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Saudi Lists 'Terror' Groups, Orders Foreign Fighters Home
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
13:28 4 23:45 Zenobia Floger6220 [18]
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09:18 3 16:15 Barbara [11]
04:45 4 15:10 gorb [16]
04:39 15 22:25 Iblis [14]
04:26 7 16:36 11A5S [11]
03:52 3 22:44 Redneck Jim [14]
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00:00 4 17:49 Besoeker [13]
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00:00 5 22:50 Creating Brown2157 [17]
00:00 3 17:54 ed in texas [12]
00:00 7 18:03 Shipman [17]
00:00 7 13:36 Uncle Phester [11]
00:00 6 16:17 Barbara [21] 
00:00 6 19:46 Alaska Paul [17]
00:00 2 17:53 ed in texas [15]
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Home Front: Politix
Daughter of Jeremiah Wright Convicted in Fraud Scheme
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/08/2014 13:28 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [18 views] Top|| File under:

#1  state grant was for a not-for-profit work and education program called We Are Our Brother's Keeper,

:)
Posted by: Shipman || 03/08/2014 16:10 Comments || Top||

#2  Brothers keeper?? Shure they are. Part of the Obama program he was touting success with last week? A screaming success, he is batting a .950! But I'm sure its the evil white guys that set her up and they did it for racial reasons and they were all guided by the evil Bush family and funded by the Koch brother...
Posted by: 49 Pan || 03/08/2014 16:14 Comments || Top||

#3  No doubt a misdemeanor in Chicago.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/08/2014 16:26 Comments || Top||

#4  Am I my bro's keeper? Well, damn,
In the movie, he said, "Yes, I am!"
Then the brotherhood stopped
As Gee Money got popped
When Nino Browns pistol went blam!
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 03/08/2014 23:45 Comments || Top||


Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 03/08/2014 12:27 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Politix
Koch Brothers vs NYT
"Indeed. It is revealing to compare Charles and David Koch with the owners and managers of the New York Times Company. The Koch brothers employ a growing, highly-paid work force of 60,000 in the United States, around one-third of whom are unionized. Koch Industries enjoys excellent relationships with its unions. The New York Times Company, on the other hand, employs a shrinking, largely ill-paid work force, and is embroiled in a long-running feud with its unions.

Koch Industries and its subsidiaries produce tangible products that enrich the lives of Americans–among other things, Koch transports and refines oil, makes products that are used in construction, and manufactures a wide array of consumer products that are staples in most American homes. The New York Times Company produces nothing but shoddy left-wing journalism that is of questionable benefit to anyone."
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/08/2014 09:18 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The New York Times Company produces nothing but shoddy left-wing journalism that is of questionable benefit to anyone."

Just make sure to place their product face-down in the birdcage so the birds don't develop a liberal leaning.
Posted by: gorb || 03/08/2014 10:32 Comments || Top||

#2  I'd like to share my personal experiences with the Kochs:

They are major contributors to an institute my father co-founded. They are largely libertarian in outlook. One of the ironies of the hate liberal campaign was watching the LA Slimes workers object to ownership by the "neo-Nazi" Koch Brothers and enthusiasm for Amazon's Jeff Bezos. The Kochs and Jeff Bezos have identical economic views.

Among the tragedies of the orchestrated hate campaign are the constant death threats against the brothers, their wives, children and even employees. The companies the Kochs own are forced to hide the identities of their employees so they won't receive threatening phone calls in the middle of the night.

Of course threatening children is OK if it furthers a Democrat victory.

Florida Al (ex Frozen Al)
Posted by: Florida Al || 03/08/2014 12:06 Comments || Top||

#3  "Florida Al (ex Frozen Al)"

Congrats, AL!
Posted by: Barbara || 03/08/2014 16:15 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Couple to die for starving Indonesian maid
h/t Instapundit
A Malaysian couple was sentenced to hang for starving their Indonesian maid to death, a defense lawyer said, one of a string of shocking cases spotlighting abuse of domestic helpers in the region.

Isti Komariyah weighed just 26 kilograms (57 pounds) on her death in Kuala Lumpur in June 2011 from what a court ruled was deliberate starvation, according to Malaysian media reports on the ruling.
I hope it's a slow noose.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/08/2014 04:45 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [16 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'd lock em up in a welded-shut shipping container for a year. Give em water only. Hilarity ensues
Posted by: Frank G || 03/08/2014 8:58 Comments || Top||

#2  I approve this ruling.
Posted by: DarthVader || 03/08/2014 11:33 Comments || Top||

#3  How do you tell whether she was starved or she starved herself? Is a Third World court capable of determining this? Or is this yet another example of a Muslim country whaling on non-Muslims for any reason it can gin up?
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 03/08/2014 14:43 Comments || Top||

#4  Seems to me they could have at least taken her to a doctor if she was starving herself.
Posted by: gorb || 03/08/2014 15:10 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Pentagon studies Putin body language for hint of intent
A Pentagon research team is studying the body movements of Russian President Vladimir Putin and other world leaders in order to better predict their actions and guide U.S. policy, Pentagon documents and interviews show.

The "Body Leads" project backed by the Office of Net Assessment (ONA), the think tank reporting to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, uses the principles of movement pattern analysis to predict how leaders will act.
The idea that anybody who transmits intentions via body language wouldn't last 10 minutes in Kremlin doesn't seem to penetrate?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/08/2014 04:39 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [14 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Reviving the lost science of Kremlinology. So much for the End of History, eh?
Posted by: SteveS || 03/08/2014 7:23 Comments || Top||

#2  Predictive analysis based upon the body language of a veteran intelligence agent? What's next, bone tossing, horoscopes, spoon bending ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/08/2014 12:09 Comments || Top||

#3 
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/08/2014 12:32 Comments || Top||

#4  Another intelligence coup by the US. Who cares about body language? Cat's out of the bag and long gone, bro.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 03/08/2014 13:24 Comments || Top||

#5  ..the extended middle finger, although only implied, is not that difficult to pick up and interpret..
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 03/08/2014 13:30 Comments || Top||

#6  Try this, read a history book!! Hagel is a moonbat! Its clear to even this moron, me, that he will take the country one way or the other. If you oppose him you will disappear.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 03/08/2014 16:09 Comments || Top||

#7  Ignorant or evil.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/08/2014 16:21 Comments || Top||

#8  Western Ukraine was a hot bed of suppoprt for the Nazis. They even had their own SS Division and others were notoriously brutal as concentration camp guards. I shed no tears.
Posted by: borgboy || 03/08/2014 16:57 Comments || Top||

#9  Here are my two favorite body language tips:
Man pointing a gun may shoot gun quickly after pointing.
Man holding a golf club may shoot golf ball quickly after.
Posted by: Airandee || 03/08/2014 17:21 Comments || Top||

#10  They should consider hiring me. I'd tell them about Putin's intent without even watching him.
Posted by: European Conservative || 03/08/2014 18:47 Comments || Top||

#11  Putin may be an amoral thug, but his behavior is predictable--everyone always acts to protect their own perceived interests. He's got Chechens + a hot bed of extremists on his entire southern border about to explode, and with an international crackdown on trafficking, He's moving to secure access to ports around the equator to protect Russian interests that include heroin and cocaine + weapons and the turf battles have begun. But he's a capitalist, which can be reasoned with and disputes resolved, where a socialist or fascist are intolerant and entitled. Atheism and conservatism are incompatible, and the root of the problem in DC, but Russian libertarian capitalists are still products of western civilization. Putin even claims to have been baptized. Libertarian religious views can tip either way, either with a deep reverence for God & a moral compass built-in, or wanting total lawlessness, rebelling against all authority in heaven and earth.without rules and laws to confine them, but they are both opposite of the fascistic intol-otalitarianism and even socialistic egalitarians as neither respects individualism. They can justify eugenics and genocide, determining a social triage where they determine which desirables are worth leaving on the planet—and these are the people in control in Washington, the EU, UN, and even the mullahs who want sharia. Sure makes for strange bedfellows and strategic allies -- but Putin would be easier to reason with than Obama! Black market capitalism and individual liberty is preferable to the disdainful power-hungry narcissist that crushes his enemies and rewards the groupies. And with hired snipers of unknown origin shooting up Kiev, maybe it was neither the Ukrainians nor the Russians stirring up chaos? I'd trust a Russian billionaire with a taste for women and intolerance for Muslim bullish*t over an entitled socialist egomaniac-in-chief with global aspirations. Now if only a Pentagon study could predict O's intent, illogical and arbitrary as it is....
Posted by: Flaiger Uneamp8181 || 03/08/2014 19:10 Comments || Top||

#12  Flaiger Uneamp8181: @I'd trust a Russian billionaire with a taste for women and intolerance for Muslim bullish*t over an entitled socialist egomaniac-in-chief with global aspirations.

..well said, sir..
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 03/08/2014 19:53 Comments || Top||

#13  What Uncle Phester said.
Posted by: Barbara || 03/08/2014 21:11 Comments || Top||

#14  Me, too, #10 EC (along with just about everybody else here) - but you're closer, so you get first dibs. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara || 03/08/2014 22:23 Comments || Top||

#15  How about we instead look at what Putin does? Not much mystery regarding his intentions from that standpoint.
Posted by: Iblis || 03/08/2014 22:25 Comments || Top||


BBC Now Admits: Armed Nazis Led “Revolution” in Kiev, Ukraine
h/t Gates of Vienna
Like the West’s support of sectarian terrorists across the Middle East, including Al Qaeda, it has found the most despicable elements in Ukrainian society to lead “revolution” for the sociopolitical reordering of Eastern Europe. As the dust settles and the West’s proxy regime finds itself safely entrenched in Kiev, Ukraine – the Western media can now finally recuperate some of its lost legitimacy after months of denying the obvious – that armed Neo-Nazis led the so-called “Euromaidan” uprising.

A BBC Newsnight short titled, “Neo-Nazi threat in new Ukraine,” reveals xenophobic Jew-hating nationalists, armed and leading the mobs in Kiev, directly contradicting months of Western media narratives portraying the rabble as aspiring for “freedom,” “democracy,” and “closer ties with the West,” with the most absurd example being the “I am Ukrainian” propaganda reel.

Far from a “pro-democracy” uprising, the “Euromaidan” was yet another case of Western engineered regime change leveraging the good intentions of the ill-informed to mask the covert backing of ugly armed extremists, just as it had done all across the similarly engineered “Arab Spring” in 2011.
Or their never-ending war against Israel
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/08/2014 04:26 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Russian propaganda trying to get Europe to back off?
Posted by: Airandee || 03/08/2014 8:06 Comments || Top||

#2  Nazi - National Socialist Workers Party.
Far more in common with the leadership in Moscow today than you want to believe thanks to the Great Big Lie of socialist apologist academia in covering for what they really were.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/08/2014 9:11 Comments || Top||

#3  For the past seventy-five years the BBC has been calling anyone who resists the various Russian imperialist projects Nazis and fascists.

Including Israel.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 03/08/2014 10:36 Comments || Top||

#4  BBC thinks UKIP (or anyone that dislikes the EU) is nazi.
Posted by: tipover || 03/08/2014 11:58 Comments || Top||

#5  Just sounds like everybody has their propaganda machines turn up a high as they'll go. Where is the truth? I'm afraid we'll never know. That's what makes me want to stay the hell out of it.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 03/08/2014 12:39 Comments || Top||

#6  Just sounds like everybody has their propaganda machines turn up a high as they'll go. Where is the truth? I'm afraid we'll never know. That's what makes me want to stay the hell out of it.

Propaganda objective achieved, then.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 03/08/2014 13:52 Comments || Top||

#7  If there was a "like" button on rantburg, I'd like your comment, TFSM.
Posted by: 11A5S || 03/08/2014 16:36 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
China says to work with Afghanistan to fight terrorism
China said on Saturday that it will work with Afghanistan to fight terrorism, after it blamed a deadly train station attack on extremists from its western Xinjiang region, which shares a short border with the war-torn nation.

Beijing has become increasingly concerned about security in restive Xinjiang, where it says Muslim extremists receive help from militants in neighboring countries.
I hope they've learned from both Russian & American mistakes.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/08/2014 03:52 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [14 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Yuan (aka Mongols) Chinese solved that problem once before.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/08/2014 10:57 Comments || Top||

#2  I hope they've learned from both Russian & American mistakes.

Why? I kinda think the Chinese and the muslim extremists deserve each other.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 03/08/2014 12:42 Comments || Top||

#3  It won't work, there's enough evil to prevent it.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 03/08/2014 22:44 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Iraq Airport Official Arrested over MEA Row
[An Nahar] The deputy head of Storied Baghdad airport was enjugged
Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!
after a Storied Baghdad-bound Middle East Airlines plane that left Beirut without the Iraqi transport minister's son was ordered mid-flight to turn back, the premier's front man said Friday.

Samer "Kubba was arrested... because his action was wrong and harmful to the prestige of the Iraqi state," Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's front man Ali Mussawi told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Why not just fire him?
It was unclear what role Kubba, who was arrested Thursday by troops reporting directly to Maliki, is thought to have played in the incident.

Middle East Airlines said Thursday that Iraqi authorities forced its Storied Baghdad-bound flight to turn around some 20 minutes out of Beirut because Transport Minister Hadi al-Ameri's son, Mahdi, had missed the flight.

MEA said the flight had taken off after repeatedly paging two passengers, who failed to turn up.

"The passengers did not respond to the calls and the plane took off after being delayed by several minutes," it said.

"About 20 minutes after take-off, Middle East Airlines was informed by its Storied Baghdad office that the plane would be prevented from landing by local civil aviation officials if a passenger was not on board."

The missing passenger was identified as Mahdi al-Ameri, and the plane turned back to Beirut.

Following the incident, Mussawi said Maliki ordered that "all those responsible for preventing the plane coming from Beirut from landing in Storied Baghdad" be "dismissed and held responsible."

But transport ministry front man Karim Nuri said it was "completely untrue" that the flight was turned back on behalf of Ameri's son.

He insisted that MEA had been previously told that the plane would not be able to land due to runway maintenance at the Storied Baghdad airport, which is why it was turned back.
Posted by: Fred || 03/08/2014 01:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
'Dispute' between Bekaa Army Intelligence Chief, Labweh Residents
[An Nahar] A dispute erupted on Friday between the head of the Army Intelligence in the Bekaa Valley and the residents of a town over the arrest of a suspect, the state-run National News Agency reported.

NNA denied there was a shooting between his convoy and the residents of the town of al-Labweh.

It did not give further details on the arrested suspect.

But media reports said there was a shooting between the convoy and Hizbullah members on al-Labweh road.
Posted by: Fred || 03/08/2014 00:59 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [18 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah


Europe
Putin rebuffs Obama as crisis deepens
[THEPENINSULAQATAR] President Vladimir Putin
...Second and fourth President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
rebuffed a warning from US President Barack Obama
Ready to Rule from Day One...
over Moscow's military intervention in Crimea, saying yesterday that Russia could not ignore calls for help from Russian speakers in Ukraine.

After an hour-long telephone call, Putin said in a statement that Moscow and Washington were still far apart on the situation in the former Soviet republic, where he said the new authorities had taken "absolutely illegitimate decisions on the eastern, southeastern and Crimea regions.

"Russia cannot ignore calls for help and it acts accordingly, in full compliance with international law," Putin said.

Ukraine's border guards said Moscow had poured troops into the southern peninsula where Russian forces have seized control.

Serhiy Astakhov, an aide to the border guards' commander, said there were now 30,000 Russian soldiers in Crimea, compared to 11,000 permanently based with the Russian Black Sea fleet in the port of Sevastopol before the crisis.

Putin denies that the forces with no national insignia that are surrounding Ukrainian troops in their bases are under Moscow's command, although their vehicles have Russian military plates. The West has ridiculed this claim.

The most serious east-west confrontation since the end of the Cold War -- resulting from the overthrow last month of President Viktor Yanukovich after violent protests in Kiev -- escalated on Thursday when Crimea's parliament, dominated by ethnic Russians, voted to join Russia. The region's government set a referendum for March 16 - in just nine days' time.

European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
leaders and Obama denounced the referendum as illegitimate, saying it would violate Ukraine's constitution.

The head of Russia's upper house of parliament said after meeting visiting Crimean politicians on Friday that Crimea had a right to self-determination, and ruled out any risk of war between "the two brotherly nations".

Before calling Putin, Obama announced the first sanctions against Russia since the start of the crisis, ordering visa bans and asset freezes against so far unidentified persons deemed responsible for threatening Ukraine's illusory sovereignty.
Posted by: Fred || 03/08/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [17 views] Top|| File under:

#1 

It is no secret that, from the the first day they met, Vladimir Putin has never considered President Obama as even close to being his intellectual equal.

And as Putin has consistently out-maneuvered Obama on every issue, it is hard not to agree with Putin's assessment.

An opinion of the Russian military takeover of Crimea.
(written by Junkiron).


Read the Full Article
Posted by: junkiron || 03/08/2014 0:57 Comments || Top||

#2  Putin's actions have been well thought out and planned. The towing of the Ochakov to block the Ukrainian fleet is an example. The really sad part is it would appear the Ukrainians were not informed of the towing and it's obvious intent.....by those paid to watch for such events.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/08/2014 12:43 Comments || Top||

#3  I think Obama needs a take down, but NOT by Putin, He's a devious son of a bitch.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 03/08/2014 13:07 Comments || Top||

#4  Hard to believe Putin doesn't want to liven his weekend with a stirring bitch-and moan-fest by Capt Self-righteous.
Posted by: ed in texas || 03/08/2014 17:47 Comments || Top||

#5  I wonder how long the rusting old Ochakov has been waiting for this moment and place in history.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/08/2014 17:51 Comments || Top||

#6  From Wik:

Putin graduated from the International Law branch of the Law Department of the Leningrad State University in 1975, writing his final thesis on international law.[24] His PhD thesis was titled "The Strategic Planning of Regional Resources Under the Formation of Market Relations" and it argued that Russian economic success would depend on creating national energy champions.

Not exactly a mystery man, no ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/08/2014 17:55 Comments || Top||

#7  A Tough Course: Working the St. Augustine Green

I've found it, Obama's hidden master work on greens care.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/08/2014 18:03 Comments || Top||


Armed Men Block OSCE Members' Entry to Crimea
[An Nahar] Pro-Russian faceless myrmidons smashed through the gates of a Ukrainian air force base in Crimea on Friday in the latest signs of boiling tensions on the rugged peninsula, Ukraine's defense ministry said.

The faceless myrmidons entered the base and were in negotiations with the commander of the base, while soldiers guarding it have locked themselves in their barracks, a ministry spokesperson told Agence La Belle France Presse.

No shots were fired in the incident. Another Ukrainian military official said the incident began at 1740 GMT.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 03/08/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [16 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Long past time somebody, who is not a Muslim, treated these destructive morons as destructive morons.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/08/2014 3:44 Comments || Top||

#2  They're pro-Russian; I'd have thought you'd approve.
Posted by: Pappy || 03/08/2014 11:22 Comments || Top||

#3  g(r)omsky picks himself up from floor, holds his aching jaw, and politely excuses himself from room.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/08/2014 11:35 Comments || Top||

#4  I was talking about OSCE, P2K

Ek wens jou vingers verander in vishoeke, en jou balle begin te jeuk, Besoeker.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/08/2014 11:44 Comments || Top||

#5  Textbook example on how to take over a nation (Relatively) peacefully, next, how to make the government behave Co-operate.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 03/08/2014 12:59 Comments || Top||

#6  I was talking about OSCE

Figures.
Posted by: Pappy || 03/08/2014 21:58 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Saudi sentences three militants to death for 2003 bombing
[THEPENINSULAQATAR] A Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
n court has sentenced three men to death and tossed in the calaboose
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
two others for up to 17 years for their part in a series of krazed killer attacks including the deadly bombing of a foreign housing compound in 2003, state news agency SPA reported.

SPA said that, among other charges, a man identified by the court as "suspect number one" was convicted of involvement in the bombing of the Al Muhaya compound, where expatriates lived, in the capital Riyadh, one of a series of Al Qaeda attacks in the kingdom.

Saudi Arabia faced a krazed killer insurgency from 2003 to 2006 in which al Qaeda targeted residential compounds for foreign workers and Saudi government facilities, killing dozens of people.

The kingdom responded by arresting thousands of suspected snuffies and launching a media campaign to discredit their ideology with the backing of influential holy mans and tribal leaders.

In the 2003 attack, suspected al Qaeda jacket wallahs posing as Saudi police blew up their explosives-laden car in a Riyadh compound housing mostly Arab foreigners, killing 11 people and wounding 122, including 36 children.

The charges in the case also included belonging to an Al Qaeda-linked cell, firing on coppers, loading cars with explosives to use in "terrorist" attacks and possessing weapons including rocket-propelled grenades and SAM-7 rockets, SPA reported late on Thursday.
Posted by: Fred || 03/08/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [15 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia


China-Japan-Koreas
China conveys 'deep concern' to North Korea at missile's proximity to aircraft
[IRISHTIMES] The Chinese government has told North Korea of its "deep concern" after an aircraft from China Southern Airlines crossed the trajectory of a North Korean missile launched by Pyongyang this week.

The aircraft was flying from Tokyo's Narita airport to the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang on Tuesday, the foreign ministry said. While it passed over the trajectory some minutes after the missile, the incident was a reminder of the fraught nature of international relations around the Korean peninsula.

"On this issue, we have already contacted the North Korean side to convey our deep concern," Chinese foreign ministry front man Qin Gang told a daily news briefing.
Posted by: Fred || 03/08/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [15 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  an aircraft from China Southern Airlines crossed the trajectory of a North Korean missile

"Whoopsie!"
Posted by: Pappy || 03/08/2014 9:09 Comments || Top||

#2  Possibly the Chinese have been worried about the wrong airplane.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/malaysia-airlines-missing-flight-sends-search-teams-to-air-sea/
Posted by: ed in texas || 03/08/2014 17:53 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Inevitable questions
[DAWN] WHEN Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan makes statements such as a "majority of Taliban" are pro-Pakistain and pro-peace, who'd be surprised to find the interior minister in the critics' cross-hairs?

However we castigate him and with considerable justification, the bitter truth is that he represents a much wider malaise: a lethal mix of denial, obfuscation and the conspicuous absence of a spine that has marked our handling of the existential threat posed by religious militancy.

Of course I was appalled to hear the interior minister saying in parliament that the majority of the Taliban are not "inimical" to Pakistain and are supportive of the so-called grinding of the peace processor. In fact, when he focused on the details of the Islamabad court attack (and I don't have facts at my disposal to contradict him on who killed the judge), it was clear he was trying to somehow absolve the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) of the blame.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 03/08/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [19 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Two brothers among four killed in Lyari
[DAWN] Four people, two of them brothers, were rubbed out in Lyari
...one of the eighteen constituent towns of the city of Karachi. It is the smallest town by area in the city but also the most densely populated. Lyari has few schools, substandard hospitals, a poor water system, limited infrastructure, and broken roads. It is a stronghold of ruling Pakistan Peoples Party. Ubiquitous gang activity and a thriving narcotics industry make Lyari one of the most disturbed places in Karachi, which is really saying a lot....
area of Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
on Friday night, according to police and hospital officials.

The killings triggered intense firing, sowing fear in parts of the old city.

Kalakot police said Rizwan alias Sunni was bumped off in Gul Mohammed Lane. Later, a body stuffed in a gunny bag was found in Sarbazi Mohalla. The dear departed was identified as Waqas Baloch, brother of Rizwan.

A police official said there were reports that Rizwan had 'sympathies' with the Uzair Baloch group.

Subsequently, gunnies resorted to heavy firing on Mirza Adam Khan Road, leaving two people dead and injuring two others, including a passerby policeman, Imran Beg.
Posted by: Fred || 03/08/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [18 views] Top|| File under:


'Terrorist' held with explosives
[DAWN] Police claimed on Friday to have captured an alleged terrorist-cum-carrier with the help of intelligence agencies from a single-room property in Kahna and seized from him a huge quantity of explosives comprising TNT (Trinitrotoluene -- a chemical compound and explosive material).

The suspect reportedly disclosed 'plans' to carry out major terrorist activities at sensitive installations in the provincial capital.

A senior police official told Dawn that secret information led to the arrest of 45-year-old Sarfraz Khan of Taxila from Suay Asal.

He said a team comprising officials of different agencies raided a house in the afternoon, took Sarfraz into custody and seized seven boxes of TNT slabs, six boxes of detonators and 10 rolls of detonation wire from the place.

He said it appeared that the suspect, who was staying at a desolate place, intended to strike at a large scale level in the provincial capital. He said the explosives seized had a capability to blow up high-rises.

The official further said Sarfraz, who had been living in a single room situated at an abandoned place, had been supplying explosives and logistics to different militant groups for the last six months or so. He said Sarfraz acted as carrier for terrorist organisations.

The official said the suspect was under-interrogation and his physical remand would be obtained from a court on Saturday (today).

Meanwhile, Kahna police shifted the suspect to an unknown location and registered a case under 7-Anti-Terrorism Act and different sections of the Explosives Act.
Posted by: Fred || 03/08/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [23 views] Top|| File under: TTP

#1  alleged terrorist-cum-carrier



I thought this was a family-friendly site?
Posted by: Frank G || 03/08/2014 9:38 Comments || Top||

#2  r u serious? Have you nvr read of "the spot"?
Posted by: Shipman || 03/08/2014 17:52 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Saudi lists Brotherhood as 'terrorist' group
[THEPENINSULAQATAR] Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
listed the Moslem Brüderbund and two Syrian jihadist groups as terrorist organizations yesterday, and ordered citizens fighting abroad to return home within 15 days or face imprisonment.
D'you suppose that will work?
A list published by the interior ministry also designated as terrorist organizations Al Nusra Front, Al-Qaeda's official Syrian affiliate, and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
... the current version of al-Qaeda in Iraq, just as blood-thirsty and well-beloved as the original...
, a rogue group fighting in Syria and Iraq. Also blacklisted are Iranian catspaws known as Huthis in northern Yemen and "Hezbollah inside the kingdom," a reference to a little-known Shiite group in Saudi Arabia.
Posted by: Fred || 03/08/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [13 views] Top|| File under: Muslim Brotherhood


India-Pakistan
Lyari residents in fear of lives amid 'leaderless' gang warfare, LEA raids
[DAWN] Within a minute after a text message circulated in Lyari's Singhu Lane asking people to close shops and schools or "else we would not be responsible for what happens", there was chaos with shopkeepers, transporters and school administration quickly trying to get out of the way of whatever that was about to happen.

They did not want to take chances as just a few days back, on the occasion of Baloch Culture Day, they were witness to an 'Aiwan Bomb' attack targeting an empty plot in Singhu Lane killing two and injuring dozens. An 'Aiwan Bomb' is similar to a hand grenade in terms of its impact and is attached to the base of a Kalashnikov, according to a resident.

A local leader of the Pakistain Peoples Party was quickly informed and asked to speak to the group. When he inquired, nobody from the group took responsibility for sending the text messages. "But there are shops in Chakiwara and adjoining Rexar Lane that decided to remain close for the day," he said, adding after a pause, "we have been left to die here."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 03/08/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [20 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Gunmen Attack Army, ISF in Brital after Raids over Abducted Child
[An Nahar] Gunmen shot up security forces Friday evening in the Bekaa town of Brital after the army carried out raids in search for the kidnapped 10-year-old child Michel Ibrahim al-Saqr.

"A number of gunnies crossed an army checkpoint in Brital and shot up the troops, who responded in kind," state-run National News Agency reported.

An Nahar newspaper said "runaways who arrived in four SUVs opened fire on an army post in Brital's Tal al-Nabi Saleh area and the army retaliated."

Earlier, NNA said "a number of runaways shot up the Brital cop shoppe after the army carried out raids in the town in search for the kidnappers of the child Michel Ibrahim al-Saqr."

The agency said the armed attacks did not cause any casualties.

Meanwhile,
...back at the shouting match, Bart was wondering if fisticuffs would be appropriate at this point...
Voice of Leb radio (93.3) said "two women from the Ismail family were maimed in festivities between security forces and runaways in Brital."

It also said "the army raided and expropriated several houses belonging to runaways involved in the abduction of the child Saqr."

Earlier on Friday, the radio station said festivities erupted between security forces and suspects in Brital during raids related to Saqr's abduction.

And OTV said "the army is raiding houses of runaways in Brital and gunfire has been heard."

Michel, a 10-year-old son of the businessman Ibrahim al-Saqr, was kidnapped at gunpoint earlier on Friday in the eastern city of Zahle, according to NNA.

Saqr was heading to school with the family's driver when four masked gunnies in a Grand Cherokee SUV kidnapped him, NNA said.
Posted by: Fred || 03/08/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [23 views] Top|| File under:


Africa Subsaharan
Part of CAR 'cleansed' of Muslims: UN
[THEPENINSULAQATAR] Most Moslems have been driven out of the western half of conflict-torn Central African Republic, where thousands of civilians risk being killed "right before our eyes," the UN High Commissioner for Refugees has said.

The bleak warning came as the country's foreign minister pleaded with the UN Security Council to urgently approve a UN peacekeeping force to stop the killing.

Widespread violence in the former French colony has claimed thousands of lives since Seleka, a coalition of mostly Moslem northern rebels, seized power a year ago. Attacks intensified in December when "anti-Balaka" militias drawn from the majority Christian population stepped up reprisals on Moslems.

"Since early December we have effectively witnessed a 'cleansing' of the majority of the Moslem population in western CAR," UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres told a meeting of the 15-nation UN Security Council on the crisis in the impoverished and landlocked country.

"Tens of thousands of them (Moslems) have left the country, the second refugee outflow of the current crisis, and most of those remaining are under permanent threat," he said.

The council is considering a UN proposal for a nearly 12,000-strong peacekeeping force to stop the country from sliding toward what a top UN rights official called "ethnic-religious cleansing."

"Just last week, there were about 15,000 people trapped in 18 locations in western CAR, surrounded by anti-Balaka elements and at very high risk of attack," Guterres said.

"International forces are present in some of these sites, but if more security is not made available immediately, many of these civilians risk being killed right before our eyes."
Posted by: Fred || 03/08/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under: Seleka

#1  Somebody shows the capacity for long term planning.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/08/2014 3:36 Comments || Top||

#2  Muslim fundamentalist terrorists set themselves up among a lot of non-Muslims, reek terror among the kaffir, and generate a backlash from the majority of the population. There's something about as ye sow...
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/08/2014 8:11 Comments || Top||

#3  Somebody remind me why we were in Bosnia again...
Posted by: ed in texas || 03/08/2014 17:54 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Talking and killing
[DAWN] LAST week, an email popped into my inbox that shattered my peace of mind in our tranquil beach house in Sri Lanka. It bore a link to a gruesome video showing the Pak Taliban shooting 15 Frontier Corps soldiers, blindfolded and with their hands tied, in the back of their heads.

As each bullet hit, there was a spray of blood. After this grisly execution was over, a bearded killer lectured viewers about the righteousness of the whole bloody business. His brief diatribe was peppered with references to the Maker, and assurances that the victims would go to hell.

I wish the many apologists of the Taliban would view this video clip on a big screen, then look the families of the dead soldiers in the eye, and justify their cowardly stance. I wonder how the comrades of the slaughtered FC men feel: in their place, I would be furious at not being allowed to avenge this massacre, as well as so many others.

As we edge towards surrender, we are constantly being placated by assurances that the government has no intention of giving up on any of the core elements of its bargaining position, whatever it is. This is rubbish: simply by elevating the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) to the status of an equal negotiating partner, Nawaz Sharif
... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf...
has given killers a platform from where they can dictate terms.

As the recent air attacks on myrmidon positions in North Wazoo and elsewhere showed, there is merit in negotiating from a position of strength. In the mid-1980s, Beirut was caught up in a vicious civil war, and the kidnapping of foreigners was common. In 1985, four Soviet diplomats were kidnapped by a group calling itself the Islamic Liberation Organisation (ILO). One diplomat's corpse was dumped outside the Soviet Embassy.

The KGB dispatched a team from its anti-terrorist Alfa Directorate, and it soon established the identities of the ILO's leaders. Family members of the leadership were then kidnapped, and a pair of vital organs of one of them sent to the ILO with the message that more body parts would follow unless the Soviet diplomats were released immediately.

All three were soon returned, alive and unhurt, and no Soviet citizens were kidnapped in Beirut again. The KGB never publicly admitted its role in this incident, but the story circulated at the time, and was even reported in some newspapers.

Now I am not for one moment suggesting such drastic measures, but am just making the point that gunnies despise reason and pacifism, and only respect force. To test the waters, they launched the attacks in Hungu and Islamabad after agreeing to a month-long ceasefire.

Although they have denied responsibility for these killings, their protestations of innocence should be taken with a large pinch of salt. Over the years, apart from murdering some 50,000 Paks including over 5,000 security personnel, they have frequently broken truces when it has suited them. And we are expected to believe their denials about the recent attacks?

If they are indeed innocent, then clearly, many myrmidon groups are outside the TTP's control. Many in the government and on the TV chat show circuit are peddling the line that these recent attacks were the work of 'hidden hands' wishing to torpedo the talks.

The US is a prime candidate for the role of spoiler. This, again, is self-serving drivel. That a previously unknown group has claimed credit for the Islamabad killings at a city court should not surprise us. Already, some 60 jihadi groups are operating on Pakistain's dangerous soil. It is hard to imagine suicide-bombers agreeing to take on a mission for money, so the possibility of foreign agencies recruiting such motivated killers can be ruled out.

Time after time, the TTP, and its cheerleaders like Maulana Samiul Haq
...the Godfather of the Taliban, leader of his own faction of the JUI. Known as Mullah Sandwich for his habit of having two young boys at a time...
, have made it clear that they want nothing short of their version of the Sharia. The government, in its rush to enter negotiations, has been unable to extract a declaration from the TTP that it respects the Constitution, and will conduct negotiations within its ambit.

People like Imran Khan
... aka Taliban Khan, who who convinced himself that playing cricket qualified him to lead a nuclear-armed nation with severe personality problems...
and Nawaz Sharif are blind to the reality and the nature of the threat. Due to its numerous strands, the TTP can talk endlessly while carrying on its murderous campaign through various proxies. After each attack, it will blandly issue a denial, and in its desperation, the government will accept the disavowal at face value.

In a recent TV interview, a well-known Urdu columnist declared that the government should be willing to compensate the TTP for any losses they have suffered. But will the Taliban also compensate the families of the thousands of their victims? This is just one example of the double standards being peddled in the media today.
Posted by: Fred || 03/08/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [17 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Science & Technology
Boy, 13, builds N-fusion reactor in school lab
[THEPENINSULAQATAR] A boy in Britain has left many people stunned by developing a 'nuclear fusion reactor' in his school's science laboratory. Jamie Edwards became the youngest person in the world to achieve nuclear fusion from scratch at his Lancashire secondary school, using high energy to smash two hydrogen atoms together to make helium, Daily Mail reported.

"It is quite an achievement. It's magnificent really," Jamie said afterwards. "I can't quite believe it -- even though all my friends think I am mad." Edwards, who attends Penwortham Priory Academy near Preston, has been fascinated with radiation for years, on one occasion even buying a Geiger counter with his Christmas money.

He started building the reactor in October at the science laboratory at Priory Academy, Lancashire, and finally finished the task yesterday. He said that his fusion ambition was sparked by reading about a 14-year-old US schoolboy, Taylor Wilson, who had become the youngest to produce a small fusion reactor in Nevada in 2008. "I looked at it, thought 'That looks cool' and decided to have a go," Jamie added.
Posted by: Fred || 03/08/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Young Mr. Edwards had previously been noted in this paper for attempting to buy 10 fire-detectors with pound coins dated 2079 causing much confusion.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/08/2014 3:16 Comments || Top||

#2  I do hope Brit authorities will provide some kind of protection for the kid and his family---too many idiots, especially ones called Muhammad, who don't understand he can't make a nuke for them.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/08/2014 3:50 Comments || Top||

#3 
Posted by: Glomons Glereng1041 || 03/08/2014 6:17 Comments || Top||

#4  I would expect HM's govt minions, in the persons of environmental agents, then security personel, to give young Jamie's classroom and home a thorough going over. Can't have the masses getting off script, you know. (The BS line about how difficult nuclear stuff is, and only they can protect us, just give us your trust and taxes, etc. It's worked well for them for half a century.)
Posted by: ed in texas || 03/08/2014 7:23 Comments || Top||

#5  Fusion's not the big challenge - controlled fusion with net energy gain is.
Posted by: Glenmore || 03/08/2014 8:04 Comments || Top||

#6  Jamie said afterwards. "I can't quite believe it -- even though all my friends think I am mad." Edwards, who has a keen interest in science let the reporter in on a little secret,"I've been working on a Photon Ray Gun in my dad's garage. I call it the William Tell, it's almost ready to test, if you care to stop by you can assist me."
Posted by: Chuckles Wittlesbach7696 || 03/08/2014 9:07 Comments || Top||

#7  ..yeah, Ship. I'd be checking his "car hole" (Moe Szyslak) for a DeLorean..
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 03/08/2014 13:36 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Qaeda executes Yemeni blamed of guiding US drone strikes
May he have found himself in heaven ten minutes before Allah knew he was dead.
[THEPENINSULAQATAR] Al Qaeda Death Eaters rubbed out a man in southeastern Yemen on Thursday for allegedly giving the United States information used to carry out drone strikes against bad boys, witnesses and the SITE monitoring service said.

Residents said the man was found rubbed out on a sandy football pitch in the town of Shahr in Hadramout
...the formerly independent Qu'aiti state and sultanate, annexed by Communist South Yemen in 1968, encompassing a region along the Gulf of Aden, extending eastwards to the borders of the Dhofar region of Oman. The people are called Hadhramis and speak Hadhrami Arabic. The city Tarimis is estimated to contain the highest concentration of descendants of the Prophet Muhammad (PTUI) anywhere in the world, approximately seven in every square yard...
province.

Pictures posted on the Internet showed his body, dressed in Yemeni traditional clothes, hanging by its arms from a bar suspended from a football goal, on which a black al Qaeda flag also hung. A crowd of onlookers stood nearby.

The man was captured a year ago and accused of working for American intelligence and helping to guide drone strikes in 2012 and 2013, notably one on Dec. 25, 2012 that killed five Islamist bad boys, SITE reported.

SITE said he had been killed by al Qaeda's Ansar al-Sharia
...a Salafist militia which claims it is not part of al-Qaeda, even though it works about the same and for the same ends. There are groups of the same name in Libya, Tunisia and Yemen, with the Libyan and Tunisian versions currently most active...
group (Partisans of Islamic Law).

In a video titled "An American Spy in the Arabian Peninsula" posted on the Internet, a man identifying himself as Amin Abdullah Mohammed Al Mu'alimi confessed to assisting US intelligence.

He said he had been born in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, but recruited in Sweden, and joined a security training course led by a Saudi intelligence officer.

He said American handlers had told him that some countries wanted to get rid of some people, and asked him to place tracking chips on three men named Ashraf, Majid and Mubarak.

Other black flags were found near Mu'alimi's body with slogans that read "An American Spy in the Arabian Peninsula" and "U.S. drone strikes kill Moslems", witnesses said.
Posted by: Fred || 03/08/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [15 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia


-Land of the Free
This Week in Guns, March 8th, 2014


The face of the left's new disarmament campaign in New Hampshire has moved three laws in New Hampshire which would require guns and ammunition to be locked up, guns to be seized in domestic investigations, and ban firearms from establishments that serve alcoh0l. Not certain what it means, but apparently legislators in the state house will decide if Burlington can pass laws even more unconstitutional than state laws.

A New Jersey gun law critic, James Kaleda has a warrant out for his arrest for an error in his gun registration paperwork, only two days before he was scheduled to testify against even more unconstitutional laws New Jersey is planning to pass. There's your problem. Funny, I don't recall Chris Christie expressing outrage against the new guns laws nor the ones he has signed into law already. The face of Kaleda shown in the photo will be your face when the uniformed fascist comes for you.


Ammoland has another article about the situation in Connecticut
, where a large swath of gun owners have defied state law and have refused to register their guns. One commenter at Sipsey Street Irregulars said that the state's reaction is likely to to be slow: traffic stops followed by search warrants followed by confiscation. The commenter said state officials expect fear to move the other 50,000 to 100,00 gun owners to register their guns once a public prosecution has been made. The flaw in that logic will be the moment a state cop gets surrounded by a number of angry citizens exercising their own rights.

Kurt Hoffman has some cogent views on Huffington Post's newest pet, an antigun gun shop owner who wonders if it is wise to give people the right to talk around with a gun (his words).

Lastly Mountain Guerrilla is offering some classes on small unit patrolling and practical use of the modern rifle. I don't have the wampum, myself.

Loads.

Rantburg's summary for arms and ammunition:

Prices for pistol and rifle ammunition ammunition were mostly higher. Prices for rimfire ammunition have absolutely jumped higher.

Prices for used pistols were mostly higher, while prices for used rifles were lower across the board.

Pistol Ammo

.45 Caliber, 230 grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (Two weeks)

Cheapest, 50 rounds: Today's Ammo, Tulammo, steel cased, .34 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: LV Ammo, FMJ brass, reloaded, .34 per round (+.02 each after unchanged for Three Weeks)

.40 Caliber Smith & Wesson, 180 grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (Unchanged 4 of 8 previous weeks
)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Selway Armory, BVAC, reloaded, .28 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 250 rounds: Freedom Munitions, Store Brand, reloaded, .27 per round (From Last Week: +.01)

9mm Parabellum, 115 grain, From Last Week: +.03 each (+.07 over three weeks))
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Freedom Munitions, Store Brand, RN, .25 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Jack Ross Ammunition, Store brand, reloaded, .24 per round (Unchanged 2 weeks)

.357 Magnum, 158 grain, From Last Week: +.01 Each (from last week -.01 each)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Munire USA, CCI Speer, JHP, .45 per round
Cheapest Bulk: 250 Rounds: LAX Ammo, Store Brand, .39 per round (-.02 Each from last week)

Rifle Ammunition

.223 Caliber/5.56mm 55 grain, From Last Week: +.01 Each (After unchanged previous three weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Munire USA, Tulammo, steel cased, .26 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: SG Ammo, Wolf, steel cased, .29 per round (Unchanged after -.04 Each previous four weeks)

.308 NATO 145 grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (After -.07 Each previous five weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Munire USA, Prvi Partizan, steel cased, .58 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: The Sportsman Guide, MFS, steel cased, .56 per round (Unchanged (two weeks))

7.62x39 AK 123 Grain, From Last Week: +.01 (After unchanged for three weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Alamo Ammo, RedA Army Standard, steel core and case, .25 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 600 rounds: Cheaper Than Dirt, Brown Bear, steel core and case, .24 per round (+.03 Each from previous week )

.22 LR 40 Grain, From Last Week: +.05 Each (!)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Smokey Mountain Munitions, Remington, .19 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Federal, .18 per round (+.01 from previous week (+.02 over previous two weeks))

Guns for Private Sale
Rifles


.223/5.56mm (AR Pattern Semiautomatic) Average Price: $810 Last Week Avg: $855 (-)
California: American Tactical Imports: $650
Texas: Bushmaster Carbon 15: $700
New York: LMT Defender 2000: $1,300
Virgina: DPMS Oracle: $650
Florida: Mixed Build: $750

.308 NATO (AR-10 Pattern Semiautomatic) Average Price: $1,344 Last Week Avg: $1,362 (-)
California: DPMS LR308: $1,200
Texas: Smith & Wesson M&P10: $1,220
New York: Armalite AR-10T: $2,200
Virginia: FN Defender 2000 SPM16: $1,100
Florida:DPMS LR308: $1,000

7.62x39mm (AK Pattern Semiautomatic) Average Price: $678 Last Week Avg: $710 (-)
California: WASR Romak: $600
Texas: Saiga: $489
New York: Unknown brand (decked out): $1000
Virginia: M+M Romak: $650
Florida: vz 58 : $650

7.62x54mm (Dragunov Pattern Semiautomatic) Average Price: $1,423 Last Week Avg: $1,430 (-)
California: Romak PSL: $1,689 (Same Gun)
Texas: Romak PSL: $1,200 (Same Gun)
New York: None
Virginia: Romak PSL: $1,600
Florida: Romak PSL: $1,400 (Same Gun)

Pistols

.45 caliber ACP (M1911 Pattern Semiautomatic Pistol) Average Price: $465 Last Week Avg: $476 (-)
California: Rock Island Armory: $425 (Same Gun)
Texas: SAM 1911 Elite: $450
New York: Unknown: $550 (Same Gun)
Virginia: Rock Island Armory: $550 (Prolly Same Gun)
Florida:Llama Max: $350

9mm Beretta 92FS or other Semiautomatic Average Price: $500 Last Week Avg: $380 (+)
California: Glock 19: $550
Texas: Glock 17: $499
New York: Glock 19: $450
Virginia: Glock 26: $500
Florida: Glock 26: $500

.40 caliber S&W (Glock and other semiautomatic) Average Price: $565 Last Week Avg: $425 (+)
California: Glock 22: $500
Texas: Glock 22: $450
New York: Glock 22: $450
Virginia: Glock 23: $550
Florida: Glock 22: $475

Used Gun of the Week: (From Tennessee)

Model 1899 US Springfield Armory KRAG Carbine Chambered in 30-40 Krag

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com and BorderlandBeat.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com
Posted by: badanov || 03/08/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Women with BFGs

Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 03/08/2014 10:46 Comments || Top||

#2  So AK-47 ammo is now only 20% more expensive than .22 plinking ammo? Wow. I have an old box of .22 (half empty) in my safe with a 79 cent price tag on it - for 50 rounds.
Posted by: Glenmore || 03/08/2014 11:02 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
LATimes: Border Patrol restricts agents' use of force
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Border Patrol has restricted border agents' authority to shoot at moving vehicles or at people throwing rocks, changing a controversial policy that has contributed to at least 19 deaths since 2010.

In a memo released Friday, Border Patrol Chief Michael Fisher directed border agents not to step in front of moving vehicles, nor to use their bodies to block them, in order to open fire at drivers. He also barred shooting at vehicles whose occupants are fleeing from agents.

A deadly threat, which would justify use of force, does not "include a moving vehicle merely fleeing from agents," the new rule states.

Fisher also ordered agents to seek cover or move away from rock throwers if possible and not to shoot at them unless a rock or other object poses an imminent danger of death or serious injury.

The new rules would bring the Border Patrol's practices closer to those used routinely by the nation's major urban police departments. They are a response, in part, to widespread complaints from immigrant advocates that border agents have shot and killed people in some cases when deadly force was not necessary to protect the lives of agents or the public.

The new policy "seems to be a response to political pressure from special interests," Shawn P. Moran, vice president of the Border Patrol agents' union, said in a telephone interview.

The ACLU has proposed that agents wear small cameras and install video cameras in their vehicles, as many local and state police forces do, to provide a clear record when force is used. The Border Patrol agreed last year to test the cameras, but Fisher said the agency was still discussing that idea.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 03/08/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [15 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I wouldn't have thought their ROI could get any more restricted, except of course when dealing with known American citizens. Them they can bust up.
Posted by: ed in texas || 03/08/2014 7:18 Comments || Top||

#2  Wonder if we'll see media reports about the increase of border agent injuries?
Posted by: Pappy || 03/08/2014 21:56 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
NPA militants "sorry" for hitting ambulance
Militants from the communist New People's Army (NPA) issued an apology in connection with a March 2 ambush that resulted in several civilians being injured in Davao del Sur.

Rigoberto Sanchez, spokesman for the Southern Mindanao Regional Command of the New People's Army (NPA) "expressed deep regret" for the ambush of an ambulance in Bansalan town. He said, "We take responsibility for this act as we take cognizance of the fact that the medical staff and mobile medical units should not have been made target of any attack and whose protection and/or safety is guaranteed under the international humanitarian law."

Reports from both the rebels and the Philippine military said the ambulance had been sent to pick up and provide immediate medical assistance to soldiers ambushed by the militants earlier in the same area.

Sanchez said, "Operatives tasked to discharge the command detonated explosives failed to distinguish the ambulance from its target, the two military trucks. The ambulance was inconspicuous in as far as it did not discharge its siren."

For its part, the Armed Forces of the Philippines said it will file a case against the NPA commander who ordered the ambush.
Posted by: ryuge || 03/08/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under: Commies


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Will Next Winter Be Like The Winter of 1886-87?
The Winter of 1886--1887 was extremely harsh. Although it affected other regions in the United States, it is most known for its effects on the Western United States and its cattle industry. This winter marked the end of the Open Range era and led to the entire reorganization of ranching.

The summer of 1886 had been unusually hot and dry, with numerous prairie fires and water sources often dried up. In the fall, signs of a harsh winter ahead began to appear. Birds began flying south earlier than usual, beavers were seen collecting more wood than normal for the winter ahead, and some cattle even took on thicker and shaggier coats.

The first snows fell earlier than usual in November and were reported as some of the worst in memory. Extreme cold temperatures killed humans and animals. In some instances, people got lost close to their houses and froze to death very close to their front doors. The winter weather even reached the West Coast, with snowfall of 3.7 inches in downtown San Francisco setting an all-time record on February 5, 1887.

The loss of livestock was not discovered until spring, when a large number of cattle carcasses were spread across the fields and washed down streams. The few remaining cattle were in poor health, being emaciated and suffering from frostbite. This resulted in the cattle being sold for much lower prices, in some cases leading to bankruptcy. Future president Theodore Roosevelt's cattle ranch in Dakota was wiped out by the severe winter, prompting him to abandon his ranching operations and instead pursue his political career.
Temperatures in Western US fell to 50 below zero, killing many livestock and people.
Posted by: Omavising Ebbemp9815 || 03/08/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [14 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If Al Gore keeps yapping his stupid trap it will be.
Posted by: DarthVader || 03/08/2014 0:32 Comments || Top||

#2  Whiskey! Denver needs whiskey!

/Oracle Jones
Posted by: Shipman || 03/08/2014 3:22 Comments || Top||

#3  Throw another liberal on the fire.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/08/2014 3:57 Comments || Top||

#4  Notice as this years cold has hit the Midwest and Plains, no one is talking about a delayed planting season. Too non-urban to be of concern I'm sure.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/08/2014 8:04 Comments || Top||

#5  Hey Tornado Baits (myself included):
Good time to check out your emergency kit and smoke detectors (that's for everyone). Its still too early to switch out cold weather gear for warm weather gear but close; I get the feeling there will be snow problems for another month.

Something handy to have for this age is the solar charger. Plan for being out of services for 7 days - medicine, food, socks and undies. Especially water. Available are nifty pint and quart size puncture resistant water packets - check emergency boating supplies. About the only place more isolated than the high plains would be a boating accident - its the right stuff so check it out.

Includes flood plainers, fire evac, and you earthquaker Oklahomans.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 03/08/2014 10:11 Comments || Top||

#6  I believe the '87 winter was the subject of a Laura Ingels Wilder book.
Posted by: Iblis || 03/08/2014 11:38 Comments || Top||

#7  Well, we are back down to 0F in Alaska. Welcome to spring.

But on a serious note, we keep our emergency stuff in good order. Lose natural gas and electricity during an earthquake in winter and you better have a plan B and C in the pocket.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 03/08/2014 13:21 Comments || Top||

#8  a recurrence of the 1886-87 winter would be more proof of carbon-burning anthropomorphic-global warmening weather
Posted by: Frank G || 03/08/2014 13:32 Comments || Top||

#9  Have there been 5 major volcanic eruptions?
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 03/08/2014 14:19 Comments || Top||

#10  Yep, the "science" is settled!
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 03/08/2014 17:24 Comments || Top||

#11  Well due to viruses it looks like there is going to be a shortage of pork and chicken, so along with a beef shortage food prices will take another hit. What next radioactive fish....TAPCO leaks...uhm never mind. "John Ringo call your office."
Posted by: Glert Johnson5763 || 03/08/2014 19:49 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Egypt deports 100 Gaza-bound female activists
Egypt deported Friday dozens of women activists, who had flown in to Cairo but been barred from entering the country in their bid to reach the neighboring Gaza Strip, an airport official said.
Prison wasn't an option?
Who'd want to keep them around for years?
Good point...
About 100 women, most of them from Europe and the United States, had hoped to enter the Palestinian enclave through Egypt's Rafah border crossing to celebrate International Women's Day on Saturday.

Eleven women were sent back to Istanbul, another 22 to Paris and six to Frankfurt, the official said. They were among 65 activists deported over the past 24 hours, some from the United States, France, Belgium and Switzerland, the official added.

Northern Irish Nobel Laureate Mairead Maguire and the odious American anti-war activist Medea Benjamin were deported earlier this week.

Egypt controls the Rafah border crossing into Gaza, the only one that bypasses Israel, and is cooperating colluding with the Israeli occupation authorities in blockading the territory.
Posted by: Steve White || 03/08/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [18 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The height of new morality---working toward another Holocaust.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/08/2014 3:39 Comments || Top||

#2  Nah. In this case, provagina' trumps antisemitism.
Posted by: Pappy || 03/08/2014 9:08 Comments || Top||

#3  Getting an education in what a real male dominated and police state is about rather than the one's they've accused of being. Reality bites their fantasy world.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/08/2014 10:41 Comments || Top||

#4  They'll ignore reality, as they ignore good taste.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 03/08/2014 13:12 Comments || Top||

#5  On the Road to Gaza
100 Dames run wild in olde Egypt. Until their leader has her wing broken. Laughs abound, not for the straight-laced.


Rantburg gives in a 2.2 out of Pi.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/08/2014 17:56 Comments || Top||

#6  From Sisi's surveillance squads' cameras,
someone published some footage unglamorous.
Western wymyn ran riot!
How could they keep quiet?
'Twas "Innocence of Broads" made them clamorous.
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 03/08/2014 23:15 Comments || Top||

#7  **Golf clap** :-D
Posted by: Barbara || 03/08/2014 23:22 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Abbas rejects Israeli Jewish state
I know, I know, this isn't news...
The Ineffectual Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said there is "no way" he will recognize Israel as a Jewish state and accept a Palestinian capital in just a portion of Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, rejecting what some Palestinians believe will be key parts of a forthcoming U.S. peace proposal, the Associated Press reported on Friday.

Abbas, who was speaking to youth activists of his Fatah party, in comments carried on Friday by the Palestinian news agency WAFA, said he had previously withstood international pressure when he sought U.N. recognition of a state of Palestine over Washington's objections.
And we all saw how well that worked.
Abbas' comments suggested the extent of the difference in stances between him and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, after seven months of pointless mediation efforts by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

The president suggested he would stand firm again -- especially over the demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

"They are pressing and saying, 'No peace without the Jewish state,'" he said, though not saying who applying the pressure. "There is no way. We will not accept."
"Next they'll want us to admit juices are human, just like us Muslim Arabs."
Netanyahu, meanwhile, gave interviews to Israeli TV stations, excerpts of which were broadcast Friday night.

"I am ready to proceed, I am ready to reach the end of the conflict, but it must be the end of the conflict," Netanyahu said on Channel 10 TV. "We won't allow the establishment of a Palestinian state so that it will continue the conflict, so it needs to recognize the state of the Jews just like they are demanding from us that we recognize the state of the Palestinians."
Thus recognizing that the 'moderate' Palestinians would be willing to kill all the Joooz in two steps, not just one...
Netanyahu insisted Jerusalem will remain under Israeli sovereignty -- such recognition being required as evidence that Palestinians are serious about peace.

Abbas has noted that the Palestine Liberation Organization recognized the state of Israel in 1993 and said this is sufficient.
But that recognition was conditioned on "right of return", etc., and so wasn't serious.
Palestinians fear the demand is an Israel attempt to restrict possible return options of refugees and the rights of Israel's large Arab minority.
As in, no "right of return", meaning the Paleos can't flood the zone...
Kerry is expected to present his ideas for the contours of an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal soon, but it remains unseen that he can get Abbas and Netanyahu to agree on a framework before by the April 29 deadline.
Remains unseen? I can see it clearly and I don't even live in Alaska...
Abbas is set to meet with U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House on March 17, as part of U.S. efforts to press both sides towards a peace process. Netanyahu met with Obama earlier this week.

The current round of talks began in late July, but was plagued from the start by disagreement between Abbas and Netanyahu on the ground rules. The Palestinians want a state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, lands Israel captured in 1967, and said talks about that state should use the 1967 lines as a starting point, a position backed by the U.S. but rejected by Netanyahu.
Posted by: Steve White || 03/08/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under: Palestinian Authority

#1  I am ready to reach the end of the conflict, but it must be the end of the conflict,"

"But, but can't we have peace AND continue the conflict?" Call me a cynic, but I don't see why anyone even bothers with this rotten charade anymore.
Posted by: SteveS || 03/08/2014 7:14 Comments || Top||

#2  SteveS, you're a cynic.


Of course the longer this goes the more cynical I become....oops, can't get anymore cynical I've pegged the meter.
Posted by: AlanC || 03/08/2014 7:25 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Ethiopian troops take Rabdhure and face Waajid
The district commissionr of Hudur, Mohamed Macalin Ahmed who spoke to Radio Shabelle in Mogadishu over the phone, commented on the recent battle in Hudur. He mentioned that 5 fighters from Al-Shabaab were killed and another 5 were captured while verbally stressing that Al-Shabaab lost control over the Rabdhure locale in Bakool.

The commissioner of Hudur added that the Ethiopian troops as well as the government forces have maintains current control of the Rabdhure territory where the Al-Shabaab forces retreated to the Waajid district.

Shabelle has indicated that in the Rabdhure territory, Al-Shabaab burned buildings as well as private cars belonging to the people that fled just before the Ethiopian troops backed by the government forces entered the district.
Posted by: Steve White || 03/08/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [14 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab


Arabia
Saudi Arabia calls Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group
(Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has formally designated the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, in a move that could increase pressure on Qatar whose backing for the group has sparked a row with fellow Gulf monarchies.

The U.S.-allied kingdom has also designated as terrorist the Nusra Front and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, whose fighters are battling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the Interior Ministry said in a statement published by state media.

In an unprecedented move, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain recalled their ambassadors from Qatar on Wednesday, saying Doha had failed to abide by an accord not to interfere in each others' internal affairs.

GULF DISPUTE

Saudi Arabia and the UAE are fuming over Qatar's support for the Muslim Brotherhood, and resent the way Doha has sheltered influential cleric Yusuf Qaradawi, a critic of the Saudi authorities, and given him regular airtime on its pan-Arab satellite channel Al Jazeera.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 03/08/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [21 views] Top|| File under: Muslim Brotherhood

#1  Red on red.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/08/2014 3:44 Comments || Top||

#2  Only problem with Red on Red is its adverse effect on my pop-corn supplies.
Posted by: AlanC || 03/08/2014 7:27 Comments || Top||

#3  Obviously, the White House doesn't care. The only terrorist groups listed there are the Tea Party, Fox News, Rush......
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/08/2014 9:07 Comments || Top||

#4  Think the Egypt will send a stongly worded protest...or a strongly worded thank you note?
Posted by: AlanC || 03/08/2014 10:20 Comments || Top||

#5  Did it come from the mouth of the chief mullah in Mecca during Friday prayers? If not it is just pablum for the infidels.
Posted by: 3dc || 03/08/2014 12:07 Comments || Top||

#6  "Did it come from the mouth of the chief mullah in Mecca, IN ARABIC, during Friday prayers?"

ftfy
Posted by: Barbara || 03/08/2014 16:17 Comments || Top||


Europe
Snipers Shooting At Both Sides During Ukraine Demonstrations, Russian Special Forces?
The government's new health minister — a doctor who helped oversee medical treatment for casualties during the protests — told The Associated Press that the similarity of bullet wounds suffered by opposition victims and police indicates the shooters were trying to stoke tensions on both sides and spark even greater violence, with the goal of toppling Yanukovych.

"I think it wasn't just a part of the old regime that (plotted the provocation), but it was also the work of Russian special forces who served and maintained the ideology of the (old) regime," Health Minister Oleh Musiy said.

This much is known: Snipers firing powerful rifles from rooftops and windows shot scores of people in the heart of Kiev. Some victims were opposition protesters, but many were civilian bystanders clearly not involved in the clashes. Among the dead were medics, as well as police officers. A majority of the more than 100 people who died in the violence were shot by snipers; hundreds were also injured by the gunfire and other street fighting.

On Tuesday, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov signaled that investigators may be turning their attention away from Ukrainian responsibility.

"I can say only one thing: the key factor in this uprising, that spilled blood in Kiev and that turned the country upside down and shocked it, was a third force," Avakov was quoted as saying by Interfax. "And this force was not Ukrainian."

The next day, Prosecutor General Oleh Makhntisky said officials have found sniper bullet casings on the National Bank building a few hundred yards up the hill from Maidan, the square that became the center and the symbol of the anti-government protests. He said investigators have confirmed snipers also fired from the Hotel Ukraine, directly on the square, and the House of Chimeras, an official residence next to the presidential administration building.

Deputy Interior Minister Mykola Velichkovych told AP that commanders of sniper units overseen by the Berkut police force and other Interior Ministry subdivisions have denied to investigators that they had given orders to shoot anyone.

Musiy, who spent more than two months organizing medical units on Maidan, said that on Feb. 20 roughly 40 civilians and protesters were brought with fatal bullet wounds to the makeshift hospital set up near the square. But he said medics also treated three police officers whose wounds were identical.
Posted by: Omavising Ebbemp9815 || 03/08/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [17 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Cui bono?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/08/2014 3:59 Comments || Top||

#2  "denied to investigators that they had given orders to shoot anyone"
They didn't say nobody fired...
Posted by: ed in texas || 03/08/2014 7:13 Comments || Top||

#3  Those who really know aren't telling, those who are talking don't know anything.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 03/08/2014 7:26 Comments || Top||

#4  Just a few well placed sniper or mortar rounds here or there.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/08/2014 11:32 Comments || Top||

#5  So 1980's! Gee didn't we hear Zero say that to Romney? Hmmm, Zero is batting in the 900's, that is if being wrong is good.

This does sound pretty old school USSR, Putin is running off an old playbook. He should be pretty predictable, if all the cold war officers have not been thrown out of the pentagon by Zero's purge. So now it will get stale, another crisis will arise and we will forget all about the Ukraine. He will go in and restore the country and hold elections. Once the opposition rises he will crush them with all the brutality Russia can muster.

One question, will Putin crush them in a Soviet Georgia style operations or clandestine KGB eliminations???
Posted by: 49 Pan || 03/08/2014 12:59 Comments || Top||

#6  Putin will do what he must to achieve his ends. He is not greatly influenced by...so called world opinion.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 03/08/2014 19:46 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Now A Russian Helicopter And Drone Have Violated Georgian Airspace
..bigger plans Vlad? Or just a ruse to see how one Barak Obama responds?
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 03/08/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  From Alabama or the Carolinas?
Posted by: Skidmark || 03/08/2014 2:00 Comments || Top||

#2  Whoops, another 3AM telephone call missed at the WH. I wonder if he has taken to sleeping under his bed with his blue blankie.
Posted by: Chuckles Wittlesbach7696 || 03/08/2014 8:57 Comments || Top||

#3  ..nah, he's on another vacation trip, more golf opportunities.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/08/2014 9:15 Comments || Top||

#4  Now A Russian Helicopter And Drone Have Violated Georgian Airspace

Did Russia fly Kerry into Georgia?
Posted by: gorb || 03/08/2014 10:30 Comments || Top||

#5  drone [drohn]
noun

3.a person who lives on the labor of others; parasitic loafer.
see also - gigolo
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/08/2014 10:46 Comments || Top||

#6  So you're saying a drone has violated Florida airspace over Key Largo?
Posted by: Glenmore || 03/08/2014 10:57 Comments || Top||


Economy
Texas Accounts For 20% Of National Job Growth In February
TEXAS--National unemployment numbers took yet another jump in data released today by the federal government. While adding 175,000 jobs, the unemployment rate moved upwards to 6.7 percent. Not so in Texas, where unemployment dropped to well below the six percent level.

Texas Governor Rick Perry announced today in a written statement that Texas' unemployment fell yet again from 6.0 percent to 5.7 percent.

"Every day," Perry proudly stated, "more Texans are going to work, earning a living and supporting their families because we follow a simple recipe for job creation: we keep our taxes low, our regulations effective and predictable, our courts fair and our schools accountable."

"That's why Texas has been the national epicenter for job creation for more than a decade," Gov. Perry explained, "and today's numbers indicate we're not slowing down anytime soon. While Washington is unable to significantly move the needle on unemployment, in Texas we free job creators to pursue success, which means more good-paying jobs for more Texans."
A side note. This week to vote in the Texas primaries you had to have an ID. Despite the left claiming ID's would prevent voters from voting, more people voted in this primary than in the last state wide primary when IDs were not required. You will not hear this in the National Socialist Media.
Posted by: Omavising Ebbemp9815 || 03/08/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [13 views] Top|| File under:

#1  God bless Texas.
Posted by: OldSpook || 03/08/2014 0:33 Comments || Top||

#2  If Texas and the fracking states left the Union, 95% of the job growth and new wealth since the Great Depression II made would leave with them.
Posted by: DarthVader || 03/08/2014 1:29 Comments || Top||

#3  Not bad for a bunch of slack jawed,drooling, unsophisticated maroons. So, out of the 57 states, Texas is better than the other, um, oh, my I didn't know there was going to be math, 46 or so , states.
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 03/08/2014 17:19 Comments || Top||

#4  And the "slack jawed, drooling, unsophisticated maroon" ....governor and his staff spend a great deal of their time encouraging firms to move to Texas and hire people. When they're not busy with that, they're approving oil lease drilling and exploration agreements.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/08/2014 17:49 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Militants carry out grenade attack in Mandera
Mandera -- Terrorists Militants who throw like Nancy girls on Thursday hurled a rocket propelled grenade (RPG) in Mandera, but caused no injury, a police officer said.

Mandera County Police Commander Noah Mwivanda said the RPG launched in the southern part of the border at 2 a.m. local time was targeting the border post. He said the RPG 7 which is normally hurled by a bazooka failed to meet its target because it was overcharged.

"We highly suspect that the RPG was highly charged and that is why when they hurled it overflew and as a result landed in the neighboring Bula Geneva," the police commander said.
They missed an entire county?? Have they got some Gazans on loan?
Mwivanda said that after the terrorists militants hurled the device, they proceeded to fire gunshots. He however said that nobody was injured in the incident.

According to a local, the ten terrorists militants started arguing immediately after missing their target, accusing each other of not hitting the target.
"You throw like a girl!"
"Do not!"
"Do too! And your sister has a better mustache!"
"Why you infidel, I'll show you!" [whoosh!]
"We heard them accuse each other and argue loudly in the local dialect. There after they disappeared on foot," said the man.

The police commander said that security had been enhanced at the border point with more security personnel deployed in the area to beef up security.

"Thank God that these terrorists' evil mission was not accomplished. This is however a wake up call for us that we should not rest our laurels even for a minute because that is when they hit us," said Mwivanda.
Posted by: Steve White || 03/08/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "We highly suspect that the RPG was highly charged and that is why when they hurled it overflew and as a result landed in the neighboring Bula Geneva," the police commander said.

A hand launched RPG? Actually I'm impressed. The overflew part is worrisome... did they throw it with the rocket motor lit? Now I'd be even more impressed....
Posted by: Shipman || 03/08/2014 5:14 Comments || Top||

#2  the ten terrorists militants started arguing immediately after missing their target, accusing each other of not hitting the target.

Like an episode of The Three Stooges, but with RPGs.
Posted by: SteveS || 03/08/2014 7:20 Comments || Top||

#3  "you're killing me, Abu Smalls!"
Posted by: Frank G || 03/08/2014 9:00 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Malaysia bans Ultraman
The Malay-language edition of the comic book "Ultraman the Ultra Power" has been banned because it contains "elements that may threaten public order," Malaysia's Home Ministry said in a statement. Another statement clarified that the ban was due to use of the term "Allah" to describe the Japanese superhero.

The move, which has drawn criticism and ridicule on the Internet, comes amid rising tensions between Muslims and Christians over the use of the word. Malaysia's highest court is currently deciding whether to grant the Catholic Church permission to appeal a lower court ruling that bans it from referring to their God as "Allah."

The ban was imposed because the character Ultraman is "an idol for children" and the use of the term Allah could "confuse" their thinking. In Friday's statement, the Home Ministry said "If the matter isn't curbed, it could damage Muslim's children faith by equating Allah with Ultraman."
So the Ministry contends that Muslim Malaysians are not as intelligent as non-Muslim Malaysians? How odd.
Netizens shared information about the ban on social media. "Ultraman" has been one of the top trending topics in Malaysia since Thursday evening. Even Malaysia's Youth Minister, Khairy Jamaluddin, tweeted, "What's Ultraman's fault?"

Anyone found guilty of producing or distributing the comic book could face jail time of up to three years or a fine not exceeding $6,146 or both.
Once again showing themselves to be skinless people in a sandpaper world.
Posted by: ryuge || 03/08/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under:

#1  First it's Ultraman, then come the dreaded POWER RANGERS, especially the evil pink ranger Kimberly.
Posted by: ed in texas || 03/08/2014 7:15 Comments || Top||

#2  Are they also going to exhile the Energizer Bunny?
Posted by: gorb || 03/08/2014 10:30 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Talking to the TTP
[DAWN] JUST when clarity and resolve appeared to be creeping into the government's approach to dealing with the TTP threat, confusion and cravenness have made a wretched reappearance. On Thursday, Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan offered the stunning pronouncement that a majority of the hard boy elements that constitute the TTP are not against the state of Pakistain and are not enemies of Pakistain. The interior minister's bizarre pronouncement may even have surprised the TTP, given that its explicit agenda is the violent overthrow of the state as presently constituted and the installation of one organised along the lines of the extreme version of Islam to which the TTP subscribes. Perhaps Nisar Ali Khan believes this is the way to win the hearts and minds of the Taliban, though that is hardly reassuring for the many Pak hearts and minds worried about what an elected government may be willing to barter away in the name of the people.

Still, the ever burgeoning catalogue of questionable pronouncements to which the interior minister's latest comments can be added is almost secondary to the very real steps the government is taking to push ahead the dialogue process. The original government-appointed negotiating committee is to be replaced with a new committee, the composition of which is yet to be announced. The purpose? To fast-track dialogue and make it results orientated, apparently. But then, was that not the purpose and brief of the original negotiating committee? When Prime Minister Sharif stood in parliament and announced the formation of the four-member committee for dialogue with the TTP more than a month ago, had he not pledged that the final attempt at talks would be decisive? A new committee clearly suggests that the previous one either failed or was inadequate for the task -- or perhaps both. So what went wrong and how is a new committee supposed to help fix that? The questions are many and lengthy, but answers, as ever, are desperately few.

If anything has become clear amidst all the fog of peace, it is that the press for talks is very much an initiative of the prime minister and his interior minister. Repeatedly, both men have owned their policy and sought to push ahead with it in the face of near universal disapproval. But neither seems willing to explain to parliament, the media or the public exactly what they are doing and how far they are willing to go. The approach seems to be: trust us, we won't let you down. But trust in such matters is always a scarce commodity, doubly so when the interior minister himself suggests the TTP is a friendly entity. The prime minister needs to explain clearly what he is authorising and why when it comes to talks with the TTP.
Posted by: Fred || 03/08/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [16 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Arabia
Saudi Lists 'Terror' Groups, Orders Foreign Fighters Home
[An Nahar] Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
on Friday listed the Moslem Brüderbund and two Syrian jihadist groups as terrorist organizations, and ordered citizens fighting abroad to return within 15 days or face imprisonment.

The move represents a major escalation against the Moslem Brüderbund of deposed Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi
...the former president of Egypt. A proponent of the One Man, One Vote, One Time principle, Morsi won election after the deposal of Hosni Mubarak and jumped to the conclusion it was his turn to be dictator...
and indicates rising concern in Riyadh over the possible return of battle-hardened Saudi bully boyz from Syria.

In addition to the Moslem Brüderbund, Saudi listed Al-Nusra Front, which is Al-Qaeda's official Syrian affiliate, and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
... the current version of al-Qaeda in Iraq, just as blood-thirsty and well-beloved as the original...
(ISIL), a rogue group fighting in both Syria and Iraq, as terrorist organizations.

The interior ministry decree, which was released by state media, also listed as terrorist groups the Shiite Houthis fighting in northern Yemen and "Hezbollah inside the kingdom", apparently referring to a little-known Saudi Shiite group.

The order penalizes involvement in any of the groups' activities at home or abroad -- including demonstrations -- and outlaws the use of "slogans of these organizations", including in social media.

It also forbids "participation in, calling for, or incitement to fighting in conflict zones in other countries".

Riyadh is a staunch supporter of the Sunni-led rebels battling to overthrow Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Horror of Homs...
but has long feared blow-back from radical jihadist groups, particularly after a spate of attacks by a local Al-Qaeda franchise from 2003 to 2006.

King Abdullah last month decreed jail terms of up to 20 years for belonging to "terrorist groups" and fighting abroad.

Similar sentences will be passed on those belonging to "extremist religious and ideological groups, or those classified as terrorist organizations, domestically, regionally and internationally," state news agency SPA said at the time.

Supporting such groups, adopting their ideology or promoting them "through speech or writing" would also incur prison terms, the decree added.

Rights group Amnesia Amnesty International sharply criticized last month's decree, saying it could be used to suppress peaceful political dissent because the law used an "overly vague definition of terrorism".

Saudi Arabia set up specialized terrorism courts in 2011 to try dozens of nationals and foreigners accused of belonging to Al-Qaeda or being involved in a wave of bloody attacks that swept the country from 2003.

Saudi and other conservative Gulf monarchies have long been hostile towards the Moslem Brüderbund, fearing that its brand of grass-roots activism and political Islam could undermine their authority.

The decision to brand the Brotherhood a terrorist group came a day after Saudi, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates recalled their ambassadors from Qatar, which had been a staunch supporter of Morsi and backs Brotherhood-linked groups across the region.

It was an unprecedented escalation of tensions within the Gulf Cooperation Council -- which also includes Kuwait and Oman -- and was widely seen as signaling Gulf fury at Qatari support for Islamist groups following the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings.

It was also seen as a revival of the on-again, off-again rivalry between Riyadh and Doha, oil- and gas-rich monarchies that have long vied for regional influence.

Saudi hailed the overthrow of Morsi and pledged billions of dollars to Egypt's military-installed government following his July 2013 ouster, and in recent months has eclipsed Qatar as the main backer of Syria's rebels.

Egypt, which has launched a sweeping crackdown on the Moslem Brüderbund and detained news hounds from Qatar's Al-Jazeera
... an Arab news network headquartered in Qatar, notorious for carrying al-Qaeda press releases. The name means the Peninsula, as in the Arabian Peninsula. In recent years it has settled in to become slightly less biased than MSNBC, in about the same category as BBC or CBS...
news network, on Thursday welcomed the Gulf countries' decision to recall their envoys from Doha.

It said its own envoy, who has been in Cairo since early February, "will not return to Qatar at the present time, and his remaining (in Egypt) is a sovereign political decision".

"It is for Qatar to clearly determine its position, whether it will stand on the side of Arab solidarity, unified ranks and protection of national security... or on the other side, and bear the consequences and responsibility for that," a government statement said.
Posted by: Fred || 03/08/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [23 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda

#1  Apparently Qatar's bid to become the "fourth Islamic power" is running into a few snags.
Posted by: Pappy || 03/08/2014 11:15 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Fallujah shelling kills 6
[THEPENINSULAQATAR] Shelling in Iraq's city 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...
held by anti-government fighters for more than two months, and a shooting targeting a local official killed eight people yesterday, police and doctors said.

Iraq has been hit by a year-long surge in bloodshed that has reached levels not seen since 2008, driven principally by widespread discontent among its Sunni Arab minority and by the civil war in neighbouring Syria. Shelling in Fallujah, just a short drive from Storied Baghdad, killed six people and maimed 17, Dr Ahmed Shami said.
Let's not forget funding and direction from Iran for their Shiite co-religionists...
The source of the fire, which resident Jassem Mohammed Al Essawi said hit four different areas, was not immediately clear.

A crisis erupted in the desert province of Anbar in late December when security forces dismantled Iraq's main Sunni Arab anti-government protest camp just outside lovely provincial capital Ramadi. Anti-government fighters subsequently seized Fallujah and parts of Ramadi, to its west.

It is the first time anti-government forces have exercised such open control in major cities since the peak of the deadly violence that followed the US-led invasion of 2003.

Some 380,000 people may have been displaced by the latest crisis in Anbar, according to the United Nations
...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society...
In Saadiyah, northeast of Storied Baghdad, gunnies rubbed out municipal council member Hussein Al Tamimi and another person yesterday, a police lieutenant colonel and a doctor said. Yesterday's deaths came a day after more than a dozen bombings and two shootings killed at least 23 people and maimed dozens.

Violence in Iraq has killed more than 1,800 people since January 1, according figures based on security and medical sources.
Posted by: Fred || 03/08/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [14 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant


India-Pakistan
Sami criticises Asif for operation remarks
[DAWN] Opposition leaders and a representative of the Taliban negotiating committee have expressed displeasure over the remarks of Defence Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif that a military operation can be launched against forces of Evil in the current month if they violate the ceasefire.

Maulana Samiul Haq
...the Godfather of the Taliban, leader of his own faction of the JUI. Known as Mullah Sandwich for his habit of having two young boys at a time...
, who is representing the outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) in peace talks with the government, urged the defence minister to avoid giving statements that may spoil the dialogue process. "His [Asif's] leader [Nawaz Sharif
... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf...
] is talking about negotiations while the defence minister is warning of a military operation," the maulana regretted.

Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah said that even "cabinet members are not on the same page on the issue of the Taliban".

Mr Asif in an interview to a foreign news agency on Friday said a full-scale military operation could be launched against the Taliban in the tribal areas as early as this month, warning Death Eaters against violating a ceasefire they announced last week.

Senator Raza Rabbani of PPP demanded that an in-camera session of parliament should be called so that parliamentary parties could be taken into confidence on the government-Taliban talks or any other decision taken by the government on the issue.

When contacted, Special Adviser to Prime Minister Irfan Siddiqui, who heads the government's committee in talks with the TTP, told Dawn that Maulana Sami had not yet informed the government when the Taliban's committee would go to the tribal areas to convey to the TTP leaders Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's demand that Taliban should not only disassociate themselves from splinter groups who had carried out recent terrorist attacks but also condemn such assaults and expose such groups.
Posted by: Fred || 03/08/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [13 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Another twist to district courts attack case
[DAWN] The district courts attack case took another twist on Friday when the gunman of the slain additional district and sessions judge (ADSJ) denied allegations of shooting him.

ADSJ Rafaqat Ahmed Khan Awan and 11 other people were killed during the attack on the district courts premises on March 3.

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Thursday told the National Assembly that the ADSJ was killed from the bullets accidentally fired by his own gunman, Babar Hussain.

The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) constituted to probe the March 3 terror attack has already taken Hussain into custody and on Friday produced him before Special Judge Anti-Terrorism Court Atiqur Rehman to obtain his physical remand.

As judge Rehman has banned the entry of mediapersons into his courtroom since August last year, the media could not cover the proceedings. However,
Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried...
sources close to the development said the gunman contradicted the statement of the interior minister and pleaded not guilty
"Wudn't me."
.

The sources said Hussain informed the ATC judge that he was with the ADSJ Awan when the bully boyz stormed the courtroom and tried to enter his chamber.

The bully boyz broke the door of the chamber and shot ADSJ Awan in the chest, the sources quoted the gunman as saying.

When contacted, Naseer Kayani
... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI...
, the president of the Islamabad Bar Association, said the statement of the interior minister was highly condemnable. He said the minister had tried to divert the case to some other directions by giving such a misleading statement.

Mr Kayani expressed the possibility that the police might have pressured Hussain to make a fake confession in order to save their skin.

"The bar will file an application with the Supreme Court of Pakistain against the irresponsible statement of the interior minister, implicating an innocent man in the crime," he added.

Dr Arif Alvi, Member National Assembly (MNA) of the Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf
...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations....
(PTI), while talking to Dawn said the interior minister had on Thursday expressed the possibility that bullets accidentally fired by the gunman might have hit and killed the ADSJ.

He said when the case was under investigation, it was premature to comment on the matter.

When contacted, Danial Gillani, a front man for the interior ministry, said the case was under investigation. "The exact detail of the tragic incident can only be given after the JIT submits its report," he added.
Posted by: Fred || 03/08/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [14 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Ready to launch operation if Taliban talks fail: Khawaja Asif
[DAWN] Pakistain could launch a full-scale military operation against Pak Taliban hard boyz in the tribal areas near the Afghan border as early as this month, the defence minister said, warning hard boyz against violating a ceasefire.

Dashing chances of a peace deal with the Pak Taliban, gunnies burst into a courtroom in Islamabad on Monday, killing 11 people in a broad daylight attack in the heart of the heavily guarded capital.

The Pak Taliban denied any role in the assault and a splinter group claimed the credit.

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif told Rooters in an interview that the government would not hesitate to bomb krazed killer hideouts or send forces into the tribal areas if the Taliban did not abide by the ceasefire announced last weekend.

"It will not take months now. We'll have to march in the month of March," Asif said, describing the government's response if krazed killer attacks continued.

"If there is a ceasefire, it has to be complete. Without that, we just can't afford to have talks with the Taliban."

Asif, long considered a pro-talks politician, is now one of a growing number of members of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf...
's cabinet who believe it is time for tougher military action against Pak Taliban strongholds.

Sharif has been under pressure from the United States and hawks within the Mighty Pak Army to send troops into North Wazoo, a tribal region along the Afghan border that is home to a complex web of al Qaeda-linked krazed killer groups.

Since 2007, the military has mounted a number of offensives against krazed killer strongholds in the northwest, largely clearing several areas, including their bastion of South Waziristan.

But North Waziristan has not been tackled, even though Pak Taliban members have taken refuge with allied Afghan factions based there that are not fighting the Pak state.

In February, Pakistain launched talks with the Taliban to find a negotiated settlement. But hopes of a peace deal have been crushed by a series of attacks and counter-attacks by both sides.

"We won't just take this lying down," the defence minister said. "If we are attacked, the state is attacked, civilians are attacked, military personal are attacked, we will retaliate. We will retaliate in kind."

For a government long considered soft for pursuing peace talks, Asif said there were now very few takers for the argument that the Taliban are truly committed to dialogue.

"The Taliban have not even condemned this so-called splinter group four days after the attack. They are saying, 'We have not violated a ceasefire, these are peripheral groups, they are not under our control,'" Asif said. "But we cannot believe this."

When asked about reports that talks may be re-launched, this time with Pakistain's powerful military in the driving seat, he said: "The army's input is very valuable. They are the people on the front lines. They have to execute our decisions."

Nightmare scenario


The Sharif government's insistence on pushing for talks with the Pak Taliban is driven to a large extent by the fear that the end of the US combat mission in 2014 could energise a resilient insurgency straddling the shared frontier.

"If in the post-withdrawal period, the Afghan Taliban become stronger and carve out an area of influence in the south and east of Afghanistan, which is next to our border, that's a scenario we should even avoid thinking of," Asif said. "Because then the Pak Taliban will have a powerhouse behind them, to support them. This option is there and everyone should try to avoid it."

For sceptics, there is another scenario Pakistain wants to avoid at all costs: an unfriendly Afghanistan backed by India.

Pakistain and India, nuclear-armed neighbours, have long suspected each other's motives in Afghanistan.

As NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis....
's presence fades, President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai
... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use...
has turned to India.

The countries have signed a wide-ranging strategic partnership and India has pledged billions in development aid.

Pakistain has for years been suspicious of the help, going as far as to say Indian consulates are surveillance posts.

But Asif said Pakistain, and particularly its army which has for decades jealously guarded the right to dictate policy on Afghanistan, had evolved.

"We have evidence that India is meddling in Afghanistan, no doubt," Asif said. "But I'm a believer that if the conditions in the four walls of your own house are stable, nobody from outside will try to enter. We give India the opportunity."
Posted by: Fred || 03/08/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Six dead in Syrian raids on Yabrud
[THEPENINSULAQATAR] Syrian helicopter gunships killed at least six people yesterday when they dropped barrel bombs on the strategic rebel stronghold of Yabrud, close to the Lebanese border, a monitoring group said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attacks followed a string of raids by regime warplanes around the town, which the army is trying to recapture. The raids came a day after loyalists backed by Hezbollah killed at least 17 Islamist fighters in the battle for Yabrud. State news agency Sana said army forces carried out a string of operations in and around Yabrud yesterday.

The offensive is aimed at securing the Damascus-Homs highway and severing a key rebel supply line to the town of Arsal in Leb's Bekaa Valley. Hezbollah says boom-mobiles used to attack it inside Leb originate in the Yabrud area and are driven to their targets via Arsal, a Sunni town where support for the Syrian uprising runs high.

A group of 13 kidnapped nuns and their three maids are believed to be held in the Yabrud region by kidnappers who took them away from the nearby town of Maalula in December. Sister Agnes, a nun from their diocese, said that contact was lost with the kidnappers, who are from the jihadist Al Nusra Front, on Wednesday.

"They are in a distressing situation and I'm alarmed because I fear the worst," she said by phone.

"They are forced to follow the rebel group that has taken them hostage, which moves them depending on the fighting. We no longer have direct contact with them."
Posted by: Fred || 03/08/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [18 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Southeast Asia
Malaysia Opposition Leader Sentenced in Sodomy Case
[NY Times] A Malaysian appeals court sentenced Anwar Ibrahim, the country's opposition leader, on Friday to five years in prison on charges of sodomy, a conviction that critics described as an attempt to block the opposition's ascendancy at a time when the governing party's popularity is waning.

Mr. Anwar, 66, was due to register for a local election next week, and a victory could have put him in charge of the country's richest state, Selangor, which is under opposition control. Although Mr. Anwar is appealing the court decision, and he was released on bail Friday, the conviction bars him from office.

"You have got what you wanted," Mr. Anwar shouted in court, according to Malaysiakini, an online news agency.

Anal sex, or "carnal intercourse against the order of nature" as described in the criminal code, is punishable by 20 years in prison in Malaysia.
Posted by: Fred || 03/08/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [16 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sounds like it is time to appoint Barney Frank ambassador of Malaysia.
Posted by: Airandee || 03/08/2014 7:56 Comments || Top||

#2  Talk about dirty tricks, an arrest prevents his election.

SOunds like Obama's tactics.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 03/08/2014 22:42 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Gang of hit men busted; eight arrested
[DAWN] The Crimes Investigation Agency (CIA) police claimed on Friday to have tossed in the slammer
Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!
eight members of a gang of hitmen (hired assassins) also involved in robberies and muggings.

Police also seized booty, including gold jewellery, mobile phones, watches and cycle of violences worth Rs9 million as well as illegal weapons from them.

CIA Superintendent of Police (SP) Umer Virk told the media ringleader Sarshar Khan, his seven accomplices and four others were still missing. He claimed the suspects had murdered a man after being hired for a huge amount by his rivals, looted Rs10 million from a Mughalpura filling station, and fired at the residence of a university professor after being paid for it.

The SP claimed the suspects had also struck in Gujrat and Gujranwala districts and committed heinous crimes. He said three members Shujaat, Zahid Butt and Imran were sharpshooters-cum-hit men who were proclaimed offenders in murder cases. They would kill people for money.

The trend of hiring hit men to either kill or intimidate people by firing at their houses had increased in 2013. Nine cases had been registered last year as compared to five in 2012. Of the nine cases in 2013, four were liquidations and five firings at residences. Police claimed all cases were traced and the suspects arrested.

A police source claimed the CIA police were currently searching for a gang of men from the Odh community involved in such incidents.

He said Shahbaz Sahi, who had hired services of sharpshooters, protected people in the cable television business in Gujjarpura, Shadbagh and adjacent localities. Any new entrant in the business was either killed or forced to wind up, the source claimed.He further said police lacked evidence in two recent cases in which a suspect had sent sharpshooters for killing a man named Babu and injuring another, Bahadra. He added both were involved in the cable TV business. He, however, said police could not find evidence to arrest the suspect and his shooters because first information reports in such incidents were registered with murder and abetment charges and complainants usually wanted to target their rivals.

He said two organised gangs run separately by Mobeen Butt and Aslam Bassa around nine years ago had been busted and several of their members killed in police encounters. The source, however, said the remaining members were still in the city and operating individually.
Posted by: Fred || 03/08/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [15 views] Top|| File under:


Europe
Tymoshenko warns of guerrilla war
[THEPENINSULAQATAR] Leading Ukrainian politician Yulia Tymoshenko said there was a danger of guerrilla war in Crimea should it be incorporated into Russia and appealed to Germany and others yesterday for immediate economic sanctions against Moscow.

She said a Russian takeover of the Crimean peninsula would create long-term dangers for the whole region.

Speaking after a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel
...current chancellor of Germany. She was educated in East Germany when is was still run by commies, but in 1989 got involved with the growing democracy movement when the Berlin Wall fell. Merkel is sometimes referred to by Germans as Mom...
, Tymoshenko said international measures against Russia had so far been ineffective and called for immediate action to prevent a "flashpoint".

"As of today, those instruments that have already been applied by the US and the EU didn't produce any tangible effects," she said, summarising her message to Merkel.

"If these instruments do not produce results, there are two options left. To opt for next strongest sanctions, I proposed a set of nonviolent, economic measures." The alternative, she said, was to give Crimea to Russia. "They have to be very convincing for Putin to send the strongest signal that it would not be tolerated."

She also underscored the "serious obligation" of the United States and Britannia to support Ukraine, referring to an earlier agreement with Kiev to surrender nuclear arms in exchange for their pledge to guarantee its territory.

"In terms of international law, there are clearly defined country guarantors, namely the US and the United Kingdom."

Crimea's parliament has voted to secede from Ukraine and join Russia, calling a referendum on the question. The West, Tymoshenko said, should not accommodate such action. "The immediate consequences would be guerrilla warfare," she said, speaking through a translator. "(This)...would be a real flash point in the Black Sea.

"Putin would be allowed to (use) such instruments with a military component in the Crimean case, then where will he stop?"

"He goes as far as he will be allowed to go," said Tymoshenko, who suffers from back problems and sat in a wheelchair throughout the interview.

"Who is next? We never will be able to stabilise the situation in Ukraine and the wider region, if it will be a permanent conflict."

Tymoshenko was strongly at odds with now deposed President Viktor Yanukovich, and was considered a political prisoner by the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
until she was freed from jail hours after he fled the country. She had been imprisoned in 2011 over a gas deal that she signed with Russia.
Posted by: Fred || 03/08/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [17 views] Top|| File under:

#1  She speaks the truth. Pro-Russian population is 60% while pro-Ukraine is 40%. Not 5%, 10%, 30% but almost half of the population.

Too many people who do not want Crimean to be a Russian satellite.
Posted by: Omavising Ebbemp9815 || 03/08/2014 0:32 Comments || Top||

#2  Archduke Ferdinand, is that you calling?
Posted by: OldSpook || 03/08/2014 0:42 Comments || Top||

#3  The exchange of 19th century tactics of Lord Tennyson for the 21st century tactics of Miley Cyrus.

(via wiki)
Crimea 10k square miles
Massachusetts 10.5k square miles
Vermont 9.5k square miles
Posted by: swksvolFF || 03/08/2014 10:29 Comments || Top||

#4  Yulia Tymoshenko said there was a danger of guerrilla war in Crimea should it be incorporated into Russia

Hint hint.
Posted by: gorb || 03/08/2014 19:43 Comments || Top||

#5  Again,
In the face of U.S. opposition, in 1991, Ukraine declared its independence from Moscow, with over 90% public ratification. Predictably, but weeks later the USSR disintegrated, and the U.S. ironically declared victory. The Cold War was “over,” we were told. Upon gaining its independence, Ukraine became the third largest nuclear power in the world but, induced by assurances from Great Britain, the U.S.—and Russia!—concerning its sovereignty and territorial integrity, surrendered its arsenal. This was a phenomenon never to be repeated. Nor are those assurances today honored.

http://www.aim.org/special-report/russias-war-on-ukraine/
Posted by: Creating Brown2157 || 03/08/2014 22:50 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
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1Govt of Iraq

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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.
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Sat 2014-03-08
  Saudi Lists 'Terror' Groups, Orders Foreign Fighters Home
Fri 2014-03-07
  Niger Extradites a Son of Qaddafi to Libya, Saying He Didn't 'Stay Quiet'
Thu 2014-03-06
  Drone Strike Kills 4 Qaida Suspects in Yemen
Wed 2014-03-05
  Israel Seizes Iranian Ship Packed With Advanced Rockets Bound For Palestinian Terrorists In Gaza
Tue 2014-03-04
  Egypt bans Hamas activities in Egypt
Mon 2014-03-03
  A day after Taliban ceasefire: jets bomb Taliban hideout; five killed
Sun 2014-03-02
  Blasts targeting polio team kill 11 in Khyber agency
Sat 2014-03-01
  ISIL Jihadists Retreat from Parts of North Syria after al-Nusra Ultimatum
Fri 2014-02-28
  PTI ends Nato supply blockade
Thu 2014-02-27
  Al Nusra jihadists declare war on ISIS jihadists
Wed 2014-02-26
  Jets pound militant hideouts in Waziristan; 30 killed
Tue 2014-02-25
  Gunmen Kill Senior Pakistan Taliban Commander
Mon 2014-02-24
  Zawahiri's Representative Killed in Syria Suicide Blast
Sun 2014-02-23
  Nine killed as gunships strike militant hideouts in Hangu
Sat 2014-02-22
  Gunmen storm Presidential compound in Mogadishu

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