Hebron, on Sunday evening.
The victim was named later as Dafna Meir, 38, a mother of four.
The attacker, whose identity was not immediately known, expeditiously departed at a goodly pace of the crime.
The army said in a statement that the terrorist broke into the woman's home and stabbed her to death.
According to the initial investigation, the woman struggled with the terrorist in the entrance to the family's home. Her 15-year-old daughter witnessed the attack.
Soldiers and coppers launched a manhunt for the attacker, setting up checkpoints in the area. The attacker was believed to have fled to a nearby Arab village, specifically Khirbet Karme, located just north of Otniel, according to Israeli media.
The army instructed residents to remain in their homes as they searched for the attacker.
Channel 2 news said the attacker was seen on security cameras fleeing the settlement.
[IsraelTimes] Paleostinian workers will not be allowed into the Jewish settlements located in the Hebron Hills on Monday, following the murder of a female resident allegedly by a Paleostinian man on Sunday, the southern West Bank local government announced.
Dafna Meir, 38, was stabbed to death in her home in the Otniel settlement outside of Hebron on Sunday evening, while three of her children were in the house.
The terrorist is believed to be a Paleostinian man who had permission to work in the Jewish settlement. He expeditiously departed at a goodly pace after the attack, prompting security forces to set up roadblocks and lock down the area as they searched for him.
As a result of the attack, the Hebron Hills Regional Council decided to forbid Paleostinian workers from entering the settlements in the area the next day, the council announced on Sunday night.
"More orphans in the family of terror victims. This is a terrible reminder that there is a war going on here," Yochai Dimri, head of the Hebron Hills Regional Council, told Army Radio
Knife--> gunfight ... You know the drill, dear Reader.
[IsraelTimes] Paleostinian man attempted to stab a soldier and was shot by IDF troops near the Samaria Regional Brigade headquarters outside Nablus in the West Bank on Sunday, the army said.
"A Paleostinian assailant drew a knife and attempted to stab soldiers securing the area. The force responded and fired toward the attacker," an Israel Defense Forces spokesperson said.
No Israelis were harmed in the attempted stabbing, but the assailant died of his wounds, the army said.
[Iran Press TV] The UN Security Council has crossed off Iran's Bank Sepah and its international subsidiary from its sanction list following the implementation of a historic nuclear agreement between Tehran and the world powers.
The measure was taken on Sunday, a day after the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was announced by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.
Bank Sepah had been on the UN's blacklist since 2007 over an alleged role in Iran's missile program.
Meanwhile, ...back at the wine tasting, Vince was about to start on his third quart... US 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... announced that his country would repay Iran a $400 million debt remaining from the 1979 Islamic Revolution, along with an additional $1.3 billion in interest.
Earlier, Head of Iran Chamber of Commerce Mohsen Jalalpour said that Iran would re-apply to join the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) now that the sanctions are lifted.
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[DAWN] KARACHI: Nine people including seven children were maimed in a grenade attack near a clinic in Chakiwara on Saturday.
Police believed that the attack could be a 'reaction' to the recent killing of some known figures of Lyari ...one of the eighteen constituent towns of the city of Karachi. It is the smallest town by area in the city but also the most densely populated. Lyari has few schools, substandard hospitals, a poor water system, limited infrastructure, and broken roads. It is a stronghold of ruling Pakistan Peoples Party. Ubiquitous gang activity and a thriving narcotics industry make Lyari one of the most disturbed places in Karachi, which is really saying a lot.... gang warfare.
While the grenade landed near a private clinic, Lyari SP Aftab Nizamani believed that the real target of the assailants could be a mobile van of the Chakiwara cop shoppe parked near the clinic.
According to senior medico-legal officer of the Civil Hospital Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... Dr Nisar Shah, the victims were seven children and two men. "None of them sustained serious injuries," he said.
Lyari SP Nizamani suspected involvement of the Uzair Baloch-led gang in the attack. He said three gangsters had been killed in 'encounters' in recent days in parts of Lyari. "Today's grenade attack might be a reaction to the killing of the gangsters," he added.
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01/18/2016
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[DAWN] As the government sets up a joint investigation team (JIT) to probe any possible Pak link in the recent attack on India's Pathankot airbase, attention is also focused on the Mumbai case, which was also preceded by a similar JIT.
After the 2008 Mumbai attacks, the Indian government blamed Pakistain for the attack. The PPP government at the time had constituted a JIT to probe any possible local links. On the basis of the JIT's investigation report, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in February 2009 started the paperwork but haven't done much else against Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi ...an asset of the Pak govt and a big turban in Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is actually a redundant statement. Zak was the criminal mastermind behind the 2008 Mumbai attack. Despite what India's provided there is not enough evidence in this world for a Pak court to convict him or even to keep him in the calaboose for very long... , the alleged criminal mastermind, and six other suspects for sponsoring, planning and abetting in the attacks.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2016
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SANAA, Yemen: A suicide car bomber rammed his vehicle into the police chief’s house in the southern Yemeni city of Aden on Sunday, killing seven civilians and security forces in a failed assassination attempt after militants killed two other security officials elsewhere in the country.
Police Chief Shallal Al-Shayei survived a similar assassination attempt last month, as did the governor of the province, which forces loyal to the internationally recognized government pried away from Shiite Houthi rebels last year. Aden’s previous governor was killed in an attack claimed by a local Islamic State affiliate.
Ambulances raced to the police chief’s house after the explosion, which could be heard across the city, witnesses said. Officials said an armored vehicle blocked the suicide car bomber meters from the gates of the house. Seven people were killed and 12 injured after the explosion ripped through a bus that was passing by.
Yemen has been mired in a conflict pitting the Shiite Houthi rebels against the internationally-backed government, which is allied with a Saudi-led coalition. The fighting has killed more than 5,800 people since last March, when the coalition began striking Houthi targets from the air.
The chaos has allowed a powerful local Al-Qaeda affiliate and a more recently formed branch of the Daesh group to expand their reach, including in Aden, Yemen’s commercial hub.
US drones have carried out a number of strikes since the start of the year targeting Al-Qaeda militants, according to security officials and witnesses, who said drone strikes killed 13 militants on Sunday in Jaar, a town seized by Al-Qaeda last year. They did not know the affiliation of the militants.
It was not immediately possible to confirm the account. US officials rarely speak publicly about the covert drone program.
The Saudi-led coalition meanwhile appears to have stepped up airstrikes in northern Yemen targeting the Houthis and allied army units loyal to a former president. Residents said the coalition launched at least 35 strikes on Sunday in the capital and the northern province of Jawf.
In Saada, the Houthis’ northern heartland, Houthi officials and witnesses said an air raid killed at least 30 people on Saturday. It was not clear if they were civilians or fighters.
Elsewhere in Yemen, Police Chief Adel Al-Asbahi of Bayda province was killed by a bomb planted in his vehicle on Sunday, while Mohammed Al-Dhali, of the special forces, was gunned down by attackers on a motorcycle in the rebel-held capital, Sanaa. No group has claimed responsibility for the killings.
All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press. Witnesses requested anonymity for security reasons.
[Iran Press TV] The UK bombing campaign in Syria has motivated some British citizens to join the militancy in the war-torn country, says an analyst.
"What is the UK doing that's making the situation worse? And we have to say the first thing they're doing is they send in bombers. And they're supplying the bombing carried out by La Belle France and the United States," said Nigel Flanagan, political commentator, in a Sunday interview with Press TV.
The comments follow recent remarks by the UK foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, that a total of 600 UK citizens have been caught trying to enter Syria to join the ISIL and other holy warrior groups since 2012.
Speaking on a visit to southern The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... on Friday, Hammond said a further 800 UK citizens had managed to enter Syria in the past four years, with half of those believed to still be inside the country.
Now Flanagan believes the UK Syria policy has made the situation worse.
The analyst also blamed "the stigmatizing of Muslims by certain members of the government; by certainly the media in the UK, is making the situation even worse."
He said, "Although the vast majority of people in the UK oppose the bombing and oppose British government policy in the Middle East, the government is still determined to prove itself a loyal ally of the USA."
The UK foreign secretary has said British and Turkish intelligence services had worked together to apprehend hundreds of Britons on their way to Syria, stopping some at the UK border and seizing others on planes or trains arriving in Istanbul.
Some had been returned to the UK, while others remained in Turkey for breaching laws on attempting or intending to cross the border into Syria without permission, he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Islam is a religion for predators. The only thing that can deter then from "militancy" is a certainty of swift, and excessively brutal (they're not very smart), retaliation.
[Gulf Today] Two suspected Daesh supporters and two civilians were killed in separate encounters in Lanao del Sur province, fueling continued speculation that the extremist group has already established a foothold in the Philippines.
Colonel Roseller Murillo said one of the clashes occurred in the town of Buadipuso, which resulted in the killing of a village chief and his son early Friday morning. He identified the leader as Panundi Sultan who was checking into reports on the presence of a group of armed men wearing dark jackets, headbands and waving a Daesh flag when they were fired upon.
Murillo said, "The relatives of the Sultans retaliated upon hearing their deaths, engaged the group in a firefight that killed one of the suspects." .
A Daesh supporter was killed and his comrade was injured when pursuing soldiers caught up with the group five hours later in the neighbouring town of Maguing.
The killings caused further concern that Daesh has established a foothold in Mindanao after getting support from Abu Sayyaf militants and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters. But the military has repeatedly denied that Daesh has already established such a foothold there.
Posted by: ryuge ||
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[PJMedia] An Army investigation into mistaken shipments of live anthrax around the globe found no one specifically to blame for the mishandling of the deadly bacteria, but revealed even more samples in storage that weren't inactive as believed.
Officials on the "Investigation into the Inadvertent Shipment of Live Anthrax Spores to a Number of Laboratory and Abroad From Dugway Proving Ground" briefed reporters on their findings today at the Pentagon.
In early 2015, the lab in Utah sent live anthrax -- the samples were supposed to be inactive -- to 194 labs in 50 states and nine foreign countries. Could have been a systems error. Fixing responsibility is so 'old school.' Can't we just move along.
#2
Secretary of Army at fault for not making someone responsible for securing our anthrax stockpiles.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
01/18/2016 7:24
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#3
So, if there had not been any people involved, it would have still have happened anyway?
Posted by: ed in texas ||
01/18/2016 8:23
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#4
United States v. Hayes, 71 M.J. 112 (the elements of Article 92(3), UCMJ, dereliction of duty, are as follows: (1) that the accused had certain duties, (2) that the accused knew or reasonably should have known of the duties, and (3) that the accused was willfully, or through neglect or culpable inefficiency, derelict in the performance of those duties).
People just don't read stuff anymore, like the Constitution, or the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
#5
At its base, this has the same root cause as most of this country's troubles in 2016.
Fear of creating an environment where the guaranteed income might be removed. And the willingness to suspend responsible and honest behavior to make sure the anxiety of losing your magic check can never become a reality.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
01/18/2016 9:43
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#6
Someone should serve jail time or at the very least have their career in ruins to send a message that some things are sort of important.
#7
meanwhile secdef asscraft is considering retroactively demoting gen petraeus for his breach of classified mat'l handling.
no word on demoting shrillary
[Iran Press TV] A Turkish court has placed in durance vile Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! 10 Syrians over suspected links to a recent deadly kaboom in the historic city of Istanbul.
According to Turkish state media, the Syrians were among a group of 17 people who were referred to court in Istanbul on Sunday over accusations of premeditated murder and membership in a terrorist organization.
The 10 are to remain in jail pending trail while six people were freed on bail and proceedings against the 17th are still undergoing.
The blast took place in the city's Sultanahmet square, a major tourist attraction, claiming the lives of 10 German citizens and injuring 15 more from various nationalities on Tuesday.
Ankara claims that the attack was carried out by a member of the Daesh [Islamic State]Takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed... terror group who had recently entered The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... from Syria, although no group has claimed responsibly for the incident.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[DAWN] Parents spent a restless Saturday as rumours of possible terrorist attacks on schools circulated in the picturesque provincial capital's rural and urban areas and thus, forcing most headmasters to close educational institutions much early.
The panicked parents rushed to the schools to pick their children recalling the Dec 2014 Army Public School murderous Moslem attack, which killed 144 students and staff members.
Sources said the district administration had directed the headmasters of some government and private schools located in the cantonment area, Nothia and Gulberg to close their campuses for one day (Saturday) insisting there were reports of possible terrorist attack on them.
They said the directives were not meant for the entire district.
"Under a coordinated plan, the decision of school closure was taken by district administration, police and security agencies," an officer privy to the development told Dawn.
He said the threats were schools specific.
In light of the district administration's directives circulated on Friday night, the officers of the elementary and secondary education department rushed to the schools in their respective areas on Saturday morning and asked headmasters to close campuses.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2016
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[DAWN] RIYADH: The oil deluge from Iran is expected any day. Sanctions could be lifted in days. And crude markets are wobbling with its possible impact. Others factors are coming into play too.
"China macro concerns and to some degree the continued strength of the US dollar have been providing headwinds for the oil markets. The supply side is still very resilient. Demand is not great and inventories are likely to keep getting quite a bit higher," Citi analysts said while summing up the scenario.
Markets have lost some 17pc within the first two weeks of 2016. Any additional oil would only add to pressure. Barclays said it had raised its estimates of Iranian oil supply, by almost 700,000 bpd more in the fourth quarter of 2016 than over the same period in 2015, once sanctions are lifted. This has resulted in lowering their forecast for the average price of Brent and WTI in 2016 -- to $37 a barrel this year, down from $60 and $56 previously.
"With no apparent signs of strengthening demand, and only further indicators of future global supply growth, the outlook for oil prices is leading most market watchers to ratchet down estimates for oil prices in 2016 and 2017," analysts at Cenkos Natural Resources said.
"In the very short term, another price drop cannot be excluded in particular after sanctions against Iran are lifted," Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritch told Rooters Global Oil Forum. "That means a drop toward $25 is quite possible."
"Most of the bearishness is coming from worries over Iranian sanctions being lifted," said Daniel Ang, of Phillip Futures. "I won't be surprised if prices continue falling toward $25 per barrel."
Morgan Stanley says WTI will fall to $20 as the US dollar strengthens. That was bullish compared to the one made by RBS for oil to hit $16 a barrel. Standard Chartered is suggesting oil prices to "fall to as low as $10" before the sell-off "had gone too far."
A few analysts however, are taking the line that Iran's return would have a muted effect, as it was already priced in by the markets. "The lifting of the sanctions has been widely expected and it is difficult to say that it is not yet priced in Brent at $30 a barrel," said Olivier Jakob of Swiss-based consultancy Petromatrix.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2016
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#1
So in other words, no one has the foggiest notion what the "New Reality" is.
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/18/2016 13:44
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#3
IMO it comes down to the various OWG Global Federal Unions vying for their Union-specific "market shares" vee future "SPACE MARKETS" + TRADE IN SPACE-RELATED STARTEGIC COMMODITIES + REQUIRED MATERIALS, TECHS, SUPPORT SERVICES, ... @ETC.
OTOH PRAY HARD + KEEP YOUR FINGERS CROSSED THAT OUR MIGHTY OWG GOVTS-PERTS FINALLY GOT THEIR ACT TOGETEHR + CAME UP WID A COMMON CONSENSUS ON THE TRUTH-VS-FICTION ALA "PEAK OIL"/RESOURCES INCLUD BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE STATE OF WORLD OIL RESERVES THRU AT LEAST THE YEAR YEAR 2100.
And wid a common or "universal" accepted Plan(s) of Action [POA] in support of Deep Space Exploration and Colonization.
Iff the OWG Globalists includ Space + "Peak" Perts miscalculate, the danger is there that all of this xtra oil production will result in just rapidly using up the world's limited supply of "cheap oil", resulting in de facto GLOBAL OIL/ENERGY DECLINE-BREAKDOWN-N-COLLAPSE AFTER YEAR 2030-2050 [2070].
Weirdly-n-mysteriously, but of course only coincidentally + PCorrectly, in inverse parallel to the rise of the Global Nuclear Caliphate + Muslim Nuclear Napoleon.
* CHARLES KRAIUTHAMMER = "SAY IT WID ME, AMERIKA, OOOOOOPPPPPPPSSSSSIES ..."!
The acting defense minister, Masoom Stanekzai, on Sunday said they have increased their military operations against Daesh fighters in parts of the country and that the security forces have succeeded in suppressing the militant group in some areas over the past few days.
"Daesh that does not have identity or any objective as a group is trying to destroy the image of Afghanistan. This group is the enemy of Afghanistan's national interests," he said.
Meanwhile, Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said Daesh is still a serious threat to the country.
"Daesh, off course, is a serious threat to Afghanistan's security. We urge our international allies to support us in order to suppress the terrorist group," said Sediqqi.
According to reports, Daesh is more active in eastern Nangarhar province compared to other parts of the country. The group has a presence in five districts of Nangarhar.
Based on some official sources, at least 144 Daesh fighters have been killed and 58 others wounded in joint military operations over the past 10 days.
In addition, nearly 800 Daesh rebels have been killed in Nangarhar over the past six months, reports say.
Video report at the link
Posted by: badanov ||
01/18/2016
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[ARA News] QAMISHLI – Subsequent to one day of clashes with militant fighters of the Islamic State (ISIS), forces loyal to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad regained control of several areas in the eastern province of Deir ez-Zor, officials said on Sunday.
“Our army forces recaptured the districts of Ayash and Begayliya in Deir ez-Zor city after fierce clashes with ISIS terrorists,” Ali Ibrahim, an officer in the Syrian army, told ARA News.
“We also recaptured the Saaqa military base in the western countryside of Deir ez-Zor. The campaign with continue until we liberate the whole province from ISIS,” Ibrahim said.
This comes just one day after ISIS militants stormed the regime-held neighborhoods in Deir ez-Zor and killed more than 150 people, including pro-regime soldiers and their families.
“At least 40 soldiers and 130 civilians were brutally killed by ISIS militants in Deir ez-Zor,” local media activist Ahmed Helwani told ARA News earlier on Saturday.
“The militants broke into the regime-held neighborhoods of Ayash and Begayliya, and attacked people in their homes,” Helwani said. “Their main target was the pro-regime soldiers and their families.”
Speaking to ARA News, a civil rights activist reported that ISIS militants first targeted Ayash and Begayliya with several car bomb attacks, before storming the two neighborhoods. “Dozens of women and children were brutally beheaded,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “ISIS is punishing families of pro-regime soldiers after the group lost the battle for Deir ez-Zor’s military airport.”
Also on Sunday, clashes broke out between pro-regime troops and ISIS fighters in the vicinity of Bighel village in the countryside of Deir ez-Zor, where casualties were reported from both sides.
Most of the city of Deir ez-Zor and its countryside is under ISIS control. However, pro-regime army troops still hold control of several neighborhoods in the city beside a military airport in Deir ez-Zor suburb.
The province of Deir ez-Zor is deemed strategic for ISIS for it links the group’s de facto capital of Raqqa with Iraqi territory controlled by the radical group.
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01/18/2016
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[Iran Press TV] At least 15 Iraqi people have bit the dust and nine others sustained injuries after two separate road bombs went off in Ramadi and Baghdad.
One went kaboom! near a popular market in the Mahmudiya district, south of the capital Baghdad, on Sunday, killing two people and wounding nine others, Arabic-language al-Sumeria news website reported.
Meanwhile, ...back at the game, the Babe was wondering why the baseball kept getting bigger and bigger. Finally it hit him... at least 13 people, including seven women and three children, also bit the dust in another blast in the al-Bu Ghanim village, in Sufiyah district, east of the Anbar lovely provincial capital, Ramadi,
According to the report, the civilians were on the move to escape from the Daesh [Islamic State]Takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed... terrorist group's violence in the region.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2016
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[CSMONITOR] An ISIS "massacre" and possible kidnapping in the eastern Syrian city of Deir al-Zor may have left hundreds of civilians and fighters dead, according to monitoring groups and Syrian state media.
Up to 400 civilians were kidnapped in an 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.... attack on government-held neighborhoods in the city and taken to the countryside, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a United Kingdom-based monitoring group.
Replacing oil sales and bombed bank deposits most efficiently.
"There is genuine fear for their lives, there is a fear that the group might execute them as it has done before in other areas," group founder Rami Abdul Rahman told Rooters. SOHR sources reported that victims of the kidnapping, an event that could not be independently verified, included families of pro-government forces.
On Saturday, SOHR reported that 135 had been killed in the attacks on Deir al-Zor, including 85 civilians as well as pro-government and rebel forces. SANA, the Syrian state news agency, reported a "horrific massacre" of 300 civilians, but did not report a kidnapping. Both government and independent sources reported execution-style killings.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2016
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[REUTERS] Iran's release from sanctions testifies to its new relationship with the United States as it moves from pariah state to regional power, a status that could come at the cost of Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... , Washington's chief Arab ally.
Enemies and allies alike must adjust to Iran becoming an uninhibited power broker in the Middle East after its nuclear deal with world powers and Saturday's lifting of sanctions that bring it to the top table of international politics.
The swift release last week of U.S. Navy sailors after they drifted into Iranian waters marked the new era in relations following decades of hostility with the West.
After the 1979 revolution that brought Shi'ite Muslim holy mans to power, Iran would typically use hostages to extract concessions from its western adversaries.
Early on, it held 52 hostages taken from the U.S. embassy in Tehran for 444 days. That incident ranked alongside Iranian-backed suicide kabooms against Western embassies and troops in Leb, the hijacking of planes and the kidnapping of Western hostages in the country.
All this left deep scars and incited hostility towards Iran as an outlaw, in the region and the world. Yet last week's naval incident contrasted to 2007 when Iran captured British sailors in similar circumstances, but accused of them of spying and held them for two weeks.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2016
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#1
"US-style", US-par", OWG Co-Superpower in joint wid the US, that is.
* IIRC WORLD NEWS > MANAGING A WORLD OF "GREAT POWERS".
Global "Great Power" competition returneths to Mankind in the post-9-11 21st Century.
[Express] Li Shaoxian, vice-president of a think tank with ties to the Chinese Ministry of State Security, said "many hundreds or thousands" of Uighurs from Xinjiang province were involved with Daesh in Syria. He said, "Whether there are Chinese citizens involved in ISIS, the answer is certainly yes. I don't have the specific number but I think there are possibly many hundreds, or thousands, of them.
"As a researcher I have been following the situation closely. I believe there are quite many Chinese citizens fighting in Syria, not just with the ISIS but also other forces in Syria, where there are all kinds of groups who have people fighting who are from China."
Li, who heads the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, warned returning jihadis could pose a major threat to China. He said, "I believe this will be a major source or threat because if these people come back to the country of origin they could constitute a considerable threat to the security of the country of origin."
Senior Chinese officials warned last year that Uighurs were joining Daesh. Zhang Chunxian, Communist Party secretary of Xinjiang province, said in March, "The organization has a huge international influence and Xinjiang can't keep aloof from it and we have already been affected. We have also found that some who fought returned to Xinjiang to participate in terrorist plots."
Posted by: ryuge ||
01/18/2016
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#4
"I believe there are quite many Chinese citizens fighting in Syria, not just with the ISIS but also other forces in Syria, where there are all kinds of groups who have people fighting who are from China."
Funny how they're "Chinese citizens" when it comes to this; not so much for everything else.
Yemeni Minister of Human Rights, Ezzedine Al Asbahi has described the human rights situation in Yemen as ‘frightening’ and urged the European Union and international organisations to pressure the rebel militias to comply with UN Security Council resolution 2216 and implement the agreement concluded at the recent peace talks in Biel, Switzerland.
"The human rights situation (in Yemen) is dire because the rebel militias continue to commit criminal acts. They have arrested hundreds of people in unknown places and prevent their families from even knowing their whereabouts," the Yemeni Human Rights Minister said during a meeting with the European Union's Ambassador to Yemen, Bettina Muscheidt.
The rebel Houhti militia and forces loyal to now-ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh continue to violate human rights and crack down on politicians, civilian activists and journalist number of Yemeni governorates.
In addition, he noted, the rebel militias launch systematic attacks on schools and turn them into prisons and military camps. They are attacking residential neighbourhoods, hospitals and medical teams for helping injured people, he added.
Al Asbahi said the rebels continue to block humanitarian aid from reaching civilians in Taiz and other besieged cities. "This threatens peace and is in violation of international human rights laws.”
The EU ambassador to Yemen stressed that the EU supports the country's security, stability and unity and calls for implementing the UN Security Council resolutions and restoring the legitimate government to all Yemen's governorates.
#1
Dire human rights and hell holes go hand in hand. When my kids were young and would say that life was unfair my response was that is why we have a military.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
01/18/2016 7:19
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#2
I wonder when they weren't dire in Yemen
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/18/2016 10:01
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[Iran Press TV] Nigerian army soldiers fired six bullets at Sheikh Ibrahim al-Zakzaky, seriously injuring the Shia holy man when they raided his residence to arrest him, says a member of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA).
Professor Dahiru Yahaya of Bayero University Kano (BUK), who has visited Sheikh Zakzaky, said he was told by the holy man that he was severely maimed after the soldiers fired six bullets at him. The academic made the remarks in an interview with Hausa Radio, the Africa desk of the IRIB (Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran Broadcasting) world service, on Sunday.
Zakzaky is the leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN). He was injured and tossed in the calaboose ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... during the raid by the army on his home in the northern city of Zaria, Kaduna State, in December.
Yahaya said the condition of the holy man has improved. The academic is currently working with a committee set up to follow up on the well-being of Sheikh Zakzaky.
The university professor described as "very bad and repulsive" the treatment of the committee members by army officials upon their inquiry about the sheikh, adding that the police also denied them a meeting with Zakzaky.
He said Sheikh Zakzaky is currently detained by the intelligence ministry, adding that the Nigerian government only permitted three members of the committee to visit the holy man.
When asked about Zakzaky's opinion on the recent developments in Nigeria, Yahaya said the holy man only sufficed expressing his "deep regret." The academic said the conduct of the Nigerian army had been "truly inhumane."
On December 12 last year, Nigerian soldiers attacked Shia Muslims attending a ceremony at a religious center in Zaria, accusing them of blocking the convoy of the army's chief of staff and attempting to assassinate him. The Shias have categorically denied the allegations. No, no! Certainly not!
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2016
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#1
reload, dammit
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/18/2016 10:00
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#2
They might have hit him with six, but how many did they actually fire?
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
01/18/2016 13:51
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[Rudaw] A number of migrants have recently returned to the Kurdistan Region only weeks after they arrived in Germany and more are signing up for voluntary repatriation with the local authorities.
"I prefer my own country to here. I have been here for five months, but nothing has been done for me," says Mohammed Mahmoud who recently arrived in Germany in search of a better life. "I intend to return and I insist. Even if there is no job... it is better than here."
Many such new migrants as Mahmoud and some Iraqi Arabs have contacted the Iraqi embassy to obtain temporary travel documents that would allow them to return home.
Most of them are residents of the Kurdistan Region.
A majority of the new migrants came with the influx of Syrian refugees who flooded the gates of Europe last year.
European authorities have imposed tough asylum laws and migrants and asylum seekers have to wait months in camps before a hearing on their case.
"We are bored. They give us only 70-80 euros [per month]. We cannot afford clothes or anything else, but only food. We are forced to return, repent...repent," says Amir Khafaf, another Kurdish asylum seeker from Germany.
Those intent on returning home have decided not to follow through with their asylum applications or seek the assistance of charity organization for subsistence.
The Iraqi embassy does not provide a specific figure about the number of the returnees, but German officials have said that the voluntary return is more common among migrants from the Kurdistan Region.
Hamid Majeed the owner of an airline travel agency in Berlin has helped many new arrivals get on the plane home.
"I cannot provide an accurate data, but since the last October 50 migrants or so have come to us each month, seeking repatriation to the Kurdistan Region," Majeed told Rudaw.
"On January 13 alone, 86 migrants voluntarily returned to Erbil through a direct Berlin-Erbil flight...they did not want to stay here."
With its open door policy Germany received more than 1 million refugees and migrants last year but in recent weeks the authorities have passed new laws that would expedite the return of failed asylum seekers or those breaking the German law.
Berlin has also made it clear that Syrian refugees are given the priority while others will be treated as economic migrants with slim chances of acceptance.
#2
"We are bored. They give us only 70-80 euros [per month]. We cannot afford clothes or anything else, but only food."
Well, if you had made a reservation at least 30 days in advance, with a substantial cash deposit, you would have received more commodious accommodations, and a do-nothing job that pays very well.
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/18/2016 13:49
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#3
I took a freight train north to Berlin City,
Folks back home thinking Ima doing fine,
By day I wash der cars,
By night I bombe der bars,
I dun wanna go home
I dun wanna go home
Lawz Allah dun make me go home.
QUETTA: Security forces on Sunday foiled a major terror bid in Balochistan's Dera Bugti district, defusing an improvised explosive device (IED) weighing around 17 kilogram, officials said.
"Militants had planted the IED on a roadside in Sui tehsil of Dera Bugti. Security forces acted timely to defuse the device and avert any damage," Khan Wasey, spokesman for the Frontier Corps, said.
"Miscreants wanted to target security forces through the IED," Wasey added.
Armed men in the area have been targeting security forces and vital national installations for more than a decade.
Four TTP suspects arrested
Security forces also arrested four suspected militants allegedly affiliated with the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) from Qilla Saifullah and Pishin districts of Balochistan.
Security sources said three suspected militants were picked up from Nassai area of Qilla Saifullah during a raid in Karbala village of Pishin district.
"Security personnel are interrogating the arrested men", they said, who were shifted to an undisclosed location.
TTP has targeted security forces in Killa Saifullah, Sanjavi and other parts of northern Balochistan during the last few years.
Law-enforcement agencies have intensified their operations against terrorists in Quetta and other parts of Balochistan after the announcement of the National Action Plan to combat terrorism in the country.
Captain York: damn, just damn!
Lt. O'Rourke: you can't say that Captain, remember the code
Captain York: The hell I can't! You ever heard of Clarks Gabel? He made a fortune saying it just once, I said it twice so I will be very rich.
Sgt. Maj O'Rourke: with all due respect sirs, BUGTI's! The mark of Chief Foster Brooks is on this bottle. The BUGTI's are on the warpath!
Philadelphia Wednesdayafternoon: fuck it's over
Lt. O'Rourke: what's over?
Philadelphia Wednesdayafternoon: My career, after That Hagen Gurl bombed I should have retired.
Sgt. Mulcahy: here have a drink
QUETTA: Levies personnel recovered three bullet-riddled bodies from Balochistan's Kech district on Sunday.
Levies sources told DawnNews that the bodies were found in the Gorkop area of the Kech district. Local residents had spotted the bodies and had informed Levies personnel.
The bodies were moved to a hospital and later identified as those of Noshad alias Nodo, Abdul Ghani and Maqsood.
A large number of people had gathered at the hospital to help identify the deceased.
"All victims received multiple bullet wounds," Levies sources said, adding that the motive behind the killings could not be ascertained.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the killings.
Last month, security forces found two unidentified dead bodies from Balochistan's Pishin district. The victims were later identified as two brothers, killed apparently during a robbery.
In August 2015, dead bodies of three abducted labourers were recovered from Balochistan's Turbat district. All three had received multiple bullet wounds, and were shot from a close range.
PESHAWAR: Security forces on Sunday arrested 24 suspects during a search operation conducted in Tajabad and Danishabad areas of provincial metropolis.
According to police, forces searched about 80 houses in these adjoining localities of the city and arrested 24 suspects including seven Afghan nationals.
The search in joint operation was conducted with the help lady police force. The arrested were shifted to Pishtakhara Police Station for investigations.
QUETTA: The Frontier Corps (FC) Balochistan arrested eight suspected insurgents of a banned organisation in a search operation in various areas of Zhob district on Sunday.
FC conducted search operation on a tip-off as a result of which eight suspected insurgents belonging to a banned organisation were apprehended. The suspected insurgents were shifted to an undisclosed location for further interrogation.
[Iran Press TV] Syrian civilians who have been evacuated from two bad boy-besieged northwestern towns recount their suffering under terror.
The civilians were allowed out of the towns of Kefraya and al-Foua in the Idlib province last December after Syria's army and allied Lebanese resistance fighters of Hezbollah reached a truce deal with bully boyz on their evacuation.
Press TV's correspondent met with the community of the internally-displaced in the suburbs of the capital Damascus.
"When we were leaving Kefraya, bully boyz did a strict checking to terrify us and provoke us. They also terrified our children," said an evacuated Syrian.
Another said, "Convoys delivered aid to al-Foua and Kefraya, but they are not enough. Militants used to rob the essential materials of these convoys."
"We appeal to the United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... and all the humanitarian organizations to stop the siege," said one male as bully boyz maintain the siege and keep violating the terms of the ceasefire agreement.
"We are here for emergency cases. Most of the cases are neurological damage and amputations due to lack of healthcare and all of those evacuated have malnutrition cases," said medic Ashraf Haj Ahmad, who serves as a first aid clinic, set up in Damascus countryside to see to the different health problems of the evacuees.
Humanitarian crisis threatens the towns as the truce agreement is about to end next month and a new evacuation process is direly needed.
Some 400,000 people are under siege in Syria as the foreign-backed militancy is wreaking havoc across much of the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2016
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Several Kenyan soldiers injured in an al Shabaab attack on an African Union base in El Adde, Somalia were flown to the country on Sunday. Four of the Kenya Defence Forces soldiers were received at Wilson Airport in Nairobi following the attack whose number of casualties is yet to be released.
In a statement at the airport on Sunday, Defence CS Raychelle Omamo said other soldiers were earlier flown in via Moi Air Base. Details will be sent directly to families, Omamo said, adding: “Allow the families privacy as they mourn. Full details of those injured and killed will be made public after families affected are notified.”
“The soldiers who were airlifted were critically injured. Be patient, information will be availed to you. We are determined to bring our soldiers home.”
The soldiers were airlifted for specialised treatment, Interior CS Joseph Nkaissery said in Mombasa, adding the number of casualties will be released soon. Nkaissery said al Shabaab suffered the higher number of victims during the siege on Friday that lasted more than 12 hours.
“They lost more than we did. Let’s not pre–empt the outcome of the attack. A statement will be released soon,” he said.
Al Shabaab claimed on Sunday that it had captured some Kenyan soldiers during the attack butdid not say how many. It also raised its number of slain soldiers from 63 to 100.
The CS said more KDF troops, alongside others serving under Amisom, will be deployed to the camp, about 550 km west of Mogadishu. He said Amisom troops were combing the area for militants behind the ambush, which has been described as the worst against the KDF since their incursion into Somalia in 2011.
Nkaissery said Kenyan troops are winning the war against al Shabaab in Somalia. He said they have set up elaborate strategies against the terror group, which he said has lost its strongholds.
He added: “We have cautioned against the sharing of bloody photos of the dead. This emboldens the enemy and brings grief to their loved ones. We are investigating a few individuals; action will be taken.”
Chief of Defence Forces Samson Mwathethe, who spoke at Wilson Airport, said al Shabaab raided the camp in three vehicles loaded with explosives. Mwathathe said the government’s priority is pursuing the attackers behind the Friday ambush and going on “a search, rescue and recovery mission”.
“Our troops are currently engaging al shaabab. We do not wish to divulge more information,” he said. The KDF and Amisom have not given details of the attack.
He said bodies of soldiers who were killed will arrive today.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/18/2016
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[Reuters] Last week’s attack on Jakarta showed for the first time that Daesh violence has arrived in Indonesia, but experts believe the group’s footprint still has limited influence here because militants are competing to be its regional leader.
Police have identified Bahrun Naim, an Indonesian based in Syria, as the mastermind of the attacks that left all five attackers and two civilians dead on Thursday. But perhaps the region's most influential jihadi is a jailed cleric, Aman Abdurrahman, who with just a few couriers and a cell phone is able to command around 200 followers from prison.
Abdurrahman sits at the head of Jamaah Ansharut Daulah, an umbrella organization formed last year that experts believe could become the unifying force for Daesh supporters.
Police believe that Naim, an Abdurrahman supporter, was trying to prove his leadership skills to Daesh leaders in Syria by plotting the Jakarta attack. Jakarta police chief Tito Karnavian said Naim's vision was to unite now-splintered groups across Southeast Asia that support Daesh.
Indonesia-based Jemaah Islamiyah was the last transnational group to successfully launch large-scale attacks in the region, including the 2002 Bali bombings. JI, founded by Indonesian and Malaysian militants who returned from battling the Soviet Union in the the 1980s and early 1990s, has largely fallen apart due to internal rivalries and a sustained crackdown by security forces. Regional governments fear that Malay-speaking militants returning from Syria and Iraq could form a similar regional organization.
In Malaysia, former university lecturer Mahmud Ahmad is thought to be behind recent attempts to unite militant groups, including the Abu Sayyaf, from three Southeast Asian countries.
Abdurrahman remains perhaps the weightiest contender for Daesh leadership in the region. While serving a 9-year prison term for funding a militant training camp in Indonesia, he has managed to encourage hundreds of Indonesians to join the jihad in Syria and Iraq.
Prison authorities have tried repeatedly to silence Abdurrahman. According to the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, ten phones were seized from his cell in September 2014, but just a month later he got hold of a new phone and his sermons to followers resumed.
Posted by: ryuge ||
01/18/2016
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[Rudaw] As fighting continues between the Turkish armed forces and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) southeast of the country there are reports that the military is building new bases in the area.
In the Sur district of Diyarbakir which has been the scene of most of the fighting in recent weeks the Turkish army is said to be erecting five bases to reinforce troops stationed in the region.
Sur has been under curfew for more than 45 days where Turkish soldiers and PKK fighters have been locked in daily battles and street fight.
The Turkish military has said that in the beginning of the festivities they were fought by supporters and sympathizers of the PKK but later more experienced fighters infiltrated the town to face the army.
According to official statements more than 2,000 soldiers and police personnel backed by tanks and heavy weaponry have been deployed to the region for this fight.
Human rights activists say that more than 200 people have been killed so far and thousands of others have fled Sur for safety elsewhere.
The Kurdish fighters have dug trenches and built sand barriers on major streets.
Reports from inside the city suggest that this month alone nine soldiers and six coppers have been killed.
The Turkish army says it has killed at least 94 PKK fighters.
[REUTERS] New York City police were investigating on Sunday an assault on a man who was pummeled by suspects shouting "ISIS, ISIS," leaving him with bruises on his head and face, authorities said.
The 43-year-old man was attacked while walking with a nine-year-old girl in the Bronx around 5:30 p.m. on Friday, according to the New York City Police Department.
He was punched several times in the head, knocked down and kicked, police said. The victim, whose name was not given, was treated for injuries at a hospital and released.
He had been wearing a man dress shalwar kameez, a traditional South Asian outfit featuring a long tunic, the New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... reported.
The attack comes amid increasing anxiety in the United States over the threat posed by 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.... , also known as ISIS, which has grabbed credit for myrmidon attacks around the world.
A Muslim couple inspired by the group killed 14 people on Dec. 2 in San Bernardino, Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,, just weeks after gunnies linked to Islamic State killed 130 people in Gay Paree.
No one was immediately tossed in the slammer Please don't kill me! in the New York assault, which is under investigation by the police department's Hate Crime Task Force, the agency said in a statement on Saturday.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2016
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The 43-year-old man was attacked while walking with a nine-year-old girl in the Bronx around 5:30 p.m. on Friday.
He had been wearing a man dress shalwar kameez, a traditional South Asian outfit featuring a long tunic, the New York Times
Out for a stroll with the wife, huh?
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/18/2016 9:47
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According to a 2013 Census Bureau estimate, 45.8% of the Bronx's population was white [white, not Hispanic or Latino 10.5%], 43.3% was black or African American, 4.2% Asian, 3.0% American Indian, 0.4% Pacific Islander, and 3.3% of two or more races. In addition, 54.6% of the population was of Hispanic or Latino origin, of any race.
The Census Bureau considers the Bronx to be the most diverse area in the country. There is an 89.7 percent chance that any two residents, chosen at random, would be of different race or ethnicity. Approximately 44.3% of the population over the age of 5 speak only English at home, which is roughly 570,000 people. The majority (55.7%) of the population speak non-English languages at home. Over 580,600 people (45.2% of the population) speak Spanish at home.
#3
By chanting "ISIS" were the attackers proclaiming their loyalty to ISIS or making the leap that a 43 year old man walking with his daughter/niece/neighbor was a member of ISIS?
[DAWN] THE senseless ban on the video-sharing site YouTube might finally be getting closer to being lifted, but it appears there is still some residual reluctance to actually do so in some quarters of the government. According to reports, the government has given a commitment to Google at the highest levels that following the localisation of its domain, access to the site will be opened up. Reportedly, Google has upheld its end of the commitment by investing millions of dollars in the localised domain, following which the prime minister committed earlier this week to a group of American business leaders that the government would now lift the ban. But days after the commitment, the site remains blocked, reportedly due to reluctance on the part of the IT ministry to implement the prime minister's instructions.
It is imperative that the directive to lift the ban be implemented without further delay. The ban itself has hurt nobody other than the citizens of Pakistain, who have been deprived of the enormous educational benefits the site has to offer. Continuing delay in lifting the ban is now hurting the country's credibility, as well as the standing of the prime minister before foreign investors, who are left wondering whether they should believe anything they are told by the government of Pakistain. Not only has the ban invited ridicule, it has also damaged the credibility of the government and politicianship. The IT ministry should waste no further time in lifting the ban, or at least provide sound reasons as to why it is unable to implement the directive of the prime minister. If it has not received any such directive from the top politicianship, that should also be admitted openly. Thus far, the IT ministry is either avoiding all contact with the media, or a few officials are providing off-the-record comments only. The ban and the stalled efforts to lift it have dragged the country into an absurd position, and the affair should end now.
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01/18/2016
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[PJMedia] The evidence is overwhelming that the United States had several rescue teams ready to go during the 2012 Benghazi attacks, but someone -- possibly the president himself -- prevented them from acting. So said Emmy Award-winning journalist Sharyl Attkisson to talk show host Steve Malzberg in an interview on Wednesday.
This week on her show, "Full Measure," Attkisson looked into the aborted rescue mission in an in-depth two-part report, "Rescue Interrupted," which you can watch here and here. She spoke with a Green Beret commander who told her that there were actually Special Forces on their way to Benghazi who were turned back.
Col. Andrew Wood had once commanded a Special Forces anti-terrorism team protecting Ambassador Chis Stevens and other diplomats in Libya. In October of 2012, Woods told Congress that one month before the attacks in Benghazi, his team had been removed from Libya by the Obama administration, despite the numerous warnings of impending terrorist attacks. Wood told Attkisson that Special Forces (the ones mentioned in the "spinning up" email from Jeremy Bash) were on their way to Benghazi, but were ordered to turn back. Pappy's "13 Hours' bad, 'Zero Dark Thirty' good?" comment and link from yesterday.
"Anyway, so Norway has this most delicious and amazing delicacy, I have no idea what it's called, but it's basically a bacon-wrapped hot dog; we just assumed it was called Candy of the Lord. As Americans we were naturally and instantly addicted. You find them at gas stations, and there just happened to be one on the other side of the school where we were camped. A few of my fellow Marines and I requested permission to go to the gas station and we set out on our way. " Which seemed like a good idea at the time.
Somalia received a pledge of aid for $50 million from Saudi Arabia this month on the same day it announced it was cutting ties with Saudi rival Iran, a document seen by Reuters showed.
Oil is at $30 a barrel, but the Soddis do have funds for what's important...
The government, which did not confirm or deny the pledge, has said there was no link between long-running Saudi financial support and its diplomatic decision to break ties with Iran.
"No, no, certainly not!"
But diplomats said it was the latest sign of patronage used by the kingdom to shore up regional support against Iran, a rivalry that deepened this month when Sunni majority Saudi Arabia executed a Shi'ite cleric and Iranian protesters responded by torching the Saudi embassy in Tehran.
"The Saudis currently manage to rally countries behind them both on financial grounds and the argument of non-interference," a diplomat said, referring to what Sunni-majority countries see as Iran’s habit of cultivating ties to their Shi’ite minorities.
A document from the Saudi embassy in Nairobi to the Somali embassy in the Kenyan capital showed the kingdom pledging $20 million in budget support and another $30 million for investment in Somalia, a nation trying to rebuild after two decades of war. The two grants would come from the Saudi Development Fund, according to the document that was dated Jan. 7, the same day Somalia cut ties with Tehran.
Somalia cut relations with Iran saying Tehran had meddled in Somali affairs and threatened national security. Mogadishu gave Iranian diplomats, among the few stationed in the Somali capital where bomb attacks are frequent, 72 hours to leave.
Somalia's Finance Minister Mohamed Aden Ibrahim declined to comment on the pledges, but said any financial assistance from Saudi Arabia was not related to Mogadishu's stance against Iran.
"Our relationship with Saudi Arabia was long-standing and is not something that has just started," the minister told Reuters.
Several other Arab states such as neighbouring Bahrain, a long-time close ally and recipient of Saudi largesse also cut ties. Other wealthier Gulf states withdrew envoys.
Sudan, which like Somalia and Saudi Arabia is a member of the Arab League, said it had cut ties with non-Arab Iran.
Somalia's ties with Saudi Arabia have grown as it tries to rebuild a nation while battling an Islamist insurgency, although Western powers and Turkey remain among the biggest and more prominent donors to the country. Somalia's president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, met King Salman bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud in Saudi Arabia in October. A Saudi team had visited Somalia in late 2015 to discuss further Saudi support for the country.
"Any financial and other requests that we made to the Saudis were way before" Somali cut ties with Iran, Foreign Minister Abdusalam Omer told Reuters.
Of course. Of course...
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(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – On Sunday, a security source in Anbar Province announced, that the security forces killed 25 elements of the ISIS organization, while indicated to the notable role of the Army Aviation in shelling the organization’s hideouts in the city.
The source said in a statement followed by IraqiNews.com, “A force from the army’s 8th brigade backed by Anbar police has advanced in al-Sijariya and al-Jubiya areas east of Ramadi, after a number of confrontation and clashes with the elements of the ISIS organization.”
The source added, “25 elements of the ISIS organization were killed during the confrontations,” pointing out that, “The Army Aviation played a notable role in shelling the hideouts of the organization in both areas.”
(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – On Sunday, Commander of the Rapid Intervention Forces General Thamer Mohamed Ismaeil announced, that 21 elements of the ISIS organization were killed and six hideouts belonging to the organization were destructed in eastern Ramadi.
Ismaeil said in a statement obtained by IraqiNews.com, “A force from the Rapid Intervention Forces carried out an operation in Husaibah area (7 km east of Ramadi), killing 21 elements of ISIS and destructing three vehicles belonging to the organization.
Ismaeil added, “The security force managed to destruct six hideouts and headquarters for the ISIS organization in the area,” pointing out that, “Eight improvised explosive devices exploded during the advance of the forces in the area.”
(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – On Sunday, federal police command announced, that 40 elements of the ISIS organization were killed in a military operations in eastern Ramadi (110 km west of Baghdad), while indicate to the destruction of five vehicles equipped with heavy weapons.
The federal police Chief Raed Shakir Jawdat said in a statement received by IraqiNews.com, “The federal police elements carried out a military operation and advanced towards Juwiba and al-Sedikiya areas in eastern Ramadi, killing 40 elements of the organization.”
Jawdat added, “The operation also resulted in the destruction of five vehicles equipped with heavy weapons, six defense positions belonging to ISIS, as well as detonating 16 improvised explosive devices,” noting that, “The security forces continue its advance to meet the military troops in Sofiya axis in order to attack the enemy.”
Noteworthy, Joint Special Operations Command announced, that the full liberalization of Ramadi (110 km west of Baghdad), while raised the Iraqi flag over its government complex.
(IraqiNews.com) al-Anbar – The federal police captain Raed Shaker Jawdat announced on Sunday, that the police forces killed 31 ISIS element in eastern of Ramadi, indicating that the troops were advancing towards Joabh area to liberate it from the control of the organization.
Jawdat said in a statement obtained by IraqiNews.com, “The federal police forces killed 31 element of ISIS and destroyed four vehicles mounted with heavy weapons, in addition to destructing five defensive positions and detonating an explosive device in Husaybah area east of Ramadi.”
Jawdat added, “The federal police forces advanced from the direction of Husaybah towards Joabh to meet with the troops in the axis of al-Sufiyah east of Ramadi.”
Posted by: badanov ||
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IS has executed two young men in Sirte whom it accused of being Libya Dawn spies. The murders were carried out in the usual fashion, with the victims being crucified on the frame of a former advertising hoarding in the middle of a roundabout in the town.
The names of those murdered are not yet known.
Yesterday IS forces raided 600 homes in Sirte and threw out the residents. It is unclear why this was done though one local has said that she believes that the accommodation was wanted for foreign fighters coming into the town.
The terrorists’ crackdown on dissent shows no sign of letting up. There are unconfirmed reports that they are holding more than 150 men in a compound in Nufaliya, 140 kilometres east of Sirte. Their offence has been that they either refused to join the fighters or declare their allegiance to IS.
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[CSMONITOR] At Sunday night's Democratic presidential debate, Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Henry Kissinger ... will be facing far more than a resurgent Bernie Sanders ...The only openly Socialist member of the U.S. Senate. Sanders was Representative-for-Life from Vermont until moving to the Senate for the rest of his life in 2006, assuming the seat vacated by Jim Jeffords... . She will face mounting evidence of an open political rebellion among white Americans. Your party is racist. You talk down to whites based on their color. You pronounce us racist whatever we do. And then you want us to vote for you.
The dynamic has already been well-established among Republicans, where it is most acute given the predominantly white demographics of the party. Working-class whites, buffeted by the Great Recession and an economic recovery that has seen the wealthy move further ahead, are forming a key nexus of the Trump vote. Black Lives Matter. Don't say "all lives matter." We saw what happens when somebody's dumb enough to do that.
Now, white voters appear to be stirring the Democratic race in similarly surprising ways. Senator Sanders of Vermont has long held a lead on former Secretary of State Clinton in New Hampshire, which holds its primary on Feb. 9. New polls show that he is now essentially tied with Clinton in Iowa -- and even ahead among white voters nationally -- ahead of the Feb. 1 caucuses there. Sanders isn't Clinton. That might be a factor. Martin O'Malley is nobody.
These first primary states -- among the whitest in America -- could dramatically change the narrative of Clinton's primary campaign from one of inevitability to one that suggests she is teetering on a repeat of 2008, when she lost to underdog Barack Obama. I inhaled. That was the point... In 2016, the demographics could work in her favor, with the states that follow Iowa and New Hampshire being much more diverse, and Clinton holding a large lead on Sanders among black and Latino voters. But the evidence that white primary voters might opt for a general election between Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, at least at this moment, is a graphic indicator of how their thirst for "change" has only broadened and deepened since Mr. Obama's election eight years ago.
The change they appear to want is more than a change of party or ideology to something approaching a reset button for American politics. A Trump or Sanders presidency would represent a profound rejection of business as usual in Washington. Now, it seems, white voters of both parties are seriously considering it -- at least fleetingly, in the case of Democrats.
On the Republican side, the trend has been going on long enough that its causes have become fairly well known. With establishment Republicans unable to coalesce around a single candidate, antiestablishment candidates such as Mr. Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas have built strong momentum heading into the Iowa caucuses.
Sanders's latest rise has come so suddenly and unexpectedly that its causes are less clear. Yet despite the galactic differences between Sanders and Trump on policy, a clear line strings them together as politicians.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2016
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She will face mounting evidence of an open political rebellion among white Americans.
It's not just 'white Americans' it's anyone with at least a 3rd grade education.
[DAWN] ANY proposal that seeks to place restrictions on male 'privilege' where it pertains to women triggers a predictable storm of protest in this country. Whether the issue is that of sexual harassment, domestic violence or child marriage, good sense and empathy are in scarce supply. Instead, self-righteous pontification and regressive obduracy animate the most vocal participants in the debate. So it was on Thursday, when the National Assembly Standing Committee on Religious Affairs declared as 'un-Islamic' the amendment suggested by PML-N MNA Marvi Memon to the Child Marriage Restraint Bill 2014, which proposed that the minimum marriageable age for girls in Pakistain be raised to 18. Under the extant Child Marriage Act 1929, the minimum threshold is stipulated as 16 years. Members of the committee, after seeking the opinion of the Council of Islamic Ideology members, rejected the notion of placing any such limit, decrying it as a 'Western' idea and one that went against the culture, traditions and family values of Muslims.
The smokescreen of faith is a handy recourse in this country to counter attempts at ameliorating the rights of women and girls. Tradition is no excuse for retaining customs that are out of sync with modern thinking. Indeed, customs change over time -- if that were not so, the practice of slavery would not be illegal in Pakistain. Marriage is not a relationship fit for those categorised as minors in other aspects of life. Operating a vehicle or casting a vote in this country require individuals to be aged 18 and above. And quite rightly so, for 18 is legal age of maturity in Pakistain. Why should marriage, navigating the many complexities of which requires not only physical maturity but also -- and far more importantly -- mental maturity, be any different? The pernicious custom of child marriage, still widely prevalent in many parts of the country, robs girls of their childhood and deprives them of opportunities to access education and gainful employment. It also puts their immature bodies at risk of conditions such as obstetric fistulae and increases their chances of dying in childbirth. The politicians' callous disregard for the lives of Pak girls in rejecting the amendment could well slow the momentum created by Sindh, which in 2014 became the first -- and so far only -- province to raise the minimum marriageable age for girls to 18. It will, however, be welcomed by misogynistic sections of society, of which there are sadly too many.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2016
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#1
family values of Muslims
Phrase gives one pause.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
01/18/2016 17:10
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This comes most of the way through the article, after dwelling on the "exchange" of prisoners. [WASHINGTONPOST] Calling a recent missile test by Iran a "violation of its international obligations," Obama said the United States as a result "is imposing sanctions on individuals and companies working to advance Iran's ballistic missile program."
The Treasury Department said the new sanctions apply to, among others, the Mabrooka Trading Co., based in the United Arab Emirates, and its networks based in that Persian Gulf country and in China. It said they have used front companies to deceive foreign suppliers about the true end-users of "sensitive goods for missile proliferation."
Saturday's coordinated moves to implement the nuclear deal and free prisoners cemented a major diplomatic victory for the B.O. regime, which won significant nuclear concessions from Iran in an effort to defuse an international crisis that threatened to spark a new Middle East war. The agreement also frees Iran from crippling economic sanctions and opens the way for ending decades of diplomatic and economic isolation.
But the agreement also contains significant political risk for a White House that is staking its legacy on Iran's willingness to comply with unprecedented curbs and extensive monitoring of its nuclear program. The pact -- which has been repeatedly condemned by the Israeli government as well as by members of Congress from both parties -- drew fresh attacks over the weekend from Republican presidential contenders, some of whom blasted the deal as a sellout to Iran's holy manal rulers.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2016
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#1
More B.S. sanctions to fool the rubes.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/18/2016 1:03
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(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – A source in the Iraqi police said on Sunday, that a civilian had been killed by a militant attack east of Baghdad.
The source said in an interview for IraqiNews.com, “Unidentified militants opened fire against a civilian in the area of Jamliya east of Baghdad, resulting in his immediate death,” pointing out that, “A security force cordoned off the area of the incident and transferred the dead to the forensic medicine department.”
Al shabaab militants have publicly executed two men accused of collaborating with the federal government of Somalia as ‘secret agents’, a witness said on Saturday.
A father of one of the executed men, told Radio Shabelle that his son was innocent and has been working as an employee at an ice factory in Burhakabo town of Bay region. The two young men were executed by firing squad in public at an square in Awdhegle town, an Al shabaab stronghold in Somalia’s southern lower Shabelle region on Saturday afternoon, according to the father.
“My son was staying only 20 days in Awdhegle town for family visit and was killed by Al shabaab, accusing him of spying for Somali government,” cried the father.
Awdhegle, which is a strategic district in Lower Shabelle region fell to Al shabaab just three months ago after Somali army and African Union forces abandoned the town.
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Prospect of the Islamic Republic pumping an additional 500,000 barrels a day sends stock markets in Dubai and Saudi Arabia into tailspin.
Stock markets across the Middle East saw more than ÂŁ27bn wiped off their value as the lifting of economic sanctions against Iran threatened to unleash a fresh wave of oil onto global markets that are already drowning in excess supply.
All seven stock markets in the Gulf states tumbled as panic gripped traders. London shares are now braced for a second wave of crisis to hit when they open on Monday morning after contagion from China sent the FTSE 100 to its worst start in history last week.
Dubai's DFM General Index closed down 4.65pc to 2,684.9, while Saudi Arabia's Tadawul All Share Index, the largest Arab market, collapsed by 7pc intraday, before recovering to end down 5.44pc at 5,520.41, its lowest level in almost five years.
The Qatar stock exchange, fell 7.2pc to close at 8,527.75, and the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange shed 4.24pc to finish at 3,787.4. The Kuwait market returned to levels not seen since May 2004 as it slid 3.2pc lower, while smaller markets in Oman and Bahrain dropped 3.2pc and 0.4pc respectively.
The Iranian stock index gained 1pc, making it one of the best performing markets in the world with gains of 6pc since the start of the year.
The dramatic moves came following the historic report from the UN nuclear watchdog, which showed that Iran has met its obligations under the nuclear deal, clearing the way for the lifting of sanctions. Not certain what to make of this but it can't be good. The DOW has been bracing for this for two weeks. As oil plunges, my guess is it will slip 300-400 before noon tomorrow, possibly more. No trading today. Worst case, the winds of war btwn the Persians and Soodies.
Less money for pet jihadis can only be a good thing.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
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More results of Champ's legacy.
Unintended consequences?
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/18/2016 7:38
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My guess is that it was... expected. And that there will be a raft of domestic-political attempts both during (e.g. increased excise taxes on fuel to "make up for the shortfall" and further restrictions placed on exploration) and afterwards (e.g. increased CAFE standards, another government-funded push for 'alternatives', etc.)
[BLOOMBERG] The first 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.... -linked attack on the world's most populous Muslim nation puts more pressure on Indonesian President Joko Widodo to give the military a bigger role and add legal heft to anti-terrorism efforts.
Unlike some countries facing threats from Islamic State, authorities in Indonesia lack laws to arrest returnees from Syria and Iraq. Giving security forces greater leeway to lock up Islamists is a sensitive issue in the Southeast Asian nation, which until 1998 was a military dictatorship.
Last week's attack on central Jakarta which killed four civilians was relatively unsophisticated. But it brought home to Indonesia -- and the region more broadly -- the risks of Asians going to fight in the Middle East and then returning skilled and more radicalized. While Widodo, better known as Jokowi, has urged countries to "wage war" against terrorism, he has not moved to bolster laws to tackle the threat.
"All that is needed is political support, but that is difficult in Indonesia," said Ansyaad Mbai, a former head of the country's anti-terror agency. "At the highest level people are afraid of being accused of being anti-Islam."
Revoking Citizenship
On Friday, Police-General Badrodin Haiti said he wanted to be able to revoke the citizenship of Indonesians fighting with IS abroad. National intelligence agency chief Sutiyoso said laws were not sufficient to arrest and track bully boys. He said Malaysian authorities can attach electronic tracking devices to suspects, while the U.S. and La Belle France were able to strike a balance between human rights ...which often include carefully measured allowances of freedom at the convenience of the state... and the need for firm action.
"Those countries respect human rights and freedom," he told news hounds. "But when national security is threatened by terrorism, they can prioritize the intelligence process."
The police chief on Saturday called for anti-terrorism laws to be strengthened to allow preventative detention. "We can detect a terrorist network but we can't act before they have committed a crime," he said. "That is the weakness of our laws."
Posted by: Fred ||
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Raytheon's new Excalibur N5 projectile was fired from a 5-inch naval gun during a flight test at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona. The new technology effectively triples the range of the Navy's 5 inch naval guns.
Raytheon claims that due to the remarkable precision of Excalibur, significant cost, manpower and time savings will become evident:
By using Excalibur's level of precision, there is a dramatic reduction in the time, cost and logistical burden associated with other artillery munitions. Analyses have shown that on average, it can take at least 10 conventional munitions to accomplish what one Excalibur can.
With an estimated cost of $80,000 per shot, only time will tell if cost savings will actually materialize, but it certainly will reduce collateral damage. Testing Excalibur was relatively easy. Sailing a destroyer into the Yuma test site, that was the real challenge.
[AMARILLO] Trustees of the largest school district in Texas have decided that four campuses with Confederate names will get new monikers.
The Houston Independent School District board voted Thursday night to rename Robert E. Lee High School plus three middle schools -- Henry Grady, Richard Dowling and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson.
A committee at each school -- including a teacher, a parent, a student and alumni -- will propose a new name, with recommendations to trustees.
Confederate symbols nationwide are facing review over concerns about racism. James Douglas, president of the NAACP of Houston, urged the board to drop Confederate loyalists from school names.
One critic of changing names, Howard Moon, says a lot of people are getting tired of political correctness.
The Houston ISD has about 215,000 students at 283 schools.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2016
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As I said before: if you're going to destroy a nation, you have to start by wiping out its history.
(IraqiNews.com) Kirkuk – A security source in Kirkuk province said on Sunday, that 22 ISIS elements had been either killed or wounded in an aerial bombing by the international coalition southwest of the province.
The source said in a statement received by IraqiNews.com, “This afternoon, warplanes of the international coalition bombed sites belonging to ISIS in the village of al-Shaheed in the district of al-Rashad (35 km southwest of Kirkuk), resulting in the death of 12 ISIS elements and wounding 10 others.”
The source added, “The air strike was based on accurate intelligence received by the coalition forces.”
Posted by: badanov ||
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[ARA News] ALEPPO – The Islamic State (ISIS) extremist group executed on Sunday four of its own militants in the northern Syrian city of Manbij, after accusing them of robbery and corruption.
“ISIS leadership in Manbij arrested four of its own members and convicted them of corruption,” local media activist Nasser Teljbini told ARA News.
“The militants were accused of stealing gold and five million Syrian Liras ($22,700) from the Islamic Bank of Manbij.”
Subsequent to interrogations, the Sharia Court ordered the immediate execution of the suspects, according to the source.
“The four ISIS members were executed by firing squad in front of hundreds of people in central Manbij,” Teljbini reported.
The radical group has recently started to punish its own members in public in order to show its strict commitment to prosecute anyone who violates its regulations, even if the violators are from its own jihadis.
Posted by: badanov ||
01/18/2016
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Lemme see, Trump wins the election and this babe packs up to come to the U.S. 0bama officials, however, will only let her come if she has a Mooslem under each arm.
[TASS] Two militants were killed in the capital city of the Russian republic of Kabardino-Balkaria. A security source said, "Two gunmen have been killed in a special operation in Nalchik."
According to earlier reports, the mother of one of the gunmen was evacuated from the private house where security forces had blocked the gunmen.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the National Anti-terrorism Committee said one gunman was blocked in the house. He said, "Kabardino-Balkaria's law enforcement agencies received information that an armed person suspected of involvement in terrorist activities might be in a private house in Nalchik’s Tsiolkovsky Street."
The spokesman added, "People from neighboring houses were evacuated. Police demanded the gunman surrender arms. After talks, he agreed to release his mother from the house. The woman also tried to talk him into surrendering. Instead, he opened gunfire at the law enforcers. It is planned to finish the active phase of the special operation in the daytime."
[Iran Press TV] The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which keeps a tab on ceasefire in Ukraine, says its monitors have come under fire during an assessment mission in the country's war-torn east.
The organization said the incident occurred on Saturday when its observers' vehicle was hit with small-arms fire near Mariinka, a town some 20 kilometers (12 miles) southwest of the volatile city of Donetsk.
Three OSCE observers along with a paramedic and a translator were visiting the area in two armored vehicles to assess damage to a gas pipeline in the region.
The mission "heard the sound of one or two shots" and saw a hole in the window of one of the vehicles.
Ertugrul Apakan, the head of the monitoring mission, described the shooting as "entirely unacceptable."
"If monitors are unable to perform their duties, there can be no security and there can be no stabilization," he added.
There were no reports of casualties.
Posted by: Fred ||
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"If monitors are unable to perform their duties, there can be no security and there can be no stabilization," he added.
almost as if that was the point, genius?
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/18/2016 9:42
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[The Hill] he couple who carried out the San Bernardino, Calif., terrorist attack last year also tried to detonate a bomb in the building, the FBI said Friday.
David Bowdich, the bureau's top investigator into the Dec. 2 attack, said Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik likely attempted to detonate a pipe bomb hidden inside of a bag at the Inland Regional Center, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Bowdich said the agency is still unsure whether the couple planned to detonate the bomb on first responders or paramedics tending to the wounded after the attack.
Farook brought the bag carrying the bomb into the facility when he arrived at 8:37 a.m., Bowdich said. The bomb was "armed and ready to detonate," and police found a remote control for a toy car in the couple's SUV.
The couple drove around San Bernardino and Redlands for several hours before their deaths in a gunfight with police. During that window, they did not stray far from the building.
A federal official previously told the Times that they may not have been able to set off the device because the remote was out of range.
Bowdich said the mystery remains unsolved, as they have not been able to find any schematics or written plans indicating how they might use the bomb. Still nothing on the types or source of the explosive material? I thought not.
"And I will be quite frank: I am not sure we will ever know that answer," he said. So why don't we just take the FBI's word for it and move along.
[REUTERS] Pope Francis made his first visit as pontiff to a synagogue on Sunday, where, in a reference to Islamist attacks, he condemned violence in the name of religion.
Amid chanting of psalms in Hebrew and speeches underscoring the remarkable advances in Catholic-Jewish relations in the past 50 years, Francis became the third pontiff to visit Rome's main synagogue, after popes John Paul and Benedict.
The temple is just across the Tiber River from the Vatican, and is rich with symbolism of the past persecution of Jews, who for nearly 300 years until the mid-19th century were forced to live in the adjoining quarter still known as The Ghetto and make compulsory payments to the popes.
Security was exceptionally tight in the area, with even journalists going through three separate checks in the space of less than 100 meters. Anti-terror police patrolled both sides of the riverbank, which was closed to the public.
"The violence of man against man is in contradiction with any religion worthy of this name, in particular the three great monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam)," he said in what appeared to be a reference to attacks by Islamist Death Eaters.
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Good that he felt comfortable enough to say what he did in a synagogue. Now try that shi+ in a mosque and see what kind of blowback you get. In Arabic.
[Iran Press TV] Three US soldiers have reportedly been kidnapped from south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
"We are aware of reports that American citizens are missing in Iraq...We are working with the full cooperation of the Iraqi authorities to locate and recover the individuals," said US State Department front man John Kirby in a statement released Sunday.
"The safety and security of American citizens overseas is our highest priority," he added.
According to other reports, a translator also went missing along with the US nationals on Friday.
An Iraqi official was quoted by CNN as saying that, "A company filed a report Sunday about three of its staff going missing two days ago. They are American contractors. We are looking into this report." Three may only be the beginning.
Posted by: Fred ||
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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.
[LI] RBS urged investors to sell everything amid warnings that oil prices could fall to the lowest level in 17 years which may spark a meltdown as severe as the 2008 financial crisis.
[Rooters] Oil prices hit their lowest since 2003 on Monday, as the market braced for a jump in Iranian exports after the lifting of sanctions against the country over the weekend.
[Iran Press TV] The UK bombing campaign in Syria has motivated some British citizens to join the militancy in the war-torn country, says an analyst. 
[Gulf Today] Two suspected Daesh supporters and two civilians were killed in separate encounters in Lanao del Sur province, fueling continued speculation that the extremist group has already established a foothold in the Philippines.
[Express] Li Shaoxian, vice-president of a think tank with ties to the Chinese Ministry of State Security, said "many hundreds or thousands" of Uighurs from Xinjiang province were involved with Daesh in Syria. He said, "Whether there are Chinese citizens involved in ISIS, the answer is certainly yes. I don't have the specific number but I think there are possibly many hundreds, or thousands, of them.
IS has executed two young men in Sirte whom it accused of being Libya Dawn spies. The murders were carried out in the usual fashion, with the victims being crucified on the frame of a former advertising hoarding in the middle of a roundabout in the town.
Hillary Clinton
Al shabaab militants have publicly executed two men accused of collaborating with the federal government of Somalia as ‘secret agents’, a witness said on Saturday.
[TASS] Two militants were killed in the capital city of the Russian republic of Kabardino-Balkaria. A security source said, "Two gunmen have been killed in a special operation in Nalchik."
[REUTERS] Pope Francis made his first visit as pontiff to a synagogue on Sunday, where, in a reference to Islamist attacks, he condemned violence in the name of religion.
