[St. Louis Post Dispatch] You can’t buy them with food stamps, and Medicaid doesn’t cover them, but tampons and pads are a necessity for women’s health, advocates say.
Starting in April, the new St. Louis Alliance for Period Supplies plans to distribute free menstrual products to women who need them.
A recent survey of 183 low-income women showed that nearly two-thirds can’t always afford pads or tampons, according to St. Louis University. The women reported substituting diapers, rags or paper towels during their periods. Some said they had resorted to stealing pads or collecting them from local emergency rooms.
"Women are resourceful, and they make do, but making do for your whole cycle the entire month affects your sense of self and your dignity," said Anne Sebert Kuhlmann, an associate professor of behavioral science and health education at SLU who led the study published in the February issue of the medical journal Obstetrics and Gynecology.
#3
Imagine having your every need met, from cradle to grave. Imagine never having to think or worry or never having to try and fail.
In that instance you should become aware that you have been reduced to an animal, you are no more free than the slave in the Roman Empire.
I wonder how many of them have such a thought in their whole existence? They certainly should have plenty of free time to ponder it.
[Washington Examiner] Fox News anchor Bret Baier and his family survived a "major" car crash Monday morning in Montana.
Baier said the vehicle he, his wife and their two sons were in flipped over while they were driving to an airport on icy roads. The family had been in Montana skiing.
"Thanks to a man driving by named Zach who stopped and helped, we were able to climb out of the flipped car. And thanks to the first responders and Montana Highway Patrol ‐ we made it to the hospital quickly," Baier said in a statement, according to Mediaite.
The family is "banged up, but alive," said Baier, who hosts Fox News' "Special Report."
Baier advised everyone to wear their seat belts and take nothing for granted.
"Every day is a blessing ‐ and family is everything. It’s always good to remind yourself of that ‐ before something does it for you," he wrote in a tweet Monday night.
[Breitbart] Foreign money flowing into Washington is keeping the United States in prolonged wars, and most Americans are not even aware of it, according to Dr. Ben Freeman, director of the Foreign Influence Transparency Initiative at the Center for International Policy. 'War is our business, and business is good.'
"Right now, U.S. foreign policy is for sale ‐ not to the lowest bidder, but to the highest bidder. War is a business. And our wars are not our own. They never have been," he said Wednesday at an event in Washington, DC, sponsored by the Committee for a Responsible Foreign Policy.
Freeman and his team researched for six months Saudi Arabia’s 2017 lobbying activities in Washington, DC, including meetings, emails, contacts with journalists, and political campaign contributions, and the potential effect those activities had on foreign policy.
They found that Saudi Arabia had hired more than two dozen firms in that year with more than a hundred agents working on their behalf. In 2017, those agents had more than 2,500 contacts during this time, the majority of them with members of the Senate, news media, and the House‐in that order.
Freeman said many of the contacts were related to arms sales, foreign military sales, and some of the votes that were held to stymie those arms sales. He said sometimes the lobbying is done by former members of Congress who earn hundreds of thousands of dollars to lobby former colleagues.
"Every time there is a vote on arms sales or anything related to Yemen, this lobby goes bananas," he said. "And we can see the activity on the days that there are these votes. In some cases, they visit almost every single office on the day of those votes."
Freeman said they also found more than $2.2 million in 2017 campaign contributions to both Democrats and Republicans. The list was a "who’s who" in the Democrat and Republican Party, he said.
The top Saudi campaign contributions were to then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, totaling $94,496 because some donations in late 2016 were included, he said. He said Trump got "a little over $10,000" from Saudi Arabia.
And they found 12 instances where contact with a lobbyist pushing for or against a vote and a campaign contribution happened on the same day.
"In other words, a lobbying firm walks into a member of Congress’s office and says, ’I need you to vote a certain way on this upcoming vote on an arms sale,’ and then later that day ... they say, ’Oh, by the way, here’s a $2,000 check to your campaign. Good luck on re-election, buddy,'" Freeman said.
He said the number of contacts expands exponentially if the time window is expanded, for example, to two weeks before a vote.
Excerpt: According to the analysis, governments and corporations involved in the arms deals approved by the State Department have contributed between $54 million and $141 million to the Clinton Foundation, as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments to the Clinton family in the form of speaking fees. Donations also were made to the foundation by the governments of Algeria, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Qatar, all of which were cleared to buy American-made weapons even as the department faulted endemic corruption, restrictions on civil liberties, and/or violent crackdowns against political opponents in those countries. While the Clinton Foundation had agreed to disclose to the State Department new foreign government donors and increases in donations from existing ones, State Department and White House officials raised no issues about potential conflicts related to arms sales, IBT reports.
Blade Headquarters - The Spyderco Genzow HatchetHawk was designed by Martin Genzow, who put his extensive axe, hatchet, and tomahawk knowledge into this model. It offers a modern interpretation of the utility tomahawk with a versatile design. The multi-functional head was drop forged from 5160 tool steel for unstoppable strength and durability. It utilizes the best attributes of the classic Francisca axe with a bearded head and a hammer poll for added utility. Item comes complete with a thick leather sheath for belt or over the shoulder carry.
[ToloNews] Farah officials said unknown men set fire to a girls' school on Sunday night in the center of Farah province.
Mohammad Sadiq Halimi, deputy head of the department of education in Farah said that nearly 1,000 girls were enrolled in the school.
According to Halimi, so far the perpetrators have been not identified.
"Unfortunately, the Shaid Banafsha girl’s school which is located in the center of Farah province was torched last night and parts of the school was damaged but so far we don’t know who are responsible for this action," Halimi said.
Farah is an insecure province in the west of the country and in recent months the province witnesses an increase in security forces operations.
[KhaamaPress] The Afghan Air Force has carried out a series of night Arclight airstrikes in southern Uruzgan province leaving at least 30 Talibs dead.
According to the informed military sources, the Afghan Air Force A29’s conducted night air strikes last night killing 30 Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... fighters in Khas Uruzgan district of Uruzgan.
The sources further added "The Afghan Air Force’s night strike capabilities greatly minimize the Taliban’s abilities to move and operate at night."
Uruzgan is among the relatively volatile provinces in South of Afghanistan where Taliban are actively operating in some of its districts and often carry out attacks against the government and security institutions.
[National Review] If you’re in a public place and someone starts heckling you, are you entitled to heckle back? How about if someone does something much worse than heckling you in a public place? What if that person in fact takes a drum up to you and starts banging it in your face? Are you entitled to heckle back? How about smirking? Are you allowed to smirk?
I think you are, even if you’re wearing a MAGA hat. Even if you’re an entitled brat. Even if you’re an entitled Catholic brat.
We’ll stipulate that the Catholic boys from a high school in Kentucky were a little obnoxious when an indigenous man named Nathan Phillips banged a drum at them in front of the Lincoln Memorial on Friday. But Phillips was being a lot more obnoxious. To put it another way, if you were minding your own business in a public place and someone came right up to you and put a drum up to your face and made a huge racket inches from your nose, would you be happy about it?
The kids from Covington Catholic High School in Covington, Ky., were ambassadors for causes much bigger than themselves: Catholicism and the right to life. As such, they should have comported themselves better than to jeer and do a tomahawk chop in front of Phillips. Ideally, the kids would have ignored him and walked away. Until about ten minutes ago, it was broadly agreed in our culture that kids are allowed to do some dumb things because they’re kids. Should these kids’ lives be ruined because some of them responded to obnoxious provocation by being a bit rude themselves? I’d say their reaction was if anything more restrained than you would expect from teenagers. I’d advise them to do better next time. I certainly wouldn’t consider expulsion.
#7
The kids from Covington Catholic High School in Covington, Ky., were ambassadors for causes much bigger than themselves: Catholicism and the right to life.
Well, you see, that's the problem. These kids had the nerve to be openly religious and pro-life so the media crucified them.
But, hey, if you don't like NR, you might like Pajama Media's article better.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/22/2019 10:52
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#8
I hope the National Review survives, otherwise I'll have to remember the names of all the writers when I decide who I do/don't/partially trust. Now I can just note a page is from the National Review and take a pinch of salt from the rim of my glass before reading.
#9
where did Nathan Phillips get the money to go to this event with his drum
his own retirement funds
the tribal fund
some leftist foundation
Posted by: lord garth ||
01/22/2019 16:07
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#10
At Insty -
WASHINGTON POST FINALLY CORRECTS THE RECORD ON NATHAN PHILLIPS’ MILITARY SERVICE: “Earlier versions of this story incorrectly said that Native American activist Nathan Phillips fought in the Vietnam War. Phillips served in the U.S. Marines from 1972 to 1976 but was never deployed to Vietnam.”
My guess is that the only Ranger Recon was concerning bar girls at the local dive club. New in town GI Marine?
#14
At this point I would not be a bit surprise to learn that Nathan Phillips is not enrolled with any federally recognized tribe, or is not even native American.
#15
How about smirking? Are you allowed to smirk? A few times in my life I have done this that when someone was shouting in my face. My options were either to smirk or to plant a fist.
#17
Should be on the district attorney's list for assault.
Shoot, break my arm it heals. Damage my hearing its gone. This is not a situation which became noisy, Chief Miscue is using and instrument (drum, no pun intended) to (attempt to) cause bodily harm (hearing loss).
How about Felony Child Endangerment? Certainly for the doxxers who are calling for a school massacre.
Warning - Potential Satire
[Babylon Bee] .S.‐In a political move designed to garner the support of Christian housewives everywhere, President Trump announced Monday that he has hired Chip and Joanna Gaines to install shiplap all along the southern border wall.
The Gaines duo will freshen up the parts of the border that currently have fencing with attractive weathered shiplap in addition to installing the distressed barn paneling on new portions of the barrier the Trump administration hopes to build.
"We're really going to breathe some new life into this space to make it our own," Joanna Gaines said as she and Chip took a trip down to the border to see what they were looking at for the remodel. "I'm feeling like if we go with some shiplap in some neutral tones, that will really brighten up the space and give it a rustic feel."
An excited Chip Gaines attempted to knock down the current barrier with his sledgehammer but was crestfallen to learn the revitalization project didn't require demolition of any sort.
At publishing time, Trump had fired Chip and Joanna after they had decided they wanted the southern border to have an "open concept" feel.
#1
Frequently, when I go to the doctor's office, Chip and Joanna are on the TV airing their plans for the Wall; in the background Pink Floyd (The Wall) is playing. The doctor's have taken the news off--I guess it was getting the old folks too stirred up and causing their blood pressure to soar.
[Right Scoop] The DOJ has released a new report indicating how guns were obtained by criminals who used them. The data comes from a 2016 survey of both state and federal prisons.
One big highlight in the report shows that 90% of all guns used in crimes were NOT purchased legally:
Among prisoners who possessed a gun during their offense, 90% did not obtain it from a retail source.
And of those prisoners who did purchase their guns legally, less than one percent came from a gun show:
Among prisoners who possessed a firearm during their offense, 0.8% obtained it at a gun show.
But wait, I thought gun shows were bad? Hasn’t the DOJ ever heard of the ’gun show loophole’???
So only 10% of prisoners purchased their guns legally. Let that sink in for a moment.
Of that 90% that did not purchase a gun from a store, over half of them were stolen or purchased illegally:
[Federalist] Social Security has a huge free-rider problem. To illustrate, imagine two couples, the Nukes (as in a nuclear family) and the Dinks (as in "double income, no kids"). The Nukes always dreamed of having a large family. But they are hampered by the double burden of paying for the Social Security subsidies of the last generation while they pay for the upbringing of the next generation.
The cost of daycare is roughly equivalent to the later cost of college. The Nukes end up spending $233,610 per child to raise them on top of the $600,000 they pay in Social Security taxes. Those taxes pay for current retirees and are not saved for either the Nukes or the Dinks. On top of that, Mrs. Nuke lost $230,000 in lifetime earnings because of her decision to bear children.
The Dinks, in contrast, avoided all of those child-raising and college expenses. Mrs. Dink stayed in the workforce her entire career, yielding a much higher salary. The Dinks might pay exactly as much in Social Security taxes as the Nukes did. But when the Dinks and the Nukes retire, both the Nukes and the Dinks will rely on the taxes collected from the Nuke children in order to fund their retirement. The Dinks might retire in relative luxury with all the money saved from skipping children; the Nukes might barely scrape by.
#1
Another thought exercise; a new college graduate with 50k in student loans and a good job making 60k a year pays Social Security $$ to Warren Buffet.
#5
I don't recall being offered a choice about whether to enroll in SS. They just started taking the money. Since I was forced into the program, I don't owe the Federalist or any other pundit squat.
#7
Social Security was never anything but a rip-off. Dinks get ripped off just like Nukes so they deserve what little crumbs the government will let them have just like the Nukes. But it's just like a democrat/communist to covet what someone else has.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/22/2019 10:57
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#10
If y'all wanted the country to break even y'all should have thought twice about breaking entire industries. Now I find myself thinking "Don't Microsoft and Alphabet have a combined net worth north of 1.4 trillion? Why not give nationalizing them a shot?"
#12
There's the problem, Thing. You get 1.4 trillion from Microsoft and you're still $18.6 trillion in debt. Where are you gonna get the rest? And what about all those jobs at Microsoft that are gonna be lost? You gonna set up a food bank for those people?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/22/2019 13:49
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#13
In Fact Gen X and later has been paying in with zero expectation of getting any payout.
Boomers are free riders in this ponzi scheme because they have lived longer than initial projects and had fewer kids than the scheme demanded.
#14
Patently imbecillically stupid and not even wrong.
The problem is that SS is a ponzi scheme, there is zero actual investment. If you're ponzi scheme relies on increasing the population density then it's vastly more damaging to the country than just financially!
#15
...compounded by the Johnson administration which did away with 'two books' and treated SS taxes as a pool to be spent on the Great Society programs. As long as the government does it, its not embezzlement.
#17
I am 26 years old. I will never, ever, ever, collect a single penny from Social Security unless I become horrifically disabled at a very young age. By the time I am 62, the program will not exist, and the money I have put in will have been spent by the old people collecting right now. Social Security is a ponzi scheme. If people actually cared about stopping it, everybody under 40 would stop paying NOW, and then be told they would never collect. Because they won't anyways. Instead, we'll stretch it out until the very last year before it all collapses, when the inevitable happens, and then everyone will lose their shit.
[BBC] A Taiwanese hiker known for posting bikini clad photos from mountain summits has died after falling into a ravine during a solo trek.
Gigi Wu managed to contact emergency services but bad weather delayed rescue operations, local media reports say. The 36-year-old is thought to have died of hypothermia.
She was a popular figure on social media and messages on her Facebook pages pay tribute to her as an inspirational hiker.
Ms Wu was alone on a multi-day tour in Yushan National Park, home to Taiwan's highest peaks which reach almost 4,000 metres (13,000 ft), the reports say.
While she was famous for posting pictures of herself in bikinis from summits, she was an experienced hiker, appearing to use proper equipment and precautions during her expeditions.
[Mail] Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said on Monday that ’the world is gonna end in 12 years’ if laws aren’t passed to address climate change and that it was ’immoral’ for billionaires to exist in the same country where people struggled to make ends meet.
During an interview with journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates at Riverside Church in Manhattan on Monday, the New York Congresswoman said she and other millennials view climate change as ’our World War II’
Coates invited Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic socialist, to the special forum honoring Martin Luther King Jr.
#3
Might end sooner if the dems get someone intent on starting WW III into the White House.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/22/2019 8:32
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#4
Well, "Occasional" you can start your WW II against climate change by not putting all the hot air into the environment. If you really want to do something useful, you might start your war by setting a good example by picking up trash people have tossed into the environment (no orange jump suit is required).
#5
...if laws aren’t passed to address climate change and that it was ’immoral’ for billionaires to exist in the same country where people struggled to make ends meet.
And there is the driving force behind "Climate Change".
#6
Problem is, to most of the left - corporate jet = AOK. Your wood burning stove or fire place = crime against the planet...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/22/2019 9:31
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#7
Here's a question / challenge to all these douchenozzles who constantly hype the 'dangers' of global cooling / warming / 'Climate Change' - name me one prediction (like Al Gore saying ten years ago that the Artic would be ice free in ten years, etc.) that came true. Just one.
#10
When I was a kid we feared the world would end in a nuclear holocaust, which is still far more likely than the global warming scenario. One guy I knew didn't believe he'd live past the age of 30 and so he lived his life that way. When he reached that age he didn't know what to do and he still doesn't except that he'd probably vote for the Cortex lady.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/22/2019 10:39
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#13
For really interesting reading, go back to the Club of Rome's book "The Limits of Growth," which prophesied all sorts of doom and gloom (with specific dates, all well into the past century) due to global cooling. Didn't happen then--and those of us who are old enough to remember say, "Fool me once, shame on you...fool me twice, shame on me."
Posted by: Tom ||
01/22/2019 11:51
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#14
IMO, the best enviro invention ever was polywater. Closely followed by the Ozone depletion.
#18
In a world upside down, Secretariat
And Big Red capture you with a lariat,
To be sorted by pace,
Capability, race,
And haul asses around in a chariot.
#21
the Club of Rome's book "The Limits of Growth," which prophesied all sorts of doom and gloom
I read this back when I was learning FORTRAN and was enchanting with the awesomeness of computer modeling.
tl;dr: Some guys made a model of Earth and its people, and their resource consumption - food, water, oil, minerals, the whole nine yards. When they ran it, things looked grim. We ran out of *everything* except people. Waaay to many of those. Bottom line: over-population, famine, severe shortages of everything. Pretty scary, but it fit in with the general gloom & doom of the time.
The cool thing about a good model is it lets you play "What If?" and explore various scenarios. In an appendix, the Club of Rome guys did just that. What if we twiddle the parameters? - population control, green energy, limited economies? No dice. Whatever we did, we were boned and there was no way around it. That made me suspicious. I don't think "attractor basin" was a word yet, but it sounded to me like the model was stuck. Think of a marble in a bucket. You can swirl it around, but it can't jump out unless you give it a big kick.
I hate to spoil the ending, but none of the gloom & doom happened. Maybe the model lacked "predictive skill", maybe there were things the model didn't include like Norman Borlaug's Green Revolution or improved energy production. In any case, that was back in the '70s and we ain't dead yet. Like the man said, it's tough to make predictions, especially about the future.
[Mail] A Chinese investigation says the scientist behind the birth of two babies whose genes had been edited in hopes of making them resistant to the AIDS virus acted on his own 'for personal fame and profit' and will be punished for violating regulations.
Confirming the births, the official Xinhua News Agency said Monday that investigators in the southern province of Guangdong determined Dr He Jiankui organised and handled funding for the experiment without outside assistance in violation of national guidelines. The university He worked for said he had been fired.
The scientist sparked global controversy in November when he announced in a YouTube video that he had successfully used a gene-editing technology known as CRISPR-Cas9 to alter the embryonic genes of twin girls born that month.
One of the mothers gave birth to twins nicknamed 'Lulu' and 'Nana', the investigators said. Another woman is still carrying a gene-edited fetus. The Xinhua report said all three would remain under observation.
[Townhall] Is CNN this dense? I know‐you already know that they are. You’re not wrong, but in the wake of BuzzFeed’s appalling mishap concerning their shoddy story that President Trump had ordered his former personal lawyer to lie to Congress about a real estate deal in Russia, how is this analysis anything but an exercise in a lack of self-awareness. It’s tragicomic. These folks honestly think they’re a) unbiased, and b) not part of the anti-Trump ethos that has permeated the media since 2015.
Speaking about this foul-up, CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said, "The larger message that a lot of people are going to take from this story is that the news media are a bunch of leftist liars who are dying to get the president and that they’re willing to lie to do it."
#9
Scorpion and Frog - they can't help themselves, its in their nature, "a bunch of leftist liars who are dying to get the president and that they’re willing to lie to do it."
[Breitbart] Former Vice President Joe Biden blamed Democrat losses in Florida and Georgia’s 2018 gubernatorial races on Republican-driven electoral fraud via "voter ID laws" that "keep people from being able to vote."
Biden also linked President Donald Trump to "white supremacists" and the "forces of hate" that led to the murder of Martin Luther King in 1968.
Biden made his allegations during Monday’s National Action Network’s annual breakfast in Washington, DC.‐ an organization founded and run by MSNBC’s Al Sharpton.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/22/2019 7:33
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#4
The family of Joe Biden, inventor of the lead paint chip salad, Braggart of Seal Team 6, announced on April 24, 1993, "after decades of neglect, grandpa Joe's brain was declared stone cold dead. His body will continue to live for some time. Please do not confuse his future actions on any semblance of intelligence or proof of life."
#5
Very common practice in big American cities for dems to hand out packs of smokes on skid row on election day. I'm sure they didn't bother with IDs then either...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/22/2019 8:24
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#6
Slow Joe is not known as the paragon of truth. There is case to made for Dem projection.
#7
Gosh, Joe, too bad all those dead people and illegal aliens weren't allowed to vote.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/22/2019 10:41
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#8
How dare the republicans force voters to only vote once. Its such a racist, bigoted, misogynistic idea...
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/22/2019 10:48
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#9
Pretty racist to assume that people of color can't manage to get proper ID. Then again the Dems are racists at heart, racists who assume that if such enlightened folk as themselves have racist thoughts others must be much worse
#10
Bidden is committing doublethink - "The acceptance of or mental capacity to accept contrary opinions or beliefs at the same time, especially as a result of political indoctrination."
h/t Gates of Vienna
[InfoWars] ...As liberal figures and publications backtrack their accusations in light of additional video showing the full picture, more information is coming to light about Phillips and his history of "drumming up" racial division.
In 2015, Phillips accused a group of Eastern Michigan University students of racism after confronting them for wearing Native American garb for a theme party.
...Additionally, the media is reporting that Phillips served as a Vietnam veteran, but the validity of those reports remain in question given Phillip’s claim that he was a "Recon Ranger" is a nonexistent operational force.
...In further evidence that Phillips supports the left’s agenda, he also protested the Dakota Access Pipeline at the Standing Rock reservation in 2018.
#1
I'm sure we'll get this all resolved with a check of his DD Form 214.
About the same time we get to see John Kerry's personnel file which he promised to release back in 2004.
Now, it the positions were switched, you'd bet the appropriate form would be 'leaked', but that's only the Left's modus operandi. The Right hasn't figured out that they're at war yet and are in deep denial.
#4
True story. I was an air assault otter in the 'Nam. So no shit, there I was, searching for charlie chaplin; a very quiet foe. Some say his hat was black, but I'm here to tell 'ya...it was red, red as a MAGA. The horror I imagine, the horror....
#8
Instapundit reported WaPo modified their article to now read “Earlier versions of this story incorrectly said that Native American activist Nathan Phillips fought in the Vietnam War. Phillips served in the U.S. Marines from 1972 to 1976 but was never deployed to Vietnam.”
[ArutzSheva] Israel and the United States conducted a joint missile test Tuesday morning of an anti-ballistic missile system.
The operation Tuesday, part of a joint project of the Israeli Defense Ministry’s ‘Homa’ missile defense administration and the American Missile Defense Agency, successfully tested the Hetz 3 (Arrow 3) missile
Designed to intercept and destroy long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles in space before they reenter the earth’s atmosphere, the Arrow 3 missile system was developed by Israel and the MDA.
The test launch took place at a testing area in central Israel, and was hosted by Israel Aerospace Industries.
During the test, a target was launched, identified by the Arrow 3’s detection system, an intercept vector calculated, and the Arrow 3 missile launched to intercept the target.
Defense officials say the Arrow 3’s success paves the way for the creation of a national missile defense network, capable of intercepting medium and long-range ballistic missiles – including missiles used as delivery systems for weapons of mass-destruction.
#4
Seems like the guidance system would have to be pretty sophisticated.
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/22/2019 11:31
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#5
??? The Arrow 3 is a completely different system from either a Patriot 2 or Patriot 3 missiles. And or course the Patriot 4 missile is the American designation for the Israeli "David's Sling" system.
If anything the 2-stage Arrow 3 is most similar to Boeing's GBI.
Anbar (IraqiNews.com) ‐ Three 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.... Lions of Islam were locked away ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... Monday on charges of targeting security forces and citizens in Anbar province, a security source was quoted as saying.
"A security campaign was launched after receiving intelligence reports on the presence of three Lions of Islam implicated in targeting security forces and citizens with explosive charges in al-Karma district, east of Fallujah, ... the City of Mosques, which might have somthing to do with why it's not called Center of Prosperity or a really nice place to raise your kids... " Almaalomah news website quoted the source as saying.
"The Lions of Islam were moved to a lock-up amid high security measures for interrogation," the source added.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/22/2019
01:32 ||
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[1 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[IsraelTimes] Document says that ’one of the biggest threats to speech today are the attempts to silence social movements, including those advocating for Paleostinian rights’.
The Women’s March is prioritizing efforts to fight legislation that would curb boycotts of Israel, a policy paper laying out the group’s agenda released this weekend shows.
Because what is happening to a small population halfway round the world that is voluntarily controlled by terrorist organizations is a uniquely female American concern.
During the Women’s March annual protest in Washington on Saturday, one of the organization’s national co-chairs, Linda Sarsour, mentioned this portion of the plank to uproarious applause.
Many other leaders at the rally used their speeches to try and calm fears among members of the Jewish community that the group was not inclusive toward Jews.
Sarsour, a Paleostinian-American activist, is one of the most high-profile backers of the BDS campaign against Israel.
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) ‐ An Iraqi civilian was killed on Monday in an armed attack that was launched by unidentified button men in the capital Baghdad, a security source said.
"Unknown attackers shot up a civilian while passing by Abu Gharib district, west of Baghdad, leaving him dead," the source told al-Madar news website.
The source added that a security force sealed off the area and carried the body to the forensic medicine department.
[IsraelTimes] A suicide car kaboom on a military convoy in northeastern Syria Monday killed five members of a Kurdish-led force accompanying US troops in an anti-jihadist coalition, a monitor says.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says five fighters from the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are killed in the attack, which occurred on a road in Hasakeh province.
The attack, on which there was no immediate comment from the coalition, came less than a week after another attack on the US-led force and its local partners in the strategic city of Manbij.
[Jpost] Kenyan police have thwarted an attack by suspected Somali turbans al-Shabaab ... the personification of Somali state failure... on a Chinese-owned construction company in an eastern region, an official said on Monday, days after the Islamist group killed 21 people in Nairobi.
The assailants maimed one person while they attempted to hit the site in Garissa county, not far from the Kenyan-Somali border, owned by a Chinese road construction company that is building the Garissa-Modogashe highway.
"The attackers were repulsed since the security officers were very alert. There was exchange of fire before the attackers escaped," county police commander David Kerina told Rooters by phone, adding that the injured person was a watchman's wife.
"I believe the attackers, who were armed, might be Somali holy warriors. They fled, but we have intensified security operations. So far no arrest has been made."
Kerina give no more details about the attack or the site.
[PRESSTV] Russia has rejected a US demand for Moscow to destroy a new cruise missile system, a weapon Washington alleges is in violation of the landmark Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Monday it was unacceptable for Washington to demand Moscow destroy its SSC-8/9M729 cruise missile, denying the missile system is in breach of INF.
INF was a Cold-War era treaty signed in 1987 that eliminated all nuclear and conventional missiles with ranges of 1,000‐5,500 km (620‐3,420 mi).
Ryabkov also said Russia has proposed putting on a demonstration of the missile for the United States, the Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.
"We are ready to show unprecedented transparency on the 9M729 missile, which alarms the Americans so much. We offered them a presentation and a briefing on the missile, which absolutely does not follow from the content of the treaty itself," he said.
"But at the same time, we insist that the Americans take practical steps to alleviate our concerns on the Aegis Ashore systems, deployed in Romania, whose deployment is also scheduled in Poland soon."
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Take note President Erdogan, and ponder how easily this could happen to you.
[IsraelTimes] Federal Aviation Office cancels operating license of Mahan Air, which Israeli defense officials suspect is helping fly advanced weapons to Damascus.
Germany has banned Iranian airline Mahan Air from its airports, in an escalation of sanctions adopted by the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... against Iran over attacks on opponents in the bloc. The US has accused Mahan of flying arms and Lions of Islam to Syria.
Rooters on Monday quoted a German foreign ministry front man saying the ban on the airline takes immediate effect.
Mahan, Iran’s second-largest carrier after Iran Air, operates four flights a week between Tehran and the German cities Duesseldorf and Munich. It has been identified by Israeli defense officials as one of the cargo carriers suspected of ferrying war materiel from Iran to its proxy militias in Syria. As a result, it is subject to sanctions by the US Treasury Department.
A Mahan Air flight was en route to Syria on Sunday afternoon but turned back following reported Israeli strikes in and around the Syrian capital Damascus, according to flight data. The airline makes almost daily flights between Iran and Syria.
The EU earlier this month targeted sanctions at Iran’s security services and two of their leaders, accused of involvement in a series of murders and planned attacks against Tehran critics in the Netherlands, Denmark and La Belle France.
Brussels’ measures included freezing funds and financial assets belonging to Iran’s intelligence ministry and individual officials, but did not target any companies.
By contrast Mahan Air was blacklisted by the US in 2011, as Washington said the carrier was providing technical and material support to an elite unit of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards known as the Quds Force.
The US treasury has threatened sanctions against countries and companies offering the airline’s 31 aircraft landing rights or services such as on-board dining.
German firms have come under especially intense pressure from American Ambassador Richard Grenell, a close ally of US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... , over sanctions against Iran.
"Mahan Air has flown terrorists, weapons, equipment, and funds to international locations to support Iranian terrorist proxy groups," Grenell said in a statement quoted by Rooters. "Iran’s use of Mahan Air to support the Assad regime in Syria, for example, has contributed to incredible human suffering, violence, and political instability felt across the world."
Rail operator Deutsche Bahn, Deutsche Telekom, Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler and industrial group Siemens have all said they will stop their operations in the country.
Last week German authorities said they had tossed in the clink Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! a German-Afghan military adviser on suspicion of spying for Iran.
[Ynet] During the First Gulf War, Israeli political and military leaders found themselves on a steep learning curve as the country was pounded by Saddam Hussein's Scuds; the lessons from that experience ‐ and the demands of the Americans ‐still resonate, in particular regarding a devious Iranian plan to strike the Jewish state from Iraq.
The picture painted by the intelligence gathered by Israel and by the United States Central Command is very worrying. The Iranians, it transpired, have started sending surface-to-surface missiles to Shiite militias in Iraq. The missiles are meant to be aimed, among other things, at Israel, to deter it from further attacks on Iranian facilities in Syria.
It is a cunning Iranian move: missile fire from Iraq would not give Israel just cause to attack Syria or Leb, and it would put the Jewish state in a dilemma. Furthermore, an attack on Iraq requires coordination with the US, who has already informed Israel that any military action it takes in Iraq would endanger the lives of Americans protecting the Baghdad regime. It would also require coordination with neighboring countries such as Jordan and Soddy Arabia
Continued on Page 49
[Asia Times] Number of babies born falls by 2 million, despite relaxed population controls.
A seismic demographic shift that Chinese officials have warned is a “national crisis” came closer to fruition last year, with China’s birth rate falling to its lowest point since the People’s Republic of China was formed in 1949.
According to China’s National Bureau of Statistics, the birth rate in 2018 was just shy of 11 per thousand, down from 12.43 per thousand the year prior. Two million fewer babies were born in 2018 than in 2017.
This decline, which follows trends seen in other East Asian countries after decades of urbanization and development, comes despite efforts to encourage couples to have more children, including the relaxation in 2016 of population controls.
Last July, a top political advisory body warned that China’s labor supply will fall by 100 million every 15 years after 2020, urging the government to enact more incentives for having children.
Many couples who would like to have more than one child, surveys have found, say that they are not able to afford related expenses.
[IsraelTimes] A Paleostinian man attempted to carry out a stabbing attack on Monday evening against Israeli troops near the northern West Bank city of Nablus, the Israel Defense Forces said.
The soldiers subsequently shot the assailant at a junction outside Nablus, near a military base, the army said.
There were no Israeli casualties in the incident. The IDF said it was investigating the attempted attack and sending forces to the scene.
Reports in Hebrew-language and Paleostinian media said the assailant was killed. Official Paleostinian Authority news agency Wafa identified the Paleostinian as 36-year-old Mohammad Adawi.
The IDF said that according to an initial investigation of the incident, the Paleostinian suspect was driving a car from the direction of Nablus. After a brief security check, soldiers told him to turn around. He then exited the vehicle with a large knife and charged at a soldier standing guard and tried to stab him. Another soldier then shot the assailant, according to the army
[PULSE.NG] Colombia's ELN rebels demanded government guarantees Monday that their peace delegation could return to the country from Cuba within 15 days due to the failure of talks, after a bombing killed 20 people in Bogota.
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[AlAhram] Egypt's Court of Cassation commuted on Sunday death sentences to life imprisonment for six defendants convicted of forming a terrorist cell in Giza in a 2014 case.
The court also upheld life imprisonment sentences for 14 others in the same case, and a minor was sentenced in absentia to 10 years in prison.
The court's verdict is final and cannot be appealed.
The defendants were charged with forming a cell that aimed to carry out attacks on members of the judiciary, on public and private property, and illegally protesting.
The original verdict was issued in October 2018, sentencing 11 to death, five of whom were in absentia, and 14 were sentenced to life in prison.
That’d be the group that fondly thought of themselves as the bold lions of "ISIS state in Giza.”
Prosecutors said that the defendants established a group that aimed to violate the provisions of the constitution and the law, prevent state institutions from carrying out their activities, and attack personal freedom.
The prosecution also charged members of the cell with attempting to kill a police officer in Giza in 2014.
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#1
"Egypt's Court of Cassation commuted on Sunday death sentences..."
[Jpost] One of 20 undeclared ballistic missile operating bases in North Korea serves as a missile headquarters, according to a report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) published on Monday.
"The Sino-ri missile operating base and the Nodong missiles deployed at this location fit into North Korea's presumed nuclear military strategy by providing an operational-level nuclear or conventional first strike capability," said the report co-authored by analyst Victor Cha.
The discovery of an undeclared missile headquarters comes three days after U.S. President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... said he "looks forward" to another summit to discuss denuclearization with North Korean leader Kim Pudge Jong-un ...the overweight, pouty-looking hereditary potentate of North Korea. Pudge appears to believe in his own divinity, but has yet to produce any loaves and fishes, so his subjects remain malnourished... in late February.
Kim vowed to work toward denuclearization at his first summit with Trump in June, but there has since been little concrete progress.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
CSIS, which last reported on the 20 missile bases in November, said the Sino-ri base has never been declared by North Korea and as a result "does not appear to be the subject of denuclearization negotiations."
The report said that missile operating bases would presumably be subject to declaration, verification, and dismantlement in any nuclear deal.
"The North Koreans are not going to negotiate over things they don't disclose," said Cha.
"It looks like they're playing a game. They're still going to have all this operational capability," even if they destroy their disclosed nuclear sites.
Located 132 miles (212 km) north of the demilitarized zone, the Sino-ri complex is a seven-square-mile (18-square-km) base that plays a key role in developing ballistic missiles capable of reaching South Korea, Japan, and even the U.S. territory of Guam in the Western Pacific, the report said.
It houses a regiment-sized unit equipped with Nodong-1 medium-range ballistic missiles, the report added.
Satellite images of the base from Dec. 27, 2018 show an entrance to an underground bunker, reinforced shelters and a headquarters, the report said.
In South Korea, the Sino-ri facility has long been known as one of the bases housing the Nodong, also called the Rodong, a medium-range missile based on Soviet-era Scud technology that the North began deploying in the mid-1990s.
"It is a facility we've been monitoring with interest, in cooperation with the United States," Kim Joon-rak, a front man for South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a news briefing on Tuesday.
Government document about how to execute a federal RIF.
[Ask.FewWeek] When an agency conducts a significant job reduction, it must use formal reduction in force procedures published by the Office of Personnel Management. These rules create four standards for determining which employees are released, and which are retained, either in their current positions or in another position:
tenure of employment (such as type of appointment);
veterans preference;
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#1
The most difficult part of my 'career', as it is, was to get work in the Dreaded Private Sector after I was laid off at the Mass. Department of Revenue after four years as an auditor. I almost feel bad for the saps who'll hopefully be getting these notices soon.
#2
I almost feel bad for the saps who'll hopefully be getting these notices soon. Yes!
Does the government make use of large simulation models where they play the "What if" policy game? That is, if so many Federal employees are RIFed, what does it do to the economy, revenues and expenditures, the debt and the Federal budget?
#3
I think it’s important for people to understand the difference between essential and nonessential personnel. Essential versus nonessential is only language used for government shut downs. Essential personnel that stay on the job are essentially those that do safety related duties. Nonessential people may still perform important duties, but they are sent home to make the money for safety related functions last longer. Scientists, engineers, attorneys, and in fact a whole host of Professional and STEM employees comprise a good chunk of these “non-essential” people. The agency will eventually grind to a halt without them, much like an army can fight for a while but eventually must surrender when supply lines have been cut.
I would also point out that a RIF would preserve the oldest and most deeply institutionalized feds of all, while clearing out the younger, more motivated people that you probably don’t want to lose. A RIF plan could be useful for eliminating positions or functions altogether that the government shouldn’t really be performing, but I don’t know if they’re smart enough to do that.
Take me for instance, I am a currently furloughed GS-13 Civil Engineer and a COR of multi million dollar constitution projects. My projects are suspended, the contractors on Stop Work Order, materials sitting in the rain. Delay claims racking up day by day, planned facilities half built. I am non-essential for the purposes of a Shutdown, I am not non-essential if you want to let any kind of government construction contract. You would spend all your money and have no useable product or service to show for it. Contract workers would not be paid properly, materials would be no compliant, stolen or overbilled. Seismic and fire life safety codes would be disregarded, etc, etc, etc. And that’s just the stuff I catch regularly and with decent contractors, imagine what I go through with the bad contractors, I’m still working on the civil and criminal investigation if the Inspector General from two years ago with one of the bad ones.
Point is, essential and nonessential don’t mean crap, it’s another con to keep the govt open for a few more days while Congress screws around. And RIFs don’t mean squat the way they do them. You could clean out tens of thousands of pointless jobs from the DC agency “headquarters” buildings and regional offices, a significant number of those people are sitting at a desk doing nothing, and haven’t done anything for YEARS in many cases.
Not all government is bad, there are still some patriots and hard working, smart people making things happen. But there are entire buildings full of otherwise unemployable do nothings that have become a welfare program.
Once again, I have no confidence that OPM can excise the rot and keep the productive elements.
#5
COR stands for contracting officers representative. It’s usually an engineer that administers the contract and all of its day to day aspects. This is done because the contracting officer is often far away in an office building not in the field. The contracting officers representative manages all day to day administration of the contract with a few important exceptions like terminations, contract modifications, or stop work orders. It’s a difficult and time-consuming certification to obtain, first you need to be an engineer with construction experience and then you need several years performance on the job then you can do the training certification at level one and finally progressed to level two where you can supervise complex construction projects.
There may indeed be a RIF, however I take comport and pride in the fact that I am not part of the “government waste” part of the equation.
[ELUNIVERSAL] The president of the National Assembly, Juan Guaidó, rejected on Monday the decision of the Supreme Court of Justice to annul the acts of the current board of directors, which he considered a "legal aberration, politically absurd."
Juan Guaidó called on the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) to follow the Magna Carta. "Military family there are those who want to persecute, those who want to continue intimidating, what we saw today is that there is an echo on constitutional respect."
Finally, he invited Venezuelans to the March that will take place this coming Wednesday in "attachment" to articles 233, 333 and 350 of the Constitution of the Republic with the "backing" of the international community.
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[AlAhram] A private rescue boat with dozens of migrants colonists aboard sought permission for a second day to enter a safe port Sunday, but said so far its queries to several nations haven't succeeded.
Another vessel crowded with panicking migrants colonists and taking on water, meanwhile, put out an urgent, separate appeal for help in the southern Mediterranean.
Sea-Watch 3, run by a German NGO, said Sunday it has contacted Italia, Malta, Libya as well as the Netherlands, since the boat is Dutch-flagged, asking where it can bring the 47 migrants colonists it had taken aboard. Sea-Watch tweeted that Libyan officials had hung up when it asked for a port assignment.
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Pope Francis’ upcoming historic visit to Abu Dhabi, which will begin on February 5, will bring together many prominent leaders from Islam, Christianity, and Judaism from various parts of the region.
According to local media reports, these leaders will discuss ways to improve interfaith relations and promote dialogue. The meeting will be part of the series of events planned on the sidelines of the Pope’s visit to the UAE, which would be his first to the Gulf region.
Pope Francis is also scheduled to hold a meeting with Dr. Ahmed al-Tayeb of Sheikh of al-Azhar, which organizes meetings of more than 600 spiritual leaders representing different religions.
Mansour al-Mansouri, Director General of the National Media Council of the UAE, said that the Pope’s historic visit "reflects the spirit of tolerance of the United Arab Emirates."
He said that residents in the United Arab Emirates have embraced 76 churches and temples belonging to different religious beliefs. al-Mansouri said that the Pope’s visit would attract great media attention, as this is the first visit of its kind to the region.
According to reports, the Pope will lead a mass in Abu Dhabi, which is likely to be attended by 135,000 Catholics from the UAE and other parts of the region.
Secretary-General of the Council of Moslem Scholars, Dr. Sultan al-Rumaithi, said that the meeting would include discussions on the principles of religions, what they have in common, as well challenges and opportunities.
He also highlighted the importance of tolerance, which he said, is an integral part of Islam. al-Rumaithi also said that there would be significant Saudi participation in the meeting.
He said that this is not a political meeting and would instead focus on interfaith participation and the importance of tolerance that the UAE is trying to highlight.
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[Libya Observer] Bani Walid social council brokered Monday at Bab Albahr Hotel a ceasefire agreement between Supreme Council of Reconciliation of Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... and Tarhouna Elders Council to end festivities in southern Tripoli.
The signatories told news hounds in a presser earlier that the agreement says an immediate ceasefire must take effect, and all fighting groups must withdraw 15 kilometers away from their current positions so that the area from Fam Mulgha checkpoint in Tarhouna to southern Tripoli is secured by security departments in each of the districts and towns.
"We disown all criminals and runaways who are wanted by both sides, we will exchange bodies and captives and resolve the displaced civilians' issues and then we will form a committee to oversee the ceasefire implementation." The agreement reads.
In the meantime, identical sources reported that during the ceasefire signing, there were festivities in Souq al-Khamis Emsehel district and both parties exchanged accusations of violating the truce.
Fighting erupted last Wednesday in southern Tripoli after a similar one took the lives of over 100 people in last August and September.
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Iran failed to find any buyers on Monday, in its latest attempt to sell oil to private companies for export on the stock exchange, the ISNA news agency reported, in a setback to Tehran’s efforts to bypass US sanctions.
Crude oil trade is state-controlled in Iran, but to try to work round US sanctions, the government last year started to sell crude to private buyers through the stock exchange.
However, a person who gets all wrapped up in himself makes a mighty small package... there were no buyers on Monday for the one million barrels it offered on the exchange at a starting price of $52 per barrel.
In October, before US sanctions came into force, Iran sold 280,000 barrels at $74 apiece of the one million barrels it offered on the exchange. Two weeks later, it sold 700,000 barrels at $64 each.
Washington re-introduced sanctions on Iran’s oil exports on Nov. 4 after earlier in the year withdrawing from a 2015 multinational deal that had lifted sanctions in return for limits on Iran’s nuclear program.
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#1
Sounds like private companies are worried about the wrath of Trump and sanctions against them.
Posted by: Chris ||
01/22/2019 2:21
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[Asia Times] Two mega canal systems have been proposed to connect two major rivers; the projects would dwarf Three Gorges Dam in terms of size and effort required.
China is considering digging two mega canal systems to link the Yangtze River, which runs through central and eastern China, to the Pearl River in southern Guangdong and Guangxi provinces.
Xinhua reports that the Ministry of Transportation is now studying the feasibility of the project, which would include one canal from Hunan to Guangxi and another connecting Jiangxi and Guangdong.
The two canals, with their respective feeder lines along tributaries of the Yangtze and Pearl Rivers, are part of a new national plan on channel and port construction.
The Yangtze and the Pearl River are China’s longest and third longest rivers respectively. Their estuaries and deltas are home to China’s two major industrial powerhouses and mega-cities.
The new canal project comes hot on the heels of the South-North Water Transfer Project. This is a decade-long infrastructure plan to channel 45 billion cubic meters of fresh water annually from the Yangtze to Beijing and other northern cities through three giant canal systems.
The eastern route utilizes the course of the Beijing–Hangzhou Grand Canal, while the central route starts from the upper reaches of the Han River, a tributary of the Yangtze, to Beijing and Tianjin, and the western route stretches from the alpine Qinghai to Shaanxi, Shanxi and Inner Mongolia.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Ottoman Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Monday called on companies to lower their prices and cut profits if necessary, to help consumers through a difficult economic time.
Erdogan also said in a speech in Ankara that US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... told him in a call on Sunday, that Washington would take measures on its tariffs on Ottoman Turkish steel imports.
Last Thursday, a Rooters poll found thatThe Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... ’s economy began contracting in the last quarter and won’t grow again until the third quarter of 2019, while growth will miss government forecasts through 2021, underscoring the serious damage caused by a currency crisis.
The Ottoman Turkish lira collapsed nearly 30 percent against the US dollar last year, pushing up the price of everything from food to fuel and sending annual inflation to a 15-year-high of more than 25 percent.
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#1
Has AOC been whispering in Yippy's ear?
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01/22/2019 9:15
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] An ISIS-claimed suicide car kaboom on a military convoy in northeastern Syria killed on Monday five members of a Kurdish-led force accompanying US troops in an anti-extremist coalition, a monitor said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said five fighters from the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were killed in the attack, which occurred on a road in Hasakeh province.
"A suicide kaboomer driving a bomb-laden car targeted a convoy of American forces accompanied by the SDF on the Hasakeh-Shadadi road," the Observatory said.
The head of the Britannia-based Observatory, Rami Abdel Rahman, said the attacker’s vehicle hit an SDF vehicle.
Shadadi lies to the south of Hasakeh, capital of the eponymous province, which has been relatively spared by the war that erupted in Syria nearly eight years ago.
The attack, on which there was no immediate comment from the coalition, came less than a week after another attack on the US-led force and its local partners in the strategic city of Manbij.
Four Americans -- two members of the military, a Pentagon civilian and a contractor -- were killed in a blast that targeted a restaurant in the city center on January 16.
The Manbij attack cost Washington its worst combat losses since it deployed in the war-torn country to combat ISIS.
Ten civilians were also killed in the attack, as well as five fighters from the local force that was patrolling the city alongside the coalition.
The attacks targeting the US-led coalition and its allies on the ground come a month after US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... ’s shock announcement that he had ordered a complete troop pullout from Syria.
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[NYPOST] An overweight passenger aboard a Taiwanese airliner forced flight attendants to remove his pants so he could use the toilet — then wipe his butt as he moaned in pleasure, according to reports.
A flight attendant for EVA Air — which only employs female cabin crew — described the crappy duty the paunchy perv subjected her and two of her colleagues to aboard the LA-to-Taipei flight on Saturday, according to Focus Taiwan.
The sicko, who was confined to a wheelchair, told the flight attendants that he needed assistance to use the lavatory about two hours into the flight.
“I felt that as a flight attendant, removing a passenger’s underwear was beyond the scope of my responsibilities,” the flight attendant told a news conference, where she was accompanied by reps from the Taoyuan Flight Attendants Union.
“I told him we couldn’t help him, but he started yelling. He told me to go in there immediately and threatened to relieve himself on the floor,” she said, according to the Daily Mail.
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[Business Mirror] Amid fear of violence, Philippine election and security officials gave assurances everything is set for the historic plebiscite on the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL), with 2.1 million voters in Mindanao deciding whether it will be ratified or not. Over the weekend, around 20,000 policemen and soldiers were deployed in Mindanao.
Residents of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), Isabela City in Basilan and Cotabato City will head to polling centers on Monday — the first of a two-part process — for the ratification of the BOL.
Tension ran high in Cotabato City, where many factors have been vocal in opposing inclusion in the expanded autonomous region to be known as BARMM, for Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. Cotabato City is one of two cities included in the areas of plebiscite despite being excluded from the current Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
As concern built up in the city, the rest of the plebiscite areas seemed headed for one of the most peaceful political exercises in contrast to previously bloody political showdowns.
[Asharq Al-Awsat] Climate change and deforestation
...or possibly not climate change — deforestation on its own suffices for understory trees and bushes...
are putting more than half the world’s wild coffee species at risk of extinction, with 60% of 124 known species on the edge of extinction, scientists warned on Wednesday.
Research published by experts at Britain’s Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew found that current conservation measures for wild coffee species are not enough to protect their long-term future.
More than 100 types of coffee trees grow naturally in forests, including two used for the coffee we drink.
Scientists say the figure is "worrying", as wild coffee is critical for sustaining the global coffee crop.
About one in five of the world's plants is threatened with extinction, and the 60% figure is an "extremely high" one.
Aaron Davis, head of coffee research at Kew, who co-led the work, said that among coffee species threatened with extinction are some that could be used to breed and develop the coffees of the future, including some that have resistance to disease and that can withstand worsening climatic conditions.
He said targeted action is urgently needed in specific tropical countries, particularly in Africa and particularly in forested areas which are being hit hard by climate change.
“As temperatures increase and rainfall decreases - the suitable area for growing ... diminishes,” Davis said.
He noted the findings were not just important for coffee drinkers. “There are many countries which depend on coffee for the ... bulk of their export earnings. It’s estimated there are 100 million people producing coffee in farms around the world.”
The study found that 75 wild coffee species are considered threatened with extinction, 35 are not threatened and too little is known about the remaining 14 to make any judgment.
Furthermore, it was found that 28% of wild coffee species grow outside protected areas and only about half are preserved in seed banks.
China's glamour wearing off and US fracking and shale looking tasty?
[ASHARQ AL-AWSAT] New US-Sudanese talks have started in Khartoum to expand oil investment projects with the largest number of American companies.
A delegation from the US embassy in Khartoum, headed by its commercial attaché and including representatives of the Baker Hughes company, met with CEO of Sudan National Petroleum Company (SUDAPET) Atif Mustafa Abbashar.
SUDAPET is one of the arms of the Sudanese Ministry of Oil and Gas, which is responsible for agreements and transactions with international companies that seek to invest in the oil sector in Sudan.
The two parties agreed to resume the activities of Baker Hughes in the country and assign the company and the commercial attaché to market and promote investment opportunities in the exploration, extraction and oil sectors in Sudan.
Sudan relies on Baker Hughes to attract high-tech US investments, an informed source in the Ministry of Oil, Gas and Minerals told Asharq Al-Awsat.
Baker Hughes will implement the industrial gas city project, which is on Sudan’s international tender to invest 15 oil fields in the country, said the source.
The project is based on US shale oil technology for natural gas extraction.
The company’s contract provides for cooperation with SUDAPET and implementation of gas and associated gas projects, as well as cooperation in spare parts for drilling wells, drilling fluids and refinery services.
Since the beginning of the year, the Ministry of Oil has been receiving offers from international oil companies to invest in 15 oil fields, which Sudan has put out to investment through a global tender in March 2017 and then reintroduced them in October 2018.
It also offered a number of fields for global investments at the end of May, most notably the Industrial Gas City, which the country is looking forward to capitalize on gas-related industries through bloc 8 located in the southeastern Sinnar state.
Other opportunities for oil investment in Sudan include increasing the storage capacity of the Khartoum refinery, which currently operates at 90,000 barrels per day, and covering 80 percent of the country’s oil consumption.
The Sudanese investment projects also include the extension of pipelines from the production and storage areas to the rest of the country and the extraction of oil and gas in a number of sites that need high technology and huge investments.
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[PULSE.NG] The latest escalation in the power struggle between Maduro and the new president of the assembly, Juan Guaido, came on the same day as a brief military uprising in Caracas and amid opposition calls for mass protests on Wednesday.
Supreme Court president Juan Jose Mendoza read a statement to the press declaring that the legislature "does not have a legitimate board of directors."
He charged that it was "usurping its authority, and therefore all its decisions are void."
Hours earlier, the government said it jugged Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! a group of mutinous soldiers who attacked a National Guard command center in Caracas.
The soldiers had managed to post a video on social media announcing their repudiation of Maduro's regime and calling on the public to take to the streets in support.
Guaido, on being sworn in as the assembly president earlier in the month, called on the military and the public to support a transitional government to restore democracy after declaring Maduro's presidency illegitimate.
Last week, the assembly formally declared Maduro a "usurper" and promised members of the military and civilian officials who break with his regime amnesty.
Maduro, a socialist, was sworn in to a second six year term January 10 amid criticism from his domestic opponents and international bodies such as the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... , Organization of American States and the United States.
Maduro's critics charge the May election he won was fraudulent.
The Supreme Court stripped the legislature of all its powers in 2017, soon after Maduro lost control of the National Assembly following parliamentary elections.
Although the opposition-controlled assembly continues to sit and make decisions, those are all annulled by the loyalist-dominated Supreme Court.
Guaido has announced a mass people's protest for Wednesday and admits that he needs both the public and military on his side to unseat Maduro.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2019
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[IsraelTimes] Report says Paleostinian operatives tossed in the calaboose Please don't kill me! a ’collaborator’ who planted spyware near the home of Qassam Brigades deputy chief
Paleostinian operatives in the Gazoo Strip have disassembled spyware equipment planted by a "collaborator" with Israel in a home adjacent to that of Marwan Issa, the deputy head of the group’s military wing, the pro-Hezbollah al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Monday, citing sources in terror groups in the coastal enclave.
The equipment was intended to capture audio emanating from Issa’s home in the Bureij refugee camp and subsequently transmit it to Israel, the sources told the paper, adding it was part of an attempt to circumvent a recent change in the Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, leader’s use of communication devices.
The sources also said that gangs had arrested the Paleostinian "collaborator" who planted the equipment near Issa’s home, and later uncovered a wider network of spyware he had installed in other places in Gazoo.
In early January, Iyad al-Bozm, the front man of the Hamas-run interior ministry, said security forces in Gazoo arrested 45 "collaborators" with the Jewish state since an Israeli raid in the Strip went awry late last year.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... attack in central Afghanistan on Monday killed scores of security personnel, officials said, with some estimates putting the corpse count at more than 100, amid government silence about one of the most deadly murderous Moslem attacks in months.
Attackers rammed a captured military Humvee packed with explosives into a training center of the National Directorate for Security in Maidan Wardak province, west of the capital Kabul. At least two button men followed up, spraying the compound with gunfire before they were shot down.
Continued on Page 49
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[PULSE.NG] Victims of the Jewish museum attack in Brussels were shot with "surgical" precision, first responders said Monday at the trial of French national Mehdi Nemmouche.
Nemmouche, 33, the alleged jihadist gunman, faces life in prison if convicted of the charges of murdering four people during the anti-Semitic attack on May 24, 2014.
Paramedics who attended the scene told the Brussels criminal court they first found a man and women dead in the museum's entrance hall. Each had been shot in the head at point blank range.
Inside the museum reception they then found a third victim who was "unconscious and shaking violently" before sedating him in order to provide first aid.
The victim was a young man with "a bullet in the middle of the head", first responder Benoit Claessens said, pointing to the space between both eyes.
"This precision was surgical," Claessens told the court, as he struggled to maintain his composure.
Charlyne Lietard, a nurse in the same rescue team, echoed his comments.
"These are people who appear to have been executed, given the precision of the shots," Lietard told the court.
Both emergency workers described entering a "shocking" scene where it was stressful to work because they did not know whether the gunman was still present.
It was only later that witnesses said the gunman had fled, disappearing into the crowd outside, carrying the two dark bags he had arrived with.
The two bodies in the entrance hall were identified as Emmanuel Riva and his wife Miriam. The third victim was Alexandre Strens, 26, who died in hospital two weeks later.
Emergency workers later found a fourth body, that of French museum volunteer Dominique Sabrier, 60.
Nacer Bendrer, a 30-year-old fellow Frenchie who allegedly supplied Nemmouche with the weapons, also faces life in prison if convicted of the same charge of terrorist murder.
Investigators said Nemmouche attacked the museum shortly after returning from Syria, where he had allegedly fought on behalf of jihadist groups.
Six days after the attack, Nemmouche was tossed in the clink I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! in the southern French port city of Marseille. Bendrer was arrested in Marseille in December 2014.
The trial is due to last until the end of February or early March. Both defendants were present in court on Monday, as they have been since the trial started on January 10.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2019
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#1
Then remove his unit with "surgical" precision.
[DW] For the EU, Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... 's election proved a steep learning curve, and the damage caused by the US president will be difficult to repair. But Trump's tenure has also done Europe ...also known as Moslem Lebensraum... some good, writes DW's Max Hofmann. Continued on Page 49
#2
This author is either a "glass half-full person or been writing from Amsterdam. Those who favor nationalism probably like Trump; those who are globalists probably hate him. Trade between individual countries probably benefit as the result of DJT.
[CAPITALFM.CO.KE] Four of the eight suspects on a terror watch list have surrendered as police intensify security operations across the country.
Qadaffy alias Munene was the first to be taken into custody in Isiolo County on Monday after he surrendered while in the company of his parents who insisted he is not a terrorist.
Police say the parents persuaded Munene to surrender after he featured in the list of terror suspects being sought by authorities following the 14 Riverside Drive attack in Nairobi that left 21 people dead.
"He has been booked for questioning," a detective privy to the development told Capital FM News on grounds of anonymity.
His parents say he worked at a leading firm on Mombasa Road. Moments later, three others on the list gave themselves up in the company of their parents.
They are Ali Abdi Kachora, Boru Abdi Bidu and Ramadhan Rasho who are also now being questioned by detectives.
Isiolo County is on the spotlight since one of the criminal masterminds of January 15 terrorist attack in Nairobi, Ali Salim Gichunge, was born and raised there.
Tens of youths are said to have left the country for Somalia from Isiolo, where they undergo training and radicalization.
It has already emerged that Gichunge’s wife, Violet Kemunto Omwoyo had planned to flee the country after the 14 Riverside Drive attack.
Detectives have since seized some of her personal belongings from a courier in Mandera Town.
She had sent them from Nairobi days before the attack was staged by the five slain attackers.
Gichunge is said to have coordinated the attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2019
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Five demining experts killed in a weekend kaboom in Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... were from South Africa and several European countries, King Salman ...either the largest species of Pacific salmon or the current Sheikh of the Burnin' Sands, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and Lord of Most of the Arabians.... Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSRelief) in charge of the project said on Monday.
The KSRelief said two South Africans, a Croatian, a Bosnian and a Kosovan were killed on Sunday when a vehicle carrying mines to be destroyed went kaboom! in the central province of Marib.
A British national was injured in the kaboom, KSRelief said without naming the casualties.
The Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ... militias have been accused of the widespread and indiscriminate use of landmines.
Yemen is a signatory to the Mine Ban Treaty, an international pact which came into force in 1999 and aims to eliminate landmines and clear up vast tracts of affected land.
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01/22/2019
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[PRESSTV] US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... insists he will not allow "amnesty" for the young undocumented immigrants colonists, who were brought to the country as children amid an ongoing government shutdown.
"No, Amnesty is not a part of my offer," Trump tweeted on Sunday, referring to a set of proposals he had made in a White House address a day earlier to end the roughly-one-month-long shutdown.
The deal included giving about one million immigrants colonists a three-year protection from deportation in exchange for $5.7 billion in funding for a wall along the US southern border.
The one million comprises 700,000 of the young immigrants colonists, known as Dreamers, who remain protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, and 300,000, who fled their countries and are facing the expiration of their "temporary protected status."
"It is a three year extension of DACA. Amnesty will be used only on a much bigger deal, whether on immigration or something else," Trump added.
The Democrats, who believe funding a wall is unnecessary, turned down the deal outright, saying it did not ensure permanent protections for the one million.
House of Representatives Speaker Nancy San Fran Nan Pelosi Congresswoman-for-Life from the San Francisco Bay Area, born into a family of professional politicians. Formerly Speaker of the House, but it's not her fault they lost. Really. Noted for her heavily botoxed grimace... called the offers "a compilation of several previously rejected initiatives, each of which is unacceptable and in total do not represent a good-faith effort to restore certainty to people’s lives."
Trump also threatened Pelosi, signaling that if his proposals remained unheeded by the Democrats, he could initiate a push for mass expulsion of illegal migrants colonists in the country.
"There will be no big push to remove the 11,000,000-plus people who are here illegally-but be careful Nancy!" he cautioned.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2019
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#1
Amnesty offsets 11,000,000+ Republican voters with Central American voters is the dream of the wicked witch of the west.
#5
This Wicked Witch of the West has been in office since 1987; 17 terms. Part of her district is a garbage pit and a high crime area, drug-infested area with homeless sleeping on the streets. She is the poster child for term limits.
Trump is going to have to finish the wall without the Nancy's and the House Dem's blessing. She is not going to agree to anything Trump. This is a "tinkling" contest. I'm betting on Trump.
#6
Trump seems to completely understand the "Lucy-with-the-football" nature of the DC creatures. Reagan got jobbed on immigration and that's been the template ever since. Trump doesn't want to play that game. Bully, sir. Bully!
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/22/2019 9:45
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#7
A 3 year delay on deciding what to do about an issue is not amnesty. It's kicking the can down the road, and possibly making it worse, depending on who is President in 3 years (my bet would be on Trump again, but I could be wrong), but it is not amnesty. And by offering such an obviously generous deal that he knew that Pelosi would never take, he showed everyone who cares just how much of a ridiculous figure Pelosi is, and how she is refusing to even both to negotiate, whether in good faith or not. Making the offer was a brilliant decision. The worst case scenario for Trump when he made it was that they would accept and then his wall would be built and he would have clearly won the shutdown, having gotten his major objective delivered and having proposed the final compromise.
[Jpost] As Israel continues to strike at Iran more publicly the Syrian conflict enters a new phase.
Airstrikes against Iranian targets in Syria on Sunday and Monday revealed a new Syrian battlefield that is emerging as the Syrian civil war ends and the US prepares to withdraw.
For eight years, since the Syrian rebellion began in 2011, Syria has been the center of great power politics, and an attempt by various forces to control the region through proxies in the conflict. It also became a battlefield between different ideologies, and quests for autonomy amid the chaos and the rise of Islamic State
Continued on Page 49
[Bangkok Post] Two Buddhist monks, including an abbot, were killed and two others wounded after a group of ten men sprayed bullets into their cubicles at a temple in Narathiwat province.
A joint team of police, soldiers and the district chief arrived at the scene at Wat Rattananuparb in Sungai Padi district after being alerted Friday night. Phra Kru Prachote Rattananurak, the chief monk of the district and abbot of the temple, was found dead along with another monk. Two other monks were also wounded.
Local residents told investigators they saw a group of men in black dressed like soldiers riding motorcycles in the direction of the temple. Upon entering the gate, they shot several rounds into the cubicles and escaped.
The atrocity capped a day of violence in Ban Poh Deng. A bomb was detonated at 7:30am in Ban Poh Deng when a soldier and five paramilitary rangers were on patrol. No one was hurt. The second bombing. in the afternoon, injured five members of a security team on patrol along a railway track.
Violence has been escalating almost daily in the three southernmost provinces, particularly Narathiwat, since late last year, even as officials say they hope to pursue negotiations with insurgents. The death toll in the South dropped to a record low last year as the government tightened its security web, but violence has boiled over in recent days.
In the past, Buddhist monks have been targeted only infrequently. But they have been told to suspend morning alms collection starting from Saturday in the three southern provinces, and security officials have been asked to step up protection of Islamic leaders who could also be at risk.
In a rare public statement dated Jan 4 the main Malay-Muslim rebel group — the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) — which has control over most of the rebel foot soldiers, swore to “keep fighting”.
“Siam can’t hold out,” the BRN wrote, signing off with a warning: “Do not help and support Siam.”
Security analyst Don Pathan said the uptick in violence was connected to efforts from Thai negotiators and Malaysian facilitators across the border to “pressure the BRN ruling council to come to the table without offering possible concessions”.
THREAD: Today @AbeShinzo is coming to Moscow seeking solution to a territorial dispute with Russia over Kurili islands. But expect no miracles. Putin is unlikely to move an inch, and the main reason why he's playing with Abe is desire to wreck US-Japan alliance. Here is why 👇1/ pic.twitter.com/UWWSXWBwkx
#3
Abe understands the Russia would like nothing more than to divide up Japan's territory with China. Hence, it's unlikely that Abe will do much more than offer Putin cash for the Kuriles.
#6
Getting the Japanese to turn a "blind eye" to technological transfers would be a big plus for Putin's ambitions. Russia still has that glaring problem of Quality Control on their attempts to build cutting edge military equipment...
[AsiaTimes] All signs point to the successful negotiation of a trade agreement which will benefit Chinese stocks and global capital goods producers
We can thank the Federal Reserve for the retracement of equity indices and commodity prices during the past three weeks. Friday’s market, though, followed news reports that China has offered a multi-year buying program to eliminate the bilateral trade deficit with the US within four years.
After the Fed’s turnabout, investors piled into the same stocks they had dumped in November and December, including names we love to hate, for example, Netflix (at 114 times trailing earnings). Chinese stocks lagged, evidently due to lingering concerns about trade war.
On Friday, though, the Chinese H-share ETF’s led the rally. That’s a good sign. I expect it to continue, and I also expect the rally will rotate towards beaten-up industrials like Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Siemens, Schneider and manufacturers of semiconductor equipment.
Presidents Trump and Xi Jinping appeared close to a deal at their December summit in Buenos Aires, but the arrest of Huawei’s chief financial officer and subsequent shots at China’s flagship high-tech company put the deal in doubt. The danger was that American efforts to sideline Huawei would undermine the trade deal. No such thing will happen, according to Chinese sources familiar with the government’s thinking.
Fourth, China did Trump a significant favor by calling Kim Jong Un to Beijing and persuading him to make progress on negotiations on the Korean peninsula. The scheduled meeting of South Korea’s president with Kim in February is evidence of such progress. This should build goodwill for trade negotiations.
Fifth, Xi Jinping will want to report progress on trade to the Party Congress in Beijing beginning March 1. The trade war has slowed Chinese growth, and it is in China’s interest (as well as Xi’s personal interest) to reach a resolution.
That reinforces our near-term optimism about equities that will benefit from a reduction of uncertainty about the global supply chain: Chinese equities, especially telecom infrastructure (eg, China Tower) and global cap goods producers.
[ABC-5] KIDRON, Ohio ‐ Two people have died Monday morning in a small plane crash in Kidron, located in Wayne County, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Authorities said the crash happened at 11145 Hackett Road in Kidron.
There were two people on-board when the plane clipped power lines shortly after departure from Kidron Monday morning, according to the FAA. The flight left a local airfield and was headed to the Akron-Canton Airport when it crashed.
Initial reports indicate that the plane had engine issues, which are believed to be a possible cause of the crash, Ohio State Highway Patrol officials said.
Investigators said the two people who died were identified as the pilot and co-pilot.
Federal records show the plane is registered to Priority Air Charter LLC. The company is based across the street from the crash site. No one answered the phone at the company's office and the door was locked Monday afternoon.
FAA records show the DC3 was built in 1942, but has been certified "airworthy" by the FAA in July, 2018.
A post on Priority Air Charter's Facebook page dated 2016 shows a picture of the plane and says it just returned to Ohio after spending 18 months with the Humanitarian Aid organization Samaritan's Purse in East Africa. It also says the plane was available for sale.
#1
....I'm pretty sure this bird spent a few days at Columbia (SC) Regional Airport a few years ago. Got an N number, looked it up, and it was listed as belonging to Samaritan's Purse.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/22/2019 5:12
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[IsraelTimes] Public security minister orders ban on 50th anniversary celebration for Makassed Hospital, says symbols of Paleostinian illusory sovereignty undermine Israeli authority in capital.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Israel’s military said on Monday it struck Iranian Quds targets inside Syria and warned Syrian forces not to attack Israeli territory or forces.
Israeli air strikes and ground-to-ground missiles killed at least 11 fighters including two Syrians, a Britannia-based war monitor said.
The bombardment hit Iranian and Syrian targets around Damascus as well as near a military airport to the south of the capital, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Syrian military air defenses also destroyed more than 30 cruise missiles and guided bombs during Israeli air strikes on Sunday, Russia’s defense control center was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying.
Israeli air strikes targeting an airport in southeastern Damascus killed four Syrian soldiers and maimed six, the military center was quoted by RIA news agency as saying on Monday.
Syrian state news agency Sana said its military air defenses had thwarted "hostile targets" and shot down several of them, without elaborating.
Witnesses in Damascus said loud kabooms rang out in the night sky.
"We have started striking Iranian Quds targets in Syrian territory. We warn the Syrian Armed Forces against attempting to harm Israeli forces or territory," Israel’s military said in a statement.
The overnight strikes followed cross-border attacks on Sunday in which Syria said it repelled an Israeli air attack. Israel said it intercepted a rocket fired at the Golan Heights.
"We have a permanent policy, to strike at the Iranian entrenchment in Syria and hurt whoever tries to hurt us," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier.
The Israeli army also said a popular winter tourist site on Mount Hermon in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights would be shut for the day. It added that otherwise things remained "routine" along the frontier with Syria.
Netanyahu last week acknowledged an Israeli attack on what he called an Iranian arms cache in Syria, where Tehran provides Damascus with vital support.
He told his cabinet Israel had carried out "hundreds" of attacks over the past years of Syria’s war to curtail Iran and its ally Leb’s Hezbollah.
Usually silent about its attacks on Iranian targets near its frontier, Israel has lifted the veil this month, a sign of confidence in a campaign waged amid occasional tensions with Syria’s big-power backer Russia.
Israeli fighter jets targeted Iranian weapons storehouses, intelligence facilities and a training camp near Damascus during a massive overnight bombardment, the Israel Defense Forces said Monday, accusing Iran of firing a missile at Israel a day earlier.
In addition, the Israeli Air Force bombed a number of Syrian air defense systems that fired on the attacking fighter jets, including a Russian-made Pansir S-1 battery, the military said.
"During the attack, dozens of Syrian surface-to-air missiles were fired, despite the clear warnings expressed [by Israel] to refrain from attacking. As a result, a number of Syrian air defense batteries were also attacked," the IDF said in a statement acknowledging the attack.
According to Russia, four Syrian servicemen were killed in the Israeli strikes. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said at least seven other pro-regime fighters were killed, likely Iranian or Shiite militia troops.
The Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported Monday that the Syrian surface-to-surface missile, fired by an Iranian militia at the Golan Heights a day earlier and intercepted by an Iron Dome anti-missile battery, carried a nearly half-ton warhead.
In response to the missile attack, according to the IDF, jets bombed weapons warehouses, including at least one at the Damascus airport, an intelligence facility and a training camp, all belonging to Iran’s Quds Force, the expeditionary arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which Israel and the West accuse of trying to gain a military foothold in Syria.
All of the targets, including the Syrian air defense batteries, were located around Damascus, according to the IDF.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights initially reported the death toll from the Israeli strikes to be 11. But on Tuesday, the war monitor said the number had risen to 21, making it one of the deadliest attacks by Israel in Syria.
According to SOHR, 12 of those killed were members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps; six were Syrian military fighters; and the other three were other non-Syrian nationals.
On Monday morning, the IDF also released video footage of its airstrikes on Syrian air defenses, including on social media.
According to Conricus, the Iranian retaliatory strike aimed at the northern Golan was “not a spur-of-the-moment” response, but had been planned months in advance, based on intelligence collected by the IDF.
The spokesman said Iran was directly responsible for the launch, and disputed reports that the projectile had been fired by pro-Iranian militias or by the Syrian regime.
Conricus said the location from which the missile was fired was “an area that we have been promised that the Iranians would not be in.”
That assurance appeared to have been made by Russia — Syrian dictator Bashar Assad’s prime ally in the civil war — but Conricus said he “won’t go into who made the promise.”
Israel has reached a number of understandings with Russia about the permitted location of Iranian troops in Syria, mostly about their deployment along the Golan border with Syria.
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01/22/2019
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... ’s ruler Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani will meet with the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president-for-life. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to Arabize Darfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it. on Wednesday in Doha, according to Qatar News Agency.
The statement which was published on Monday on QNA twitter account, added that both leaders will discuss the fraternal relations between the two countries and ways of promoting them.
No further details were given.
Bashir is expected to arrive in Doha on Tuesday.
On Sunday, Qatar’s emir traveled to Beirut, making a brief presence at the start of the Arab Economic and Social Development Summit.
But the emir had abruptly left for his country after attending the summit for around an hour.
In the meantime, Sudan is struggling with near daily demonstrations triggered by a worsening economic crisis which have shaken the country since Dec. 19. Protesters have called for an end to President Omar al-Bashir’s three-decade rule, blaming him for the country’s problems.
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[Asharq Al-Awsat] Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated Monday that Ankara will not allow Kurdish separatists to set up base in a planned “safe zone” in northern Syria.
Last week, following US President Donald Trump’s decision on December 19 to withdraw all 2,000 US troops from Syria, Erdogan said he and Trump had discussed Turkey setting up a 20-mile-deep safe zone inside Syria along the length of their border.
Erdogan said Turkey would work with anyone willing to provide it with logistics support for the zone, but that it would take action in Syria if promises were not kept.
“We are not talking of a safe zone (as protection) against Turkey, but rather one against terrorists.”
Turkish planes regularly attack bases in northern Iraq belonging to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been fighting for three decades for autonomy for southeast Turkey. It is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and European Union.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo discussed the Syria pullout process and bilateral issues in a phonecall on Monday, a Turkish foreign ministry source said.
No further details were immediately available.
On Sunday, Erdogan told Trump that Turkey was ready to take over security in Syria’s Manbij, where two US soldiers and two American civilian staff died last week in an attack claimed by ISIS.
Turkey has welcomed Trump’s decision to pull out US forces as it makes preparations for an offensive in northern Syria against the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which Turkey says is linked to the PKK.
US forces have been helping the YPG to drive ISIS out of swathes of northern Syria, and Trump’s decision, which confounded his own national security team, has prompted accusations at home that he is abandoning an ally.
US-Turkish ties have been strained for months over US support for the YPG and a host of other issues.
“If the promises made to us are kept and the process continues, all the better. If not, we have already largely completed our preparations, so we will start taking steps in line with our own strategy,” Erdogan said.
Posted by: 3dc ||
01/22/2019
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#1
Nope didn't see this coming, not atall.
Posted by: Chris ||
01/22/2019 2:27
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[PULSE.NG] The Zimbabwe High Court ruled Monday that government had no powers to order a shutdown of the internet which was imposed as protests swept across the country last week.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2019
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[ELUNIVERSAL] The vice president of the Human Rights Committee of Parliamentarians, Deputy Delsa Solórzano, demanded Monday "respect" for the officials of the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) detained after expressing that they did not know Nicolás Maduro as president of the Republic.
Through a message posted on her Twitter account, the parliamentarian called for "respect for life and due process, guarantees established in our Constitution" for detained officials.
In the early hours of this Monday, an irregular situation was presented in the Command of the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) of Cotiza.
One of the rebel officials, identified as the sergeant major of tecera Valdren Figueroa, said that "they asked us to defend the Constitution and here we are with the troops."
After this pronouncement, statements were generated in Cotiza that were later dispersed with tear gas by members of the Special Actions Forces (FAES) and General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (Dgcim).
At least 14 GNB troops were tossed in the clink Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! for this act after "stealing weapons from the detachment of Urban Security" in Petare and -according to statements by the president of the National Constituent Assembly (ANC), Diosdado Cabello-, "attempt to attack the peace through violent maneuvers aimed at generating anxiety in the Venezuelan people. "
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2019
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[RADIOSHABELLE] More details are coming out of heavy inter-clan fighting erupted in Middle Shabelle region which left several people dead, according to the residents.
The combat broke out in rural areas located on the outskirts of Mahaday district on Sunday afternoon, leading to deadly confrontation between the two warring clan militias. The battle continued for several hours and raged on until the night. At least seven people were kidnapped by the attackers.
The situation is reported to be tense and local residents expressed concerns over the possible renewal of the fighting as both sides are regrouping and could likely to clash.
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[DW] Most of the asylum-seekers that were deported were sent to Italia. The deportations follow the EU's Dublin III rule, which states that applications must be processed in the first country of arrival.
In 2018, more refugees were transferred from Germany to other EU member states than ever before, according to an Interior Ministry report obtained by German daily Suddeutsche Zeitung. The report was a response to a parliamentary inquiry by the Left Party.
Some 8,658 asylum-seekers who were required to leave Germany did so between January and the end of November 2018. The previous year, 7,102 were deported to other states.
As such, the proportion of completed transfers from Germany to other EU countries saw a rise from 15.1 percent in 2017 to 24.5 percent in 2018.
The deportations follow the EU's Dublin III rule, which states that the country where a refugee first entered Europe ...also known as Moslem Lebensraum... is responsible for handling his or her application.
MOST DEPORTED TO ITALIA
According to Suddeutsche Zeitung, Germany made 51,558 requests in the first 11 months of 2018 to other EU countries that are party to the Dublin III agreement. Of these, some 35,375 were accepted.
Italia was the first destination for deported asylum-seekers, with almost one in three being sent there. On the other hand, Hungary received none of the refugees deported in 2018.
Greece took in only five and rejected the vast majority of requests that were made. Germany's Interior Ministry noted that it found Athen's reasons for not accepting more refugees "predominantly unfounded."
Germany's interior minister Horst Seehofer has sought to increase deportations of failed asylum-seekers, as part of a policy that aims to curb the inflow of refugees and improve the federal migration office's handling of asylum requests.
[AsiaTimes] US and North Korea agree to a second summit in late February in a bid to revive their stalled but crucial denuclearization talks
US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un have agreed to a second summit meeting, to be held in late February, a move that aims to rekindle what many see as an initially hopeful but now stalled dialogue process on Korean Peninsula denuclearization.
The White House announcement came after a 90-minute meeting in the Oval Office between Trump and Kim Yong-chol, a former North Korean intelligence chief who serves as Kim’s top nuclear negotiator, according to news reports.
A date and the location for the meeting was not announced, suggesting that the two sides were still seeking concessions from one another or were still negotiating the summit’s site. Vietnam, Thailand and Hawaii have all been mentioned as potential places for the meeting.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Iranian labor protest leader, Esmail Bakhshi, has been incarcerated You have the right to remain silent... for the second time, state media reported Monday, after the judiciary denied his claim that he was tortured in jug late last year.
Bakhshi "was arrested last night in cooperation with security and law enforcement forces," Mansour Mohammadi, the prosecutor general of Dezful, in Khuzestan province, told the judiciary’s news website Mizan Online.
Bakhshi was one of the organizers of weeks of protests at the Haft Tapeh sugar factory in the city of Shush in November and December, over unpaid wages and alleged criminal activity by new private owners.
State TV on Saturday broadcast a program claiming that Bakhshi and Sepideh Gholian, another activist who supported the Haft Tapeh strikers, had connections with Europe-based activists who "aim to topple the state".
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[PRESSTV] Sudanese police fire tear gas at hundreds of protesters who try to march on parliament, as President Omar al-Bashir insists demonstrators who died in anti-government rallies were not killed by security forces.
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[PRESSTV] Iran's deputy foreign minister for political affairs says the Islamic Theocratic Republic does not allow any country to build a coalition against its interests either within the Middle East or outside.
Speaking in a meeting with Polish Undersecretary of State Maciej Przemysław Lang in Tehran on Monday, Abbas Araqchi said, "Iran always seeks to establish peace and security in the region and has proved this in its fight against terrorist groups such as ISIS."
The Iranian deputy foreign minister added, "However, if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well... [the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran] does not allow any country to build a coalition against its interests either within the region or outside."
Araqchi’s remarks came in reaction to a decision by Poland to host an anti-Iran summit organized by the United States, which is due to be held on February 13-14.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said this month that the conference would focus on stability and security in the Middle East, including the "important element of making sure that Iran is not a destabilizing influence."
Earlier this month, Iran’s Foreign Ministry summoned Polish chargé d'affaires in Tehran, Wojciech Unolt, to provide answers as to why Warsaw had agreed to host the event.
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#1
"does not allow any country to build a coalition against its interests..."
[PRESSTV] The Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... have held talks with US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad in Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... hours after gunnies from the group killed scores of Afghan cops in central Maidan Wardak province.
Taliban front man Zabiullah Mujahid said in a statement on Monday that the Taliban delegation was holding talks with the US representatives in the Qatari capital Doha.
"Talks between Taliban leaders and US officials have started today in Qatar," the statement read.
A source close to the talks also confirmed members of the Taliban's political office were meeting with Khalilzad in Doha, adding, "They will hopefully finalize a timeline and mechanism of the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan."
The latest round of talks came hours after the Taliban killed scores of security forces inside a military compound in Maidan Wardak.
Attackers rammed a captured military Humvee packed with explosives into a training center of the National Directorate for Security in the province, west of Kabul. At least two button men followed up, spraying the compound with gunfire before they were shot down.
"We have information that 126 people have been killed in the kaboom inside the military training center, eight special commandos are among the dead," said a bigwig in the Defense Ministry in Kabul, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... .
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[PRESSTV] The British government and the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... have imposed sanctions against bigwigs from Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency, over the agency’s suspected poisoning attack on a former Russian spy in southern England last year.
Reports said the UK-EU action announced on Monday targeted Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, the two men introduced by British authorities as members of the GRU who traveled to the southern English town of Salisbury to poison Sergei Skripal.
Igor Olegovich Kostyukov, the GRU chief, and his deputy, Vladimir Stepanovich Alexseyev, were also blacklisted over their role in the attack which British officials claim was carried out using a Soviet-era military-grade nerve agent called Novichok.
Russia has consistently denied any involvement in the attack which left Skripal and his daughter Yulia in need of special medical treatment.
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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.
[Washington Examiner] Fox News anchor Bret Baier and his family survived a "major" car crash Monday morning in Montana.
[Breitbart] Foreign money flowing into Washington is keeping the United States in prolonged wars, and most Americans are not even aware of it, according to Dr. Ben Freeman, director of the Foreign Influence Transparency Initiative at the Center for International Policy.
[Right Scoop] The DOJ has released a new report indicating how guns were obtained by criminals who used them. The data comes from a 2016 survey of both state and federal prisons.
[Federalist] Social Security has a huge free-rider problem. To illustrate, imagine two couples, the Nukes (as in a nuclear family) and the Dinks (as in "double income, no kids"). The Nukes always dreamed of having a large family. But they are hampered by the double burden of paying for the Social Security subsidies of the last generation while they pay for the upbringing of the next generation.
[Mail] Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said on Monday that ’the world is gonna end in 12 years’ if laws aren’t passed to address climate change and that it was ’immoral’ for billionaires to exist in the same country where people struggled to make ends meet.
[Mail] A Chinese investigation says the scientist behind the birth of two babies whose genes had been edited in hopes of making them resistant to the AIDS virus acted on his own 'for personal fame and profit' and will be punished for violating regulations.
[Breitbart] Former Vice President Joe Biden blamed Democrat losses in Florida and Georgia’s 2018 gubernatorial races on Republican-driven electoral fraud via "voter ID laws" that "keep people from being able to vote."
... 
the personification of Somali state failure...
North Korea
[ELUNIVERSAL] The president of the National Assembly, Juan Guaidó, rejected on Monday the decision of the Supreme Court of Justice to annul the acts of the current board of directors, which he considered a "legal aberration, politically absurd."
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Pope Francis’ upcoming historic visit to Abu Dhabi, which will begin on February 5, will bring together many prominent leaders from Islam, Christianity, and Judaism from various parts of the region.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Iran failed to find any buyers on Monday, in its latest attempt to sell oil to private companies for export on the stock exchange, the ISNA news agency reported, in a setback to Tehran’s efforts to bypass US sanctions.
[NYPOST] An overweight passenger aboard a Taiwanese airliner forced flight attendants to remove his pants so he could use the toilet — then wipe his butt as he moaned in pleasure, according to reports.
[Business Mirror] Amid fear of violence, Philippine election and security officials gave assurances everything is set for the historic plebiscite on the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL), with 2.1 million voters in Mindanao deciding whether it will be ratified or not. Over the weekend, around 20,000 policemen and soldiers were deployed in Mindanao.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A 
[PULSE.NG] Victims of the Jewish museum attack in Brussels were shot with "surgical" precision, first responders said Monday at the trial of French national Mehdi Nemmouche.
...also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
[CAPITALFM.CO.KE] Four of the eight suspects on a terror watch list have surrendered as police intensify security operations across the country.
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic...
Nancy 
[Bangkok Post] Two Buddhist monks, including an abbot, were killed and two others wounded after a group of ten men sprayed bullets into their cubicles at a temple in Narathiwat province. 
[ABC-5] KIDRON, Ohio ‐ Two people have died Monday morning in a small plane crash in Kidron, located in Wayne County, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
[Asharq Al-Awsat] Turkish President 
[PULSE.NG] The Zimbabwe High Court ruled Monday that government had no powers to order a shutdown of the internet which was imposed as protests swept across the country last week.
[RADIOSHABELLE] More details are coming out of heavy inter-clan fighting erupted in Middle Shabelle region which left several people dead, according to the residents.
[PRESSTV] Sudanese police fire tear gas at hundreds of protesters who try to march on parliament, as President Omar al-Bashir insists demonstrators who died in anti-government rallies were not killed by security forces.
