#1
I would bet good money, that if we gave a bunch of drones to the Shia and the Sunnis, they would use them on each other instead of us.
What do you think?
The 1300 year old interfraticidinal squabble over Ali, et al., holds precedence over a few billion infidels huh?
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
04/09/2013 13:40
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#2
I think what happens is that if they can't kill Jews, Christians, Hindus or Buddhists they will kill each other. That moon god of theirs requires blood and he's not all that picky about whose blood.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/09/2013 14:07
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#11
Three people dead from a 6.3 doesn't say much for Iranian building codes
Casualties resulting from relatively small earthquakes is a long-standing tradition in Iran, especially in the smaller cities and towns. Something they share with Pakistan.
And yes - it's due to a lack of building codes (and no small amount of pay-off if building codes do exist.)
#12
It seems they got the Evil Zionist Earthquake Machine operating after they bought off of Halliburton (why couldn't they of been called HalleyBerry)
#13
in that part of the world (and in other parts as well) a lot of people build stuff on their own using adobe mixed with cement, misc. masonry and whatever sheet metal they can find
Posted by: lord garth ||
04/09/2013 18:14
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Al-Qaeda in Iraq has admitted for the first time that the Syrian militant group, Jabhat al-Nusra, is a part of their network, AFP reported on Tuesday.
The Iraqi group, who have claimed responsibility for the killing of an estimated 4,000 people, confirmed in an audio message posted on Jihadi forums that the Syrian opposition fighters were an offshoot of their network.
Commentators have speculated for many months that the two groups are linked. Nusra, known as the fiercest of the Syrian opposition militias, was recently labelled as a terrorist organization by the U.S.
THE security and intelligence community chiefs that talked about the vigilance that prevented the planned attack of Lagos three weeks ago failed to disclose to the public the magnitude of weapons the criminal masterminds of the terror act had deployed for the failed operation and the main target, The Guardian's inquiries have revealed.
The Guardian Intelligence Unit learned at the weekend from the authorities concerned that apart from the deadly weapons uncovered, the tossed in the calaboose You have the right to remain silent... attackers' main target was the strategic Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos.
According to revelations at the weekend, the attackers surreptitiously conveyed the weapons to Lagos inside some of the numerous fuel tankers that ply major roads to Nigeria's former capital and indeed Nigeria's commercial nerve centre.
The Guardian learnt at the weekend that indeed the Federal and Lagos State authorities were quite startled that the criminal masterminds of the planned terror act could pile up weapons of mass destruction in Lagos, generally considered the safest haven for investment at the moment in Nigeria.
It was learnt that the Lagos State authorities, including the governor, were shown the illegal arms that the security and intelligence community's interagency co-operation confiscated recently. "They were shocked, really shocked when they were shown the level of organizational capacity of the evil ones that planned to attack Lagos...", a top source disclosed last week.
In a related development, security chiefs that briefed the National Assembly top-shots last week about the reality of the planned attack of Lagos reportedly told the federal politicians that indeed the attackers had planned to attack Lagos to cripple the economy. Lagos is the commercial nerve centre of Nigeria. Former Head of State, the late Gen. Murtala Muhammed, had in 1976 recognised the strategic importance of Lagos even while he was announcing the creation of Nigeria's new capital Abuja then.
His words in a national broadcast to the nation on January 3, 1976: "... Lagos will, in the foreseeable future, remain the nation's commercial capital and one of its nerve centres. But in terms of servicing the present infrastructure alone, the committed amount of money and effort required will be such that Lagos State will not be ready to cope.
"It will even be unfair to expect the state to bear this heavy burden on its own. It is therefore necessary for the Federal Government to continue to sustain the substantial investment in the area. The port facilities and other economic activities in the Lagos area have to be expanded.
"There is need in the circumstances for the Federal Government to maintain a special defence and security arrangement in Lagos which will henceforth be designated a special area. These arrangements will be carefully worked out and written into the new constitution. Kaduna and Port Harcourt are to be accorded similar status and
designated as Special Areas..."
The Guardian Intelligence Unit learnt that the security chiefs told the federal politicians and their presiding officers that some of the attackers captured had hinted that the plan of attack on Lagos was deliberate: to cripple the nerve centre of Nigeria's commerce and industry, a city that plays host to the international air and sea ports so that Nigeria's economy could collapse.
It was said that the bully boyz had reasoned that since they had successfully crippled business operations in the North, there should be federal character spread of the destruction, as even the East and South-South geo-political zones too have been negatively affected by the insurgency and kidnapping. The federal politicians were said to have been alarmed by a revelation about the sense of urgency of the bully boyz to hit Lagos "just to make Nigeria ungovernable for the present administration", as it was revealed.
It was not clear at press time whether the Federal Government's planned amnesty programme for Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... bully boyz has been partly influenced by the confirmed incursion to the unofficial commercial capital that makes the money that Abuja spends. It is on record that as critics of Washington DC often say, "New York makes the money that Washington spends", so it is with Lagos that consumes about 60 per cent of the fuel that PPMC/PPPRC imports and the rest of the country shares the remaining 40 per cent.
The Guardian was told that the implications of targeting the very strategic Lagos Third Mainland Bridge have been worrisome to authorities at all levels. This is part of the reasons for the concerns in Abuja and Lagos.
The Third Mainland Bridge is the longest of the three bridges connecting Lagos Island to the mainland. The other two are the Eko and Carter Bridges. It is the longest bridge in Africa. The Third Mainland Bridge is a vital artery of the network of federal highways and commands high patronage in Lagos Municipal Area, as it connects two of the Lagos State's commercial hubs, Victoria Island and Ikeja.
The bridge, which has about 350,000 daily users, is also a vital link to Lekki, Ajah and Epe communities. Midway through the bridge, there is a link to Herbert Macaulay Way, Yaba. The bridge starts really from Oworonsoki, which is linked to the Oshodi--Apapa Expressway and Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, and ends at the Adeniji Adele Interchange on Lagos Island. Built by Julius Berger Nigeria Plc, the bridge was commissioned by former Military President Ibrahim Babangida in 1990 and it measures about 11.8 km in length.
The bridge posts huge economic relevance to the country as it saves commuters who shuttle between two of the Lagos State commercial hubs, Victoria Island and Ikeja, a lot of man-hours. It was said that the last repair of the important bridge cost the nation N1.055 billion.
It is feared that if Lagos Third Mainland Bridge is destroyed, Lagos and indeed Nigeria, are destroyed. It was estimated that the cache of arms seized from the bully boyz about three weeks ago when it was reported that Boko Haram entered Lagos was capable of wreaking havoc on the vital bridge in the heart of Lagos.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/09/2013
00:13 ||
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The latest on Egypt's spiral down into economic melt-down.
[Ahram] Officials hope increases in household electricity prices will take some pressure off national power grid this summer, amid mounting concerns over Egypt's ability to import enough fuel to meet energy needs
Egypt is expected to experience numerous power cuts this summer due to ongoing shortages of fuel, including natural gas and the low-quality diesel fuel mazut.
Over recent weeks, several news reports have claimed that Egyptians might see blackouts twice a day due to a Ministry of Electricity plan to conserve electricity during the hottest months from May to August.
Hoping for a mild summer
Speaking to Ahram Online, Hafez El-Salmawi, head of the Egyptian Electric Utility and Consumer Protection Regulatory Agency, said that the coming summer might not be as bad as expected, and may even be better than last year in terms of electricity service.
He said that Egyptian households might not suffer frequent power outages, as the government had raised household electricity prices to reduce consumption.
"Egyptians will try to save electricity to avoid paying higher bills, especially after prices were raised for the first time since 2008," El-Salmawi said.
Egypt's government has recently moved to reduce subsidies on electricity and natural gas, which account for as much as 5 percent of the country's total LE145 billion subsidy bill.
Prices for consumers increase with consumption, with tariffs on monthly consumption of up to 200 kilowatts per hour increasing by 4.4 percent to LE0.12. Taking into account a previous increase, prices have risen by ten percent since November of last year.
The other two highest consumption categories saw an increase of more than 17 percent each.
El-Salmawi said that electricity consumption during the summer was expected to rise to 29,500 megawatts per day, exacerbated by the hot weather and the Islamic holy month of Ramadan in July. Egypt's daily capacity for generating electricity currently stands at around 27,000 megawatts.
"The national electricity grid will be overloaded by around 2,500 megawatts on rush days and on days that see heat waves, which should be dealt with through household conservation," El-Salmawi stated. "Otherwise, the government will have to cut power during these overloaded days in some areas."
El-Salmawi said that, if every consumer turned off one 40-watt light bulb, for example, about 1,500 megawatts could be saved.
Over the last ten years, electricity consumption has jumped by 29.5 percent, according to official data, with prices largely static until the recent hikes.
Fuel shortage concerns
"There are 220 power units generating electricity nationwide and consuming roughly 90 million cubic metres of fuel," said electricity ministry spokesperson Aktham Abu El-Ela.
Abu El-Ela explained that power stations consume either natural gas or low-quality diesel fuel. With Egypt's current fuel shortage, he added, a number of power plants have seen their supplies disrupted, shrinking their capacity and leading to repeated power failures in some areas.
Egypt is completely dependent on fossil fuels for producing electricity, with a mere ten percent of the country's total generated electricity coming from wind turbines and hydroelectric plants, such as the Aswan High Dam, Naga Hammadi's barrages and the Aswan reservoir.
While the 2,500 megawatts represent an overload on the electricity grid, the power-generating gap is likely to be larger depending on the availability of fuel.
Electricity Minister Ahmed Emam said on Sunday that the country's power-generating gap during the summer would be revealed by the end of the current month, after the amounts of fuel to be supplied by the petroleum ministry are announced.
"The problem is related to the Ministry of Petroleum, which should save fuel quantities for electricity power plants," Abu El-Ela said.
El-Salmaw, for his part, asserted: "The cash-strapped government faces trouble obtaining fuel imports. Also, the Ministry of Petroleum owes foreign oil companies around $6 billion, which have halted a part of the oil supply until the ministry pays up."
Electricity troubles are not new to Egypt, but the problem has been exacerbated in recent years.
Under the former regime, Egypt's government had enough foreign currency liquidity to pay for fuel imports, and it had the trust of suppliers due to its sizable net international reserves (NIR), Mohamed Abu Basha, an economist at Egypt's largest investment bank EFG-Hermes, told Ahram Online.
"The current situation is different; the government faces a vast shortfall in foreign currency, along with its haemorrhaging NIR and political turmoil, so a negative impact on fuel imports is expected," Abu Basha commented.
Around 60 percent of domestic natural gas consumption was allotted to electricity generation, compared to only 56 percent in 2011.
Egypt produced 45.8 million tonnes of natural gas in 2012, a 0.85 percent drop from the previous year's 46.1 million tonnes, the state-run Information and Decision Support Centre (IDSC) has reported. Egypt is signatory to a number of gas-export agreements, and production has not yet reached the levels required to meet domestic consumption needs as well.
In March, Iraq announced plans to sell 4 million barrels of crude oil to Egypt beginning in April.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/09/2013
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#1
Ain't no cure for the summertime blues.....
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/09/2013 0:26
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#2
Officials hope increases in household electricity prices will take some pressure off national power grid this summer
So they are 'fixing' infrastructure problems by making electricity unaffordable. Tune in next week when they fix the food shortages with massive famine.
Someone should give Morsi a copy of SimCity for Christmas so he can practice.
#5
"If nobody can afford electricity, there'll be no shortages. Quota met."
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/09/2013 14:08
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#6
They're seriously trying this in the UK. The higher the price, the lower the demand, the more power plants they can close, which will lower the supply and raise the prices (loop while N < infinity).
[Ynet] French military forces launched a fresh offensive Monday against jihadists in the northern Malian region of Gao who have staged a series of attacks since being ousted from power earlier this year, a French colonel said.
[Ynet] Egypt has suspended tourist flights from Iran until June amid an outcry by ultraconservative Sunni Moslems angered over visitors from the mostly Shiite country. The move comes just over a week after the first flights between the two countries resumed in more than three decades.
Tourist Minister Hesham Zaazoua didn't give a reason for the suspension late on Sunday, according to comments carried by Egypt's state news agency.
A suicide car bombing in Damascus on Monday killed 19 people and injured many others, among them many in serious condition, Syria's state media and activists reported.
The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement that the casualty toll reached 19 dead, including 15 civilians and at least four government troops, while 60 civilians were injured, DPA reported. Syria's state-television put the death toll at 15 dead and 146 wounded, including women and children, in an updated casualty report of the suicide bombing that targeted the area close to Syria's Central Bank between the Sabaa Bahrat square and Shahbander Street.
Television footage showed bodies on the street and medical workers carrying the injured on stretchers to ambulances. Many buildings were damaged and cars were burnt in the explosion near the central bank building.
The state broadcaster denied reports that there were clashes in the area and said roads were closed to pave the way for ambulances.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack, the first since a blast killed 53 people in February.
Syria's Prime Minister Wael al Halqi who toured the blast scene pledged that the Syrian government is standing by its people and accused "the terrorist group Al Nosra Front" of being behind today's bombing.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/09/2013
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[Jpost] Balad chairman Zahalka tells 'Post' Israel has no future in Middle East; says he's "quite sure" third intifada coming.
Zionism is going to come to an end, as it "has no future in the Middle East," Balad chairman Jamal Zahalka said in an interview with The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.
"I am not a Zionist, I am an anti-Zionist," he said.
Israel claims that it is a democratic country and that Arabs have rights and even Knesset members, Zahalka said. But Israeli Arabs are unhappy with this democracy and will continue to demand their rights, he said.
Zahalka sees the conflict as unsolvable as long as Israel exists as a Jewish state. At a recent conference in Canada he exclaimed: "In the long term there is no chance for democracy, peace and freedom without ending the Zionist regime."
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and others have been suggesting to the media that the Paleostinian issue is not the first Middle East issue that needs to be addressed, but rather the rising Islamist trend in the region, the Balad head said.
The Arab Spring, Zahalka told the Post, is drawing attention away from the Paleostinian issue -- "Netanyahu is using it to distract the international community."
Zahalka described his recent trip to Canada to mark Land Day, held every March 30 to commemorate the deaths of six Galilee Arabs in 1976 riots over a government decision to confiscate land. He was the keynote speaker at two events -- one with the local Paleostinian community, which was held in Arabic, and the second in English to a mixed crowd in Toronto.
Paleostinians throughout the diaspora are worried about the situation, he said.
"Give me my land and take your democracy with you," he said addressing Israel, telling the Post this was the theme of one of his speeches he gave in Canada, titled, "Debunking the myth of Israeli democracy."
Zahalka expressed frustration that nothing is happening now -- "no negotiations and no resistance" -- and emphasized that there is a need to act. The real danger is the efforts by Israel to marginalize the Paleostinian issue and normalize the occupation, he said.
A website called Blog Wrath published a partial transcript of Zahalka's speech. The media front man of the Balad party sent the Post a link to the site.
In the speech, Zahalka argued that the Paleostinians are the victims with a simple story, whereas the Jews have a long and complicated story filled with lies.
"If [you] ask Israeli[s] -- it was 3,000 years ago and God was involved there in some way...as a real estate agent, he promised me that and gave me that, things like this. Even secular Israelis, who don't believe in God, still believe in his promise to the people of Israel."
The Israeli narrative is false and impossible to accept, Zahalka argued in his speech: "When I analyze the Israeli story, it's like the onion symbol -- you try to find some truth, you uncover the first layer, then the second layer, seeking for something solid -- nothing -- lie over lie, over lie, over lie. This is the Israeli story. That's why we have to be very suspicious over the Israeli story."
He went on to say that the Israeli project is based on expulsion because without it, a democratic Jewish state would not have been possible since the country originally had an Arab majority.
"And that's the dirty secret of the Israeli democracy -- it's a democracy built on transfer: No transfer, no Israeli democracy."
In an interview with the Toronto Star newspaper at the Paleostinian diaspora event in Mississauga, Ontario, he stated, "I'm quite sure there's going to be a third intifada. I can't say when. But I think one is on the way. The Paleostinian leadership wants it to be peaceful."
Netanyahu's government is "the most pro-settler government ever," Zahalka told the Star. The option of a two-state solution is disappearing as Israeli settlements continue to take Paleostinian land, he told the paper.
A taste of what will turn those jihad-financing, nouveau riche oil sheikhs back into the sheikhs of the burning sands:
[IBD] In spite of the Obama Administration's hostility to carbon-rich energy, private actors with private capital deployed on private (and state) land have launched a game-changing revolution in domestic oil and natural gas production.
A scarcely reported milestone conveys the magnitude of this turnaround in the global energy landscape.
The U.S. passed 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 their national face... as the world's largest petroleum producer in November 2012, according to recently released data of the federal Energy Information Administration.
Over the last five years, domestic oil output has risen 40% and continually outpaces projections. Last year, domestic output increased by 800,000 barrels per day. This is the largest increase in annual production since the first oil well was drilled in 1859 in Pennsylvania.
The U.S. is primed to become the world's dominating energy powerhouse for decades to come unless President B.O. elects to quash this private sector stimulus of enormous proportion.
That domestic production would now surpass that of Saudi Arabia was unthinkable in 2005 when the U.S. imported 60% of crude oil and the gloomy Malthusians declared the irreversible decline of this "finite" resource.
Imports of foreign oil will fall from 60% in 2008 to likely 30% in 2013.
Importing or exporting oil is becoming more a question of geography and price rather than scarcity. But homegrown oil carries advantages. The U.S. typically reaps 10 cents on every dollar of imported oil vs. 80-90 cents on a dollar of domestic oil.
#1
OTOH BHARAT RAKSHAK > GAZPROM CEO: "SHALE GAS" INDUSTRY IS A BUBBLE.
I have lingering doubts myself - goes back to what I've said times before about how our future OWG-NWO concensus as per the issues of GWCC + "Peak Oil/Resources" is that there is no Consensus. BASICALLY ITS IN FREE-FALL UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE - EVERY GOVT, PERT IS CROSSING/TWIDDLING THEIR FINGERS HOPING THAT THEIR MATH IS THE CORRECT ONE, + THAT NOTHING GOES "BOOM" THAT WASN'T SUPPOSED TO.
#3
The U.S. is primed to become the world's dominating energy powerhouse for decades to come unless President B.O. elects to quash this private sector stimulus of enormous proportion.
#4
If it's so cheap and plentiful then why is it still a back-breaking $4.00 a gallon at the pump?
US corporations are not much better to us than the Big Turbans in Soddy.
#8
If it's so cheap and plentiful then why is it still a back-breaking $4.00 a gallon at the pump?
Take that up with Bernanke not the oil companies. When you print a butt load of money [or press the computer keys to 'create' money] without backing or comparative increases in national productivity, then you get money worth a lot less. In 2005 the Treasury could mint a hundred pennies [that's the already debased zinc slug with a copper cladding] for a dollar. Today a dollar buys about 42 pennies in mint production. Commodities generally stay relative to each other outside of gross market speculation. It's the paper thingy used in commercial transactions that fluctuates as your government lies to itself and everyone else that "it's for your own good".
If it's so cheap and plentiful then why is it still a back-breaking $4.00 a gallon at the pump?
Besides inflation, it's still priced at the international market, because if France wants to pay more for the oil than we do, the producers will sell to France.
Also, how many refineries are there? Do you think there's that much competition between them?
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
04/09/2013 10:58
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#10
Besides inflation, it's still priced at the international market, because if France wants to pay more for the oil than we do, the producers will sell to France.
Well, not exactly. There's a significant split between WTI and Brent - looks to be about 10% higher for Brent today. That's down a bit from 2012, but still damn significant, and reflects the difficulties in distributing crude from some of the new midland American oil sources.
Also, how many refineries are there? Do you think there's that much competition between them?
Refineries in Blue State America have been closing at a disturbing clip. Folks are citing their gas prices further up in the thread - mine is $3.55 here in central PA, and that's significantly down from three weeks ago. We've much higher prices here in the MidAtlantic because they've shut down or are shutting down a number of old refineries in the Philly area and aren't replacing them, well that and higher gas taxes. We also don't get much of an electric price relief from all that Marcellus Shale gas we're pumping - Pennsylvania utilities mostly use coal plants.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
04/09/2013 11:42
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#11
If it's so cheap and plentiful then why is it still a back-breaking $4.00 a gallon at the pump?
US corporations are not much better to us than the Big Turbans in Soddy.
Well, there's the fact that you have to ship all the oil from North Dakota to the refineries via rail.
#12
"Imports of foreign oil will fall from 60% in 2008 to likely 30% in 2013."
This is by far the most significant line. My entire life politicians have been promising energy independence. Well, here it is and what is the response? Full out war on fracking by politicians and the Left.
#13
"If it's so cheap and plentiful then why is it still a back-breaking $4.00 a gallon at the pump?"
Federal and state theft taxes. Don't have time to look it up right now, but IIRC the oil companies' profit from a gallon of gas is frighteningly low compared to the taxes on that same gallon.
Posted by: Barbara ||
04/09/2013 12:37
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#14
Equivalent of $9 a gallon in the UK - about 55% on that goes to the treasury in tax- for them to use as incompetently as possible !
The scandalous amount of tax on petrol and diesel is one of the major reasons our economy is remaining stagnant. It effects us all. Directly or indirectly.
#15
That little sticker on every gas pump that states how much tax is on a gallon of gasoline is a scandalous lie.
At each stage of the process of turning crude oil into fuel, the federal government collects a tax. At the pump, the feds collect a percentage as do the states.
The year everyone was bagging on Exxon over their 10 billion in profit, they made approximately 6% profit on sales. The federal government collected 10.75% on the final sale, ergo, the feds made more money from Exxon selling gas than Exxon did.
Finally, the gas prices are artificially inflated by rules regulations taxes etc., the latest gimmick that jacked up prices was a series of regulations on transport of gasoline issued by the EPA, which forced most gasoline distributors to buy new equipment.
AND if all taxes on US gasoline were cancelled, even those on the production and transportation (yes the oil companies pay a fee on gasoline to use their own pipelines) the price of a gallon of gas would be approximately $0.92 per gallon.
Taking the UK as an example with their $6 to $9 dollar gas, if all of their taxes were cancelled gas would cost a brit about $1.00.
Its all about tax revenue.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
04/09/2013 13:30
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#17
I'm thinking this total is with refinery gains. I doubt we've equaled the Sauds in crude production. We might in a few years tho and it will be sweet indeed.
#18
At each stage of the process of turning crude oil into fuel, the federal government collects a tax. At the pump, the feds collect a percentage as do the states.
Note the pump jack and add a few more tax "stages":
1. Tax on the lease income [from the producer to the land owner]. If gov't own land or offshore, ALL the lease money goes to the gov't.
2. Tax on operating expenses, ie; purchase of pump and materials, electricity to run the pump, income tax on the pumper [fellow that looks after the well], pipeline, well servicing, truck transport, tank battery, refinery and employees, wholesale distribution and delivery.
#19
I was raised in the oil business and I can remember my dad complaining about federal taxes on oil etc., as far back as the mid 1950s.
So I can remember gasoline at $0.25 per gallon at the pump. Most of the increases in the cost of gasoline (which by the way due to its being a high volatile, i.e., easy to evaporate from crude, is very easy to refine, it will do it at room temperature) is due to federal rules on refineries, added fees on leases on federal land, additional fees for environmental concerns about pipelines, gimmick fees and regulations on transport vehicles and fees and taxes on everything from drill bits to inspection of valves and fittings on refining units.
If you take the raw $0.92 per gallon and work backwards through the annual inflation rate to 1963, when gas was $0.25 per gallon, you would find that gasoline is actually cheaper now than 1963. Thanks to the crappy monetary policy of the federal government and the lack of a coherent energy policy.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
04/09/2013 19:07
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#20
Errr...I meant to say NO thanks to the crappy monetary policy and lack of a coherent energy policy.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
04/09/2013 19:08
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DOHA Qatar pledged $500 million in aid to Sudans Darfur on Monday at a donors meeting in Doha, even as rebels launched new attacks in the troubled region scarred by a decade of conflict.
Qatar has pledged an amount of $500 million as grants and contributions for rebuilding Darfur, said the countrys Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs, Ahmed bin Abdullah Al Mahmud. In February 2010, Qatar had promised to establish a bank with a capital of one billion dollars to develop Darfur.
Germany also pledged 60 million euros in aid
...better to Darfur than to Cyprus, I guess...
at the conference as other delegates expressed their support for development in Darfur without announcing their contributions.
Britain had on Sunday offered at least £11 million ($16.5 million) for Darfur annually over the next three years to help communities to grow food and to boost skills for employment.
Assuming the remaining rebels and the Janjawed leave everyone alone...
The latest pledges came on the second day of a meeting of representatives of donor countries and aid groups in Doha. The conference aims to endorse a strategy to rebuild Darfur, where the conflict has shocked the world with atrocities against civilians. The meeting, which drew condemnation from rebel groups still fighting the regime, was agreed under a July 2011 peace deal which Khartoum signed in the Qatari capital with an alliance of rebel splinter groups.
It seeks support for the six-year, $7.2-billion strategy to move Darfur away from food handouts and other emergency aid, and lay the foundation for lasting development through improved infrastructure. While the worst of the violence has long passed, rebel-government clashes continue along with kidnappings, carjackings and other crimes.
The African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) on Sunday reported a fresh spate of violence. It said rebels of the Sudan Liberation Armys Minni Minnawi faction attacked and seized the towns of Muhagiriya and Labado, while several possible air strikes were also reported in the area.
The violence prompted thousands of civilians to seek protection around peacekeeping bases.
Rebels had on Saturday said they killed government troops and occupied the areas, about 100 kilometres east of the South Darfur state capital Nyala.
Some 1.4 million people have been displaced by Darfurs decade-long conflict.
Coinciding with the donors meeting, displaced people have staged demonstrations in several camps in Darfur, demanding that security take priority, with some saying they would not return to their villages until peace is restored.
Security before prosperity? What a revolutionary idea...
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/09/2013
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CARACAS -- In one of the most combative and optimistic speeches of his rushed campaign, opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles said internal polling showed him with a growing lead over rival Nicolás Maduro, one week before the crucial vote that will determine the future of the oil-rich nation.
In his final rally in Caracas on Sunday, Capriles told throngs of supporters that the campaign of Maduro, the interim president, was collapsing and that victory was within reach.
We are winning this process, he said. Twenty days ago, people said it would be impossible, but I told the nation that even though we have all the powers against us we have the hopes of millions of people.
Polls taken before campaigning began April 2 showed Maduro with a double-digit lead. And the administration says those numbers are holding up.
Of course they do...
But Capriles, 40, has been drawing large, enthusiastic crowds to his rallies, even in government strongholds.
Sundays event was a key show of strength for his candidacy, and tens of thousands of people paralyzed downtown Caracas, chanting and dancing along with campaign jingles. But Capriles has been here before. In October, when he ran against late-President Hugo Chávez, the size and enthusiasm of his rallies had many hoping he might pull off an upset. Instead, he lost by 11 points.
So Hugo stuffed the ballot box to the tune of a good 20 points, I figure. Wonder if Nick the Mad can do the same...
But on Sunday, his supporters said much has changed since then. During the last few months, while Maduro has been at the helm, the country has seen food shortages, currency devaluations and persistent crime. Many in the crowd said Sundays event was larger than last years.
On the campaign trail, Capriles has accused Maduro and other Chávez insiders of hijacking the government and bending the rules to stay in power. And he compared his mustachioed rival to Satan for trying to divide the country and saying opposition voters would be cursed.
I will do everything to win the trust of all Venezuelans, Capriles said. I dont want anyone in this country when Im president to say they were left out.
Capriles, the governor of Miranda, will continue barnstorming the nation throughout the week and wrap up his campaign Thursday in Barquisimeto, Venezuelas fourth-largest city and an opposition stronghold.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
It's not who votes that counts, it's who counts the votes.
THE HAGUE A UN inspection team is in Cyprus and ready to deploy to nearby Syria to probe the alleged use of chemical weapons in the conflict there, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Monday.
I can announce today that an advance team is now in Cyprus, the final staging point before the mission heads to Syria, Ban said in The Hague. We are ready.
Enjoy the beaches and fleshpots of Nicosia, folks, you aren't getting any closer to Syria...
Ban said at the opening of the third review of the Chemical Weapons Convention at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) that they still needed the Syrian governments go-ahead.
The UN is now in the position to deploy in Syria in less than 24 hours all logistical arrangements will be in place, Ban said after President Bashar Al Assad called on the UN to probe allegations rebels had used chemical weapons.
All we are waiting for is the go-ahead of the Syrian government to determine if any chemical weapons have been deployed, Ban said. We are still in the process of discussing it with the Syrian government.
Who will discuss it and get back to you...next year...
Diplomats said last week that Syria had not yet agreed to give the unfettered access demanded by the United Nations for its chemical weapons probe, despite asking for the UN to investigate its accusation that rebels used chemical weapons in Aleppo province.
Britain and France have demanded that the enquiry also take up opposition claims that the government staged that attack and two other allegations that the government used chemical weapons.
My position is clear all claims will be examined without delays, without conditions and without exception, Ban said, adding that a list of 15 chemical experts of the OPCW had been provided and that the bulk of the team would come from the OPCW.
Ban said that the advance team in Cyprus is very small and that time was of the essence.
The longer it takes the harder it will be, to investigate the claims, he said.
OPCW head Ahmet Uzumcu said the security situation in war-wracked Syria would be an issue for the inspectors.
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[Ahram] Egyptian opinion poll sees record low in presidential job performance approval rating, yet not all citizens know who the opposition is nor who they would want to replace Morsi
Egyptians show increasing dissatisfaction with President Mohamed Morsi, with his approval rating hitting a record low of 47 percent, according to the latest public opinion poll conducted by The Egyptian Centre for Public Opinion Research (Baseera).
This approval rating is even lower than the approval at the end of Morsi's first eight months in office, which was 49 percent and way behind the 78 percent approval he earned after the first 100 days.
Baseera not only polls citizens on approval, but also on disapproval.
In this one - nine months after Morsi was sworn into office - the percentage of those who disapprove of his performance rose to 45 percent, compared to 43 percent at the end of his first eight months in office, and shot up after only 15 percent disapproved of Morsi after his first 100 days in presidency.
The poll, which was conducted in late March, shows that Morsi's job approval rate declines significantly among respondents with a university degree or post-graduate degree, of whom 39 percent see his performance as positive, compared to 51 percent among respondents with a secondary (high school) degree or less.
Only 37 percent of respondents who would vote for Morsi if presidential elections were to be held tomorrow are down from a significant 58 percent after the first 100 days. Two-thirds of respondents were unable to name an alternative, however.
Eight percent of the respondents favoured Ahmed Shafiq, the former presidential candidate and the ousted president's last prime minister, while only 3 percent said that they favoured a military man, whether it be Defence Minister General Abdel Fattah El-Sisi or any other. All other popular figures received less support in the poll.
On Egyptian's political awareness
A third of those polled never heard of the National Salvation Front (NSF), the country's main opposition coalition, according to the poll.
This percentage was almost the same in last month's opinion poll and from among those only 30 percent said they support it, compared to 35 percent in last month's poll.
Forty-nine percent said they perceived the NSF performance negatively, compared to 42 percent last month.
Furthermore, 39 percent of Egyptians never heard of the appeal court's decision on 27 March to reinstate Abdel Meguid Mahmoud, the prosecutor-general that was edged out by a unilateral constitutional decree on the part of Islamist President Morsi.
The decision also annulled the appointment by Morsi of current Prosecutor-General Talaat Abdullah. Forty-one percent of respondents see that the best solution is for the Supreme Judicial Council, Egypt's highest judicial authority, to nominate three candidates for Morsi to choose from for the prosecutor-general position, as the constitution dictates.
Eighteen percent, however, see that the solution is to enable Mahmoud to return to his post. Only 14 percent favour the current chief prosecutor to stay put in his post. The remaining respondents couldn't come up with a solution for the problem.
The poll was conducted through telephone interviews among 2,202 respondents ages 18+ on 27 and 28 March 2013. The response rate was approximately 73 percent and error margin below 3 percent. Income brackets were determined based on ownership of durable goods.
That is to say, the interviewer looked around to see what kind of stuff the subject had on display.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/09/2013
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#1
Yet another thing they share in common, Morsi and Champ.
A Syrian human rights group says nearly 9,000 government troops have been killed in two years of fighting between President Bashar Assads forces and rebels trying to topple him. The Syria-based Violations Documentation Center has been keeping track of the dead, wounded and missing since the start the uprising against Assads rule. It said on Monday 8,785 Syrian troops have died in the fighting.
The rare report on the regimes death toll was compiled from government and opposition sources.
At the start of the revolt, authorities published names of the fallen troops daily. As the uprising turned more violent and eventually became a civil war, reports of casualties on government side vanished from the public domain.
Germans did the same thing in WWII...
More than 70,000 people have died since Syrias crisis erupted in March 2011.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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Quite unlike that Monty Python parrot, pining for the fjords.
[Ynet] Al-Qaeda in Yemen has posted a statement on terrorist websites saying that its second-most senior commander has not been killed. It's the second time the group has denied Saeed al-Shihri's death.
The Saudi national, who fought in Afghanistan and spent six years in the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, is "alive and in good health," according to a senior al-Qaeda holy man in Yemen and the group's media arm, al-Malahem.
#1
NOKOR's current ability to deter or forestall a de facto Chinese takeover for ANY REASON may be much weaker or precarious than the US-West/Allies think - NOKOR MAY NOT BE ABLE ANYMORE TO WAIT MANY YEARS OR DECADES. Moreover, it is happening at a time when overlord mainland China = CPC, PRC is more interested in FORCIBLY resolving the issue of strategic access for the PLA into WESTPAC + SOPAC vee the "First Island Chain" than continue wid ineffective Regional Diplomacy.
IOW ...
> NOKOR = wants Reunification wid SOKOR N-O-W, NOT YEARS OR DECADES FROM NOW.
> Ditto "MAHANIST" MAINLAND CHINA = wants TAIWAN N-O-W! Beijing wants to see concrete, substantive steps towards formal PRC-ROC Reunification, NOT LONGER ANYMORE BENIGN OR MINOR SUJECTIVE STEPS.
CHINA SEES MAJOR US MILBASES NEAR CHINA'S SHORES -IT DOES NOT SEE ANY MAJOR CHINESE MILBASES NEAR CONUS' SHORES, NOR EVEN IN MID-PACIFIC/CENTPAC.
> CHINA SEES US ALLIES, I.E. ASEAN = "FIRST ISLAND CHAIN", + ESPEC HISTORIC RIVAL JAPAN DESIRING TO HAVE NUCWEAPS, + SETTING UP GMD-TMD WID THE US.
> VIETNAM HAD INVITED MANY MAJOR POWERS INCLUD VIETNAM WAR NEMESIS US TO SET UP AT CAM RANH BAY + OTHER - VIETNAM, HOWEVER, DID NOT INVITE VIETNAM WAR ALLY CHINA.
The above is the difference from several years ago for both the DPRK + Mainland China.
Lest we fergit, MSM-NET > PRC Govt-Military Officials have called on Beijing to change its historical "soft power/diplomacy" approach to one that is more MilPol or Geopol "aggressive".
* TOPIX > [SCMP] US CAN INTERCEPT NORTH KOREAN MISSLE, BUT MAY OPT NOT TO.
WTF???
My Bad Vibe meter just went up - again.
ADM. LOCKLEAR = stated or denoted that the DPRK's LRBMS as known are a threat to GUAM, BUT NOT HAWAII OR CONUS. Just because Hawaii is a de facto US State, NOT a Territory like Guam, etal. is a reason that US Citizens-Residents on Guam are more expendable than those in Hawaii + CONUS???
Just because DPRK's missle is mostly untested + more likely to blow-up on the launch pad as land in the WESTPAC Sea somewhere between the Koreas + Guam is a reason to NOT shot it down iff fired at Guam???
I can understand PACOM Chief ADM. Locklear's desire to be PCorrect + not say anything that may worsen the situation, BUT THERE ARE TIMES WHEN ONE HAS TO PUT THEIR FOOT DOWN + NOT CARE IFF THE ENEMY'S FEELINGS GET HURT.
ALL THINGS HAVE THEIR PLACE - THERES A TIME FOR PCORRECTNESS + A TIME FOR GUMPTION, + THIS IS NO TIME FOR CORRECTNESS.
China gets to say times overtly that they wanna take over from the US while the US has to delude itself + pretend China is foolin'???
HOW IS DIFFERENT THAN THE US-WEST = JUDEOCHRISTIANS HAVING TO VALIDATE HARDLINE SHARIA + ISLAM FOR THE MUSLIMS BECAUSE WE DON'T WANT TO HURT THEIR FEELINGS???
THE WARNING FROM MY ANCESTORS = GUAM TAOTAMONAS DECADES AGO IN THE 1960S + 1970'S, I.E. THAT AS THE US PULLS BACK ACROSS THE PACIFIC IT MAY DESTROY = SINK GUAM + OTHER STRATEGIC ISLANDS WID UNDERGROUND/BURIED NUCWEAPS OR NUCBOMBS TO DENY USAGE TO ENEMIES, MAY YET PROVE TRUE.
Vietnam war + Cold War-era "stategic denial" = "A2/Area-Denial" [Anti-Access/Area-Denial] in 2013 + post-Cold war, post-9-11 era of GWCC + OWG-NWO.
WELCOME TO "GLOBALISM".
Personally I blame MADONNA + JAMES-BOND-007-VS-NORTH-KOREA.
* ION TOPIX > JAPAN FOREIGN MINISTRY: ASIA-PACIFIC SECURITY SITUATION GETTING TOO SEVERE.
* FREEREPUBLIC > [Yahoo News] IS THE US TRYING TO DE-ESCALATE A NORTH KOREAN STANDOFF? (USN Warships may not sail, Missle Tests postponed...)
* Also from FREEREPUBLIC > [Jet Careers] REDUCED FLYING HOURS FORCES GROUNDING OFF 17 USAF COMBAT AIR SQUADRONS.
versus
* CHINA DAILY FORUM > US "REBALANCE" NOT AFFECTED BY [sequester-led] BUDGET CUTS.
The proof will be the US response iff-n-when a Sino-Nippon Shooting war over the disputed Senkakus/Diaoyus in ECS breaks out, andor iff the DPRK makes good on its threats.
* CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > [Itar-Tass = KBS.co.kor] KIM JONG-UN WANTS PHONE CALL FROM OBAMA - REPORT, to discuss tensions on the Korean Peninsula as per the curren Crisis.
GHAZNI: A roadside bomb exploded under an Afghan bus southwest of Kabul on Monday, killing nine people and wounding at least 22 others in an attack blamed on Taliban militants, officials said.
Today at around 8:00 am an IED (improvised explosive device) hit a bus, Attaullah Khogyani, the governors spokesman in Wardak province, told AFP. At least 22 people are wounded and nine others, including a woman, are dead.
Khogyani said the Taliban, who have been fighting for 11 years against the US-backed Kabul government, were behind the attack.
The bus was a government service making daily trips between the capital Kabul and Ghazni, the neighbouring province further to the southwest. I helped evacuate several dead and wounded. There were lots of people in the bus. Only a few survived unhurt, others were killed and wounded, witness Mohammad Sarwar told AFP by telephone.
Ghulam Farouq Wardak, the public health director of the province, confirmed that nine people had died and said there were three children among the wounded. Several of those taken for medical treatment were described as in a critical condition.
Wardak is a Taliban hotbed close to Kabul and seen as a key strategic battleground in the fight against the Islamist extremists.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/09/2013
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1. Why was there no military response to the events in Benghazi?
a. Were military assets in the region available? If not, why not?
b. If so, were they alerted?
c. Were assets deployed to any location in preparation for a rescue or recovery attempt?
d. Was military assistance requested by the Department of State? If so, what type?
e. Were any US Army/Naval/USMC assets available to support the US diplomats in Benghazi during the attack?
f. What, if any, recommendations for military action were made by DOD and the US Africa Command?
2. What, if any, non-military assistance was provided during the attack?
3. How many US personnel were injured in Benghazi?
4. Why have the survivors of the attack not been questioned?
5. Where are the survivors?
6. Who was in the White House Situation Room (WHSR) during the entire 8-hour period of the attacks, and was a senior US military officer present?
7. Where were Leon Panetta and General Martin Dempsey during the crisis, and what inputs and recommendations did they make?
8. Where were Tom Donilon, the National Security Advisor, Denis McDonough, his deputy, Valerie Jarrett and John Brennan during the attacks, and what (if any) recommendations or decisions did any of them make?
9. Why were F-16 fighter aircraft based in Aviano, Italy (less than two hours away) never considered a viable option for disruption (if not dispersal) of the attackers until boots on the ground (troop supportGeneral Dempseys words) arrived?
10. Were any strike aircraft (such as an AC-130 gunship) in the area or possibly overhead that would cause former SEAL Tyrone Woods to laser-designate his attackers position and call for gunship fire support, thereby revealing his own location that led to his death?
11. Who gave the order to STAND DOWN that was heard repeatedly during the attacks?
12. What threat warnings existed before the attack, and what were the DOD and DOS responses to those warnings? What data (which will reveal exact timelines and command decisions) is contained within the various SITREPS, records, logs, videos and recordings maintained by the myriad of DOD, Intelligence Community and State Department Command Centers that were monitoring the events in Benghazi as they unfolded?
13. Why did the Commander-in Chief and Secretary of State never once check in during the night to find out the status of the crisis situation in Benghazi?
14. What was the nature of Ambassador Stevens business in Benghazi at the time of the attack?
15. What guidance has been provided to survivors and family members since the time of the attack, and who issued that guidance?
16. Why are so many agencies now requiring their personnel that were involved in or have access to information regarding the events that took place in Benghazi sign Non-Disclosure Agreements?
#2
I suspect most of the readership could answer nearly each of these questions and handily achieve a 75-85 percent degree of accuracy. Interestingly, the petitioners are no less savvy concerning the answers [note the pointed framing and specifics], and simply desire the Congress force the administration to come finally come clean and fok'ing tell the truth !
#4
A liberal friend's comment to my posting of the Benghazi questions:
"What I would like to know is why can't we move to something important? Every administration has lost diplomats in the foreign service to terrorists... and in some cases we have lost more people. Here is a list, 44 times in 52 years. Why must we harp on one. or is this another diversionary tactic so we don't pay attention to more important matters?"
My reply:
"Quite possibly a diversionary tactic - but is the diversion the continued asking of the questions or the continued refusal to answer? Were the questions legitimate, and if so, why would they not continue to be? Have lessons been learned - unless there were people held accountable and penalties administered, I would doubt a bureaucracy could learn. Could this tragedy have been less if lessons had been learned in some of the other 43 attacks? Could future tragedies be lessened if we learn lessons from Benghazi? It's quite possible there are good reasons for what was done (and for keeping quiet - CIA and all that) - but if it's just to avoid embarassment, I find it unacceptable - and that is entirely independent of any politics."
#5
An added possibility. Forget the Champ, the truth about Benghazi is unlikely to put Clinton or the dems in a good light for her upcoming, presidential campaign. Save Clinton, they appear to have no other viable candidate.
#7
A very sad truth to that statement Glen. Four years is also a long way off. Who knew someone like our odious Champ would pop to the surface in 2004 ?
#8
Democrats = Creating gun free zones a.k.a. kill boxes for suicidal mad men every where. A perfect example that even after defenseless innocent children are massacred, people that should be conerned (the children's parents) sometimes never learn. Period.
Life would be easier for Mursi if the dhimmis just knew their place...
CAIRO A second Egyptian died on Monday of wounds sustained in clashes at Cairos Coptic cathedral the previous day in an outbreak of sectarian violence that the government and Muslim and Christian leaders sought to calm.
A security source said a 21-year-old Muslim man, named only as Mohamed, died of a fractured skull in hospital after fighting between local Muslims and Copts who had been attending a funeral for four Christians shot dead in a town near Cairo on Friday.
The health ministry said at least 90 people, including 11 policemen, were wounded around the cathedral in one of the worst sectarian flare-ups since the fall of autocratic president Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
Prime Minister Hisham Kandil said the government was taking all measures to protect the safety of Egyptians of all faiths, promising to bring to justice the perpetrators of sectarian attacks and to crack down on unlicenced weapons. He also spoke to the heads of the Coptic church and of the Al Azhar institution to discuss ways to resolve the crisis and prevent any repetition, a cabinet statement said.
Muslim and Christian religious leaders appeared together on late-night television to call for calm and national unity after the clashes around St. Marks Cathedral, headquarters of the Coptic church, which raged for several hours on Sunday.
Muslims pelted Christians sheltering in the church compound with petrol bombs and rocks after angry young Copts leaving the funeral service chanted slogans against President Mohammed Mursi and his Muslim Brotherhood movement.
Witnesses accused the police of standing by as the Copts were attacked and of firing teargas at mourners in the compound as they emerged from the cathedral under a hail of rocks. But a statement posted on the Interior Ministrys website on Sunday evening blamed Christians for starting the violence by vandalising several cars.
As the procession passed Ramses Street, some of the mourners destroyed a number of cars which led to clashes and tensions with the areas residents and (we) are currently intervening to separate the groups, it said.
Mursi telephoned Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II on Sunday evening to condemn the violence, telling him that any attack on the cathedral is like an attack on me personally, the state news agency Mena reported. Mursi ordered an investigation and sent his interior minister to the scene.
Debris-strewn streets around the cathedral were quiet on Monday morning with riot police blocking access. The wreckage of at least two burned-out cars and a carpet of bricks and stones littered the street that had been the main battlefield until late on Sunday evening.
The Muslim Brotherhoods spiritual leader, Mohamed Badie, said in a statement on the movements website that the attack on Christians in the town of El Khusus was alien to all Egyptians. He blamed the violence not on Muslim radicals but on unnamed forces seeking to divide Egypt.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/09/2013
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#1
Good luck getting people to ease up on the violence. It's what crappy third-world dictatorships use to keep people calm.
[AnNahar] Scuffles broke out between police and demonstrators outside a prison complex in Turkey Monday where nearly 10,000 people protested the mass trial of 275 people accused of scheming to topple the elected Turkish government.
An Agence La Belle France Presse photographer saw protesters trying to breach the security barricade outside the compound in Silivri, a suburb on the outskirts of Istanbul.
The protest was called by opposition groups and political parties as an Istanbul court prepares to hear the closing arguments in the four-year-long trial of the defendants who stand accused of having ties to an ultranationalist "terrorist network" known as Ergenekon.
A vast array of top military figures, lawyers, academics and journalists are accused of instigating an uprising against the Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, in power since 2002.
If convicted, they face sentences ranging from seven and a half years in prison to life.
Prosecutors last month sought life jail terms for the 64 top suspects, who include former army chief Ilker Basbug and nine other active and former generals, accused of "attempting to overthrow the Turkish government by force".
A final verdict is not expected before a few weeks.
The trial is one of several cases brought by the AKP against the once omnipotent army which has been responsible for four coups in half a century.
In a separate case last year, dubbed the "Sledgehammer" trial after a military exercise, Turkey tossed in the slammer Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! three former generals for 20 years each and handed prison terms to dozens of officers.
[IsraelTimes] At least 11 Hezbollah fighters and five Iranians were killed in Syria as fighting intensified between the Lebanese Shiite organization and fighters of the Free Syrian army along the border over the past two days, local media sources reported on Monday.
According to Lebanese opposition daily Al-Mustaqbal ... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri... , the bodies of 11 Hezbollah fighters and "a large number of maimed" were brought to a hospital in the Dahieh neighborhood of south Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, after two days of fighting in the Damascus ...The place where Pencilneck hangs his brass hat... region near the Shiite shrine of Sayida Sakinah.
Hezbollah publicly supports the government of Bashir al-Assad in Syria, but has never admitted to sending forces to aid the regime's military effort. Hezbollah men killed in action have been buried in secret in their villages across Leb over the past year.
"For a while now, Hezbollah has not hesitated to send its operatives to fight in Syria under the banner of 'the religious duty of jihad.' They come back as bodies, and the number of funerals in Leb increases day by day as the party becomes more involved in fighting for Bashir al-Assad. It can no longer hide its dead and maimed from Lebanese public opinion."
Al-Mustaqbal reported that one of the Hezbollah casualties, 21-year-old Hamza Ibrahim Ghamloush, was scheduled to be buried Monday afternoon in Beirut.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Council of Boskone, Helmuth ordered the space pirate fleet to attack Zemblonia... the Free Syrian Army at the border city of Qusayr announced the shelling of Jousya, a Syrian village which Hezbollah reportedly infiltrated and took over, Saudi-owned daily A-Sharq Al-Awsat reported. The FSA also claimed that Hezbollah was shelling Qusayr from the mountainous Hermel region, within Lebanese territory.
According to the FSA communique, Iranians belonging to the Revolutionary Guard are overseeing the operation from the ground. Five Iranians and nine Hezbollah fighters were killed in an FSA ambush near Qusayr on Sunday night, Al-Mustaqbal reported.
It's just the kind of smart thing we can expect from The Smartest Man In The Room.
President Barack Obama cleared the way Monday for the U.S. to arm and train Somali forces, taking a step toward normal relations with the East African nation as it works to build confidence in its newly recognized government.
In a memo to Secretary of State John Kerry, Obama said he has determined that supplying defence equipment and services to "will strengthen the security of the United States and promote world peace."
The move doesn't immediately provide new assistance to Somalia, but allows Kerry to consider taking that step in the future.
"The United States is committed to being a long-term partner in assisting the defence forces in Somalia defence to become a professional military force," said National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden.
Obama's decision was not tied to any new threat assessment in Somalia, said a senior administration official. The move follows a decision by the U.N. Security Council in March to partially suspend the arms embargo on Somalia for 12 months, after Somali officials appealed to the U.N. to suspend the embargo. The council preserved a ban on exports of a list of heavy military hardware, including surface-to-air missiles, anti-tank guided weapons and night-vision weapons.
The U.S. government has provided funds and training to African Union forces fighting al-Shabab in Somalia, and has also provided more than $133-million to Somalia since 2007 in security sector assistance, intended to help the country build up and professionalize its security forces.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
WTF? Just as soon as the idiots finally seem to get it figured out, it seems they get replaced with a while new crop of idiots every time. This will never end, will it?
#2
In a memo to Secretary of State John Kerry, Obama said he has determined that supplying defence equipment and services to will strengthen the security of the United States and promote world peace.
Yes of course, worked so well in the past. Arm and train the Kaffirs, they'll only use the weapons for defensive purposes, you'll see.
#6
"Only if he's the only man in the room, and then I'm still not so sure..."
Depends - is it the room with the cat box?
(If so, then he's the third smartest in the room - right behind the cat and the cat box.)
Posted by: Barbara ||
04/09/2013 12:40
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#7
... and any of the cat's "productions" that have not yet been scooped.
Posted by: abu do you love ||
04/09/2013 14:39
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#8
Brilliant. Somalia is a country of several square blocks in Mogadishu, with every other part of the "country" contested and governed by shifting groups of triabl warloards and jihadi groups. Arming the "government" will only give the other factions better weapons and make more rich Somali thieves headed for Geneva, San Diego and London. This administration couldn't buy a clue with Putin's entire gold supply.
Serbia rejected a European Union-brokered deal for reconciliation with its former province of Kosovo on Monday a defiant move that could jeopardise its EU membership aspirations and fuel tensions in the Balkans. The EU had given Serbia until Tuesday to say whether it would relinquish its effective control over the northern region in exchange for the start of EU membership negotiations.
Serbs might want to rethink being in the EU. Definitely want to rethink joining the Euro...
Even before the government rejection, Aleksandar Vucic, the deputy prime minister and Serbia's most powerful governing party leader, said the plan was unacceptable because it did not give more autonomy to minority ethnic Serbs in Kosovo who, together with Serbia, reject Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence.
"The Serbian government cannot accept the proposed principles ... because they do not guarantee full security, survival and protection of human rights for the Serbs in Kosovo," said Ivica Dacic, the prime minister. "Such an agreement could not be implemented and would not lead to a lasting and sustainable solution."
Catherine Ashton, the EU's top diplomat, said after the eighth round of talks
...rousting herself from her daytime job of food and drink...
between Serbian and Kosovan officials last week in Brussels that she wanted a response from both sides and that the bloc's mediation was over. Despite warnings that there will be no more EU-sponsored negotiations under Ashton's mediation, Vucic and the government called for more talks with rival ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
Russia has a convoy of humanitarian aid stuck at the border. I read somewhere yesterday we are sending money as well and other assistance.
It's a journey that John Kerry will come to know well. The plane descends either from the west, over the glittering Mediterranean sea and the bauhaus architecture of Tel Aviv, or from the east, across the stark biblical landscape of the West Bank. From there it's uphill literally and, perhaps, metaphorically to west Jerusalem, the seat of the Israeli government, and to Ramallah, the home of the Palestinian Authority.
The US secretary of state is expected to make this journey many times in the coming months of grinding shuttle diplomacy between the two sides of the 65-year-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He will need stamina, patience, resourcefulness, determination; a strong sense of history, a clear grasp of the present, and a vision of the future; plus an instinct for when to tread delicately and when to diplomatically bang heads.
Kerry is in the Holy Land this week, for the third time in less than a month, as part of a drive by the second-term Obama administration to get the so-called peace process back on track after the miscalculations and setbacks of Barack Obama's first term. Amid carefully lowered expectations, Kerry will strive to bridge the gaps between the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, that have caused a two-and-a-half-year impasse. But a long history of failed efforts and aborted talks cannot be far from his mind.
Obama's charm offensive on Israel last month went down well. During his three-day visit he showed warmth towards "my friend Bibi", repeatedly using Netanyahu's nickname, in contrast to earlier chilly encounters, and paid tribute to the history and achievements of the Jewish state.
And lost ground with everyone, especially the Israelis...
He made an impassioned appeal for peace, delivered over the heads of government to the people of Israel. Look through Palestinian eyes, he said, recognise that peace is in Israel's interests, face the hard choices and take the necessary risks.
The president was received with markedly less warmth in Ramallah, where the Palestinians feel betrayed by the past four years and deeply cynical about the future.
The Paleos really, really know betrayal. They're specialists at it so they recognize an expert when they see one...
Despite focusing on settlements early in his first term, Obama barely mentioned Israel's continuing colonisation project, which many diplomats say is close to eliminating the possibility of the Palestinians ever creating a viable state. There was little acknowledgement of the Palestinians' painful history and bleak lives under occupation.
Obama left the Holy Land with his stock higher than ever among Israelis,
...no, but let him think that for now...
but even lower among Palestinians. It's now down to Kerry to try to move forward.
Kerry's efforts to bring the two sides together will focus initially on measures to instil confidence in their stated commitment to negotiations.
Israel may be asked to release more than 120 Palestinian political prisoners who have been in jail since before the 1993 Oslo accords. The Palestinians would also like a settlement construction freeze. Israel's formal position is that this is a non-starter, but it may avoid announcing new building projects in the next two or three months in an unstated gesture.
The Palestinians have said they will refrain from pressing ahead with taking Israel to the international criminal court a key Israeli concern for up to 12 weeks. But they also want to see a proposed map with defined borders at the start of any talks.
Whereas the Israelis think the map comes at the end, after the Paleos agree that Israel has a right to be on the map...
Kerry is believed to be keen to dust off the 11-year-old Arab (or Saudi) peace plan, under which regional states would normalise relations with Israel in return for the establishment of a Palestinian state. And he is likely to ask Turkey to play an active role in any revived process.
It all seems reasonably promising on paper, but the reality on the ground looks rather different.
The new Israeli government, sworn in two days before Obama's visit, is a rightwing pro-settler coalition. One of its key partners, the Jewish Home party led by Naftali Bennett, is vehemently opposed to a two-state solution. Netanyahu also has a long track record of saying he wants peace talks while pursuing a colonialist policy in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
On the Palestinian side, frustration is growing at the lack of a political horizon and the continued suffocated existence under occupation. Cynicism about the "peace process" abounds, faith in Abbas is plummeting and the mood among young men in villages and refugee camps is growing more radical. Talk of a new Palestinian intifada (uprising) is common both on the street and in Israeli military-intelligence circles.
In Gaza, perhaps the most complicated and least discussed aspect of any peace talks, rocket fire has resumed on a limited scale over recent weeks. Another conflict like those in 2008-9 and 2012 would likely derail Kerry's ambitions.
Kerry will also focus on Iran's nuclear programme, as well as the worsening situation in Syria and its knock-on effect in Lebanon. The secretary of state will have his hands full. "It's too early to be optimistic," said a western diplomat.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/09/2013
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#1
Total waste of Jet-A.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/09/2013 0:25
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#2
Ours? Theirs? Bowf a dem?
Posted by: Bangkok Billy ||
04/09/2013 6:47
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#3
Foggy bottom is boring, full of unenlightened gov't employees and office politics. Fancy dinners, sending back cables which Champ never reads. Hey, wat's not to like? This job be easy. Oh well, "anywhere for per diem" as they say. It worked for the Hildebeast.
#6
The most tragic part of this is that he actualy thinks he is capable of doing something. It is a fitting display of American decline under the Progressive Administration of Champ into theater of the absurd that this assh^le is viewed by the world as a clown with cash, an utter fool, but capable of giving goodies if you tell him the right lies.
[Jpost] The United States and its allies will stage a naval exercise in the Gulf in May to practice mine-sweeping and escorting ships, the US Navy said on Monday, a maneuver likely to be seen in the region as guarding against a potential threat from Iran.
Representatives from more than 30 nations will gather in Bahrain for the International Mine Countermeasures Exercise (IMCMEX) 13 from May 6-30, eight months after they staged a previous edition of the exercises at a time when Israel and Iran were trading threats of war.
In addition to mine-sweeping and flying drones, this year's event will include escorting ships and protecting offshore terminals that oil and gas exporters in the Gulf rely on.
British government warns terrorists in final stages of planning attacks in Mogadishu, following statement by Foreign Office. Terrorists are in the final stages of planning attacks in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, the British government has warned.
Concerns about a possible attack were highlighted in a statement issued by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), which already advises against all travel to Somalia. The Foreign Office's website states that attacks in and around Mogadishu continue to be carried out by al-Shabaab, a terrorist group, and others opposed to the Somali government.
Attacks in the past have targeted government institutions, hotels, restaurants and public transport, including the international airport.
An FCO spokesperson said: "We have amended our travel advice for Somalia. Our advice makes clear that there continues to be a high threat from terrorism and that the FCO believes that terrorists are in the final stages of planning attacks in Mogadishu. We advise against all travel to all parts of Somalia."
"The safety of British nationals abroad is a major concern for the FCO. We therefore attach great importance to providing information about personal safety and security overseas, including an assessment of the level of threat from terrorism, to enable people to make informed decisions about travel."
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/09/2013
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Iran will launch its own communications satellite into space in 5 years, head of country's Space Agency, Hamid Fazeli said, IRIB News reported. Fazeli said that previously Iran already had a similar project named "Qaem", which never took off the ground.
"We have reconsidered this idea, and made some design and construction modifications," Fazeli said, adding that the new Iranian communications satellite will be lighter than Qaem was initially planned to be.
The satellite, which will weigh 250 kilograms, will be sent into a geostationary orbit using a domestically manufactured launcher to transmit radio and television broadcasts and provide telecommunications and internet services, Fazeli said.
Iran plans to use its own satellite to translate local channels, as formerly it was doing so through other broadcasting satellites, as Eutelsat SA and Intelsat SA. Eutelsat SA and Intelsat SA stopped the broadcast of several Iranian satellite channels last year, citing pressure by the European Union.
Also, the Hong Kong-based Asia Satellite Telecommunications Co. Ltd. (AsiaSat) also took all Iranian channels off air in East Asia. Several months ago, other international communication satellites also took down Iranian channels due to various reasons.
Iran launched its first satellite, called the Omid (Hope), in February 2009. The Rasad (Observation) satellite was also sent into orbit in June 2011. In February, 2012, Iran successfully put its third domestically manufactured satellite, named the Navid (Promise), into orbit. On February 8, 2012, Iran received the first image sent by the Navid satellite.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/09/2013
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Every time North Korea threatens a nuclear strike, Ge Weihan receives a frantic call from his mother. Although the 34-year-old filmmaker moved to Beijing years ago, his parents still live in a small Chinese village less than 25 miles (40km) from the insular nation.
"If a war ever actually breaks out, I'm very nervous about what it would do to my hometown," Ge said. "It's hard living right next to a country that seems willing to do anything."
Residents of Ge's home village in mountainous Kuandian county have become accustomed to an influx of Chinese troops every time tensions flare on the Korean peninsula just in case things spin out of control. Yet this time the soldiers are so numerous, and media reports so shrill, that even the most hardened villagers are nervous.
It's no accident that China is the North Korea's most important ally, economic lifeline and primary source of humanitarian aid a political meltdown in the country could send an unsustainable flood of refugees into border areas such as Kuandian and push a US-friendly unified Korea right up to China's doorstep.
Yet the vast majority of Chinese people consider North Korea just as strange and frightening as western observers. "It's just awkward," said Ge, who has lived among North Korean refugees. "It's an extremely awkward situation for the government, and that makes common people feel awkward as well."
Beijing rarely deviates in its response to North Korean tempers. Officials express concern or "serious concern" as of Wednesday and request that the international community "remain calm" and "exercise restraint".
Chinese news outlets have given North Korean declarations of war slightly less airtime than their western counterparts. China's official newswire Xinhua published a dispatch from a Pyongyang-based correspondent on Thursday about how life in the city is business as usual. According to the report, 100,000 Pyongyong residents are preparing for North Korea's most important national holiday Kim Il-sung's birthday, on 15 April by planting trees throughout the city.
Prices in Pyongyang's "foreigner" supermarkets are stable, according to the report; schoolchildren are just beginning a new term. The city hosted an athletic competition on Thursday amid radio broadcasts warning residents to remain alert for provocative actions by American imperialists and their South Korean puppets.
Despite the state-sanctioned front of tranquillity, China's social media sites betray a widespread mix of curiosity, confusion, and unease. Some users on the popular microblogging site Sina Weibo wondered if this had all been an elaborate joke. "Actually lets hope that Kim does start a war that he uses self-destruction to save the Korean people," said one user in a widely forwarded post.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/09/2013
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#1
Well, apparently many border Chinese are in agreement wid Jong-un's Net sobriquet Of "Pudgy".
DHAKA: After the observance of a daylong hartal by Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh throughout the country, the BNP led 18-party opposition alliance is going to enforce another spate of hartal for 36-hour shutdown since 6:00am on Tuesday demanding unconditional release of their leaders.
This will work about as well as the last one...
The non-stop hartal on Tuesday and Wednesday was also called demanding the withdrawal of all false cases filed against alliance leaders, holding of the next general election under a non-party caretaker government (CG) and protesting the government indulged ongoing genocide and for immediate step-down of the government to protect the country and its people.
BNP join secretary general Salahuddin Ahmed announced the non-stop hartal programme shortly after eight top leaders of BNP including its acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir were sent to jail on Sunday.
Senior leaders of 18-party alliance including BNP standing committee member Dr Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain and acting secretary general of Jamaat-e-Islami Rafiqul Islam Khan on Monday called upon the leaders and activists of their respective parties as well as the alliance to make the hartal a success.
The government has taken strong security measures to maintain law and order and foil any possible sabotage during the tow-day long hartal.
As part of the security measures, Border Guard of Bangladesh was deployed in the Dhaka and different districts in the country. Besides, additional law enforcers including police and RAB were deployed in the city to control law and order during hartal hours ending 6:00pm on Wednesday.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/09/2013
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#1
"bring out the grapeshot"
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/09/2013 9:31
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One person was killed and more than 80 wounded in clashes at the Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in central Cairo on Sunday after a funeral service for four Egyptians killed in sectarian violence, state media said. The man killed on Sunday was identified by MENA as 30-year-old Mahrous Hana Tadros.
Police fired tear gas to try to disperse the crowds but clashes continued late into the evening. MENA said 11 policemen were among the wounded.
Violence also broke out near a Coptic church in El Khusus north of Cairo, where four were killed late on Friday when members of both communities started shooting at each other. MENA said 12 people were wounded, and two apartments and a cafe set on fire by petrol bombs.
In Cairo, trouble erupted after hundreds of angry Copts attended the funeral service at St. Marks Cathedral for Fridays killed Copts, chanting With our blood and soul we will sacrifice ourselves for the cross.
Some mourners also shouted slogans calling for the departure of President Mohammed Mursi and his Muslim Brotherhood movement as the coffins were carried head-high into the church.
Mursi condemned the violence, telling Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II in a telephone call that any attack on the cathedral is like an attack on me personally, MENA reported.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/09/2013
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WASHINGTON The Navy is going to sea for the first time with a laser attack weapon that has been shown in tests to disable patrol boats and blind or destroy surveillance drones.
Call me when we can deploy it on the forehead of a shark...
A prototype shipboard laser will be deployed on a converted amphibious transport and docking ship in the Persian Gulf, where Iranian fast-attack boats have harassed American warships and where the government in Tehran is building remotely piloted aircraft carrying surveillance pods and, someday potentially, rockets.
The laser will not be operational until next year, but the announcement on Monday by Adm. Jonathan W. Greenert, the chief of naval operations, seemed meant as a warning to Iran not to step up activity in the gulf in the next few months if tensions increase because of sanctions and the impasse in negotiations over the Iranian nuclear program. The Navy released video and still images of the laser weapon burning through a drone during a test firing.
I personally don't get this warning nonsense. If the weapon isn't yet ready then keep it in the lab and work on making it operational. It doesn't do any good to sit on a ship in the Persian Gulf, particularly now that the Mad Mullahs have been told by the NYT (so you know it has to be true) that it doesn't yet work.
The laser is designed to carry out a graduated scale of missions, from burning through a fast-attack boat or a drone to producing a nonlethal burst to dazzle an adversarys sensors and render them useless without causing any other physical damage.
The Pentagon has a long history of grossly inflating claims for its experimental weapons,
...and the NYT has a long history of denigrating the Pentagon for technologies that everyone, even Democrats, come to depend on, like missile defense...
but a nonpartisan study for Congress said the weapon offered the Navy historic opportunities.
Equipping Navy surface ships with lasers could lead to changes in naval tactics, ship design and procurement plans for ship-based weapons, bringing about a technological shift for the Navy a game changer comparable to the advent of shipboard missiles in the 1950s, said the assessment, by the Congressional Research Service, a branch of the Library of Congress.
The study found that the new high-energy laser could provide Navy surface ships with a more cost-effective means of countering certain surface, air and ballistic missile targets.
Among the limitations, according to the research service, is that lasers are not effective in bad weather because the beam can be disturbed or scattered by water vapor, as well as by smoke, sand and dust. It is also a line of sight weapon, meaning that the target has to be visible, so it cannot handle threats over the horizon. And enemies can take countermeasures like coating vessels and drones with reflective surfaces.
Navy officials acknowledge that the first prototype weapon to be deployed is not powerful enough to take on jet fighters or missiles on their approach. That capability is a goal of researchers.
Among the advantages cited in the study for Congress was the low cost less than $1 per sustained pulse of using a high-energy laser against certain targets. By comparison, current short-range air-defense interceptor missiles cost up to $1.4 million each.
The laser weapon also has a limitless supply of ammunition pulses of high energy so long as the ship can generate electricity. The beam can reach its target at the speed of light and can track fast-moving targets.
Rear Adm. Matthew L. Klunder, the chief of naval research, said the high-energy laser system was developed as part of the Navys search for new, innovative, disruptive technologies. In essence, the Navy is trying to harness technological advances in battling adversaries that are thinking of inventive ways to counter American power.
Admiral Klunder said the weapon had destroyed targets in all 12 of its field tests.
The laser prototype cost just under $32 million, officials said. But if the weapon proves itself during its sea trials, and the order is given to buy the laser system for service across the fleet, the price per unit is expected to drop.
Rear Adm. Thomas J. Eccles, the deputy commander for naval systems engineering, said the first laser device would be deployed on the Ponce, which serves as a floating base for military operations and humanitarian assistance in the waters of the Middle East and southwestern Asia.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/09/2013
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#1
Over to IRAN once the testing is complete in Guam???
#2
The laser weapon also has a limitless supply of ammunition pulses of high energy so long as the ship can generate electricity.
OK, so call me skeptical; with the shift in design philosophy away from carbon based fuels to electricity to power the entire damn ship, isn't this afterthought likely to impact other functions or what happens when all the powder based guns are pulled off and these lasers are put in place? i see overloads being not rare occurences. and if an ordnance elevator breaks down, manpower can move the ordnance to the guns, its really hard to carry a bucket of volts for this thing.
And lastly, please tell me Boeing isn't involved with this.although they could get us to the failure and fire state sooner.
#4
You made me smile, USN Ret. I started thinking of the bridge of the Starship Enterprise with all the circuit breakers popping, sparks flying, and people hurtling about during an attack. We might get there sooner than we think!
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/09/2013 7:24
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#5
the EPA will crack down and demand only fluorescent laser bulbs
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/09/2013 7:35
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#6
I'm pretty sure that shooting those curly-fried light bulbs at the enemy would violate the Geneva Conventions - chemical weapons of mass destruction, you know.
#9
I don't think the lasers are going to replace the guns and missiles. They look more like point defense syzems, like the current Phalanx CIWS.
The main guns will eventually be replaced with rail guns. Those will draw a massive amount of power.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
04/09/2013 9:47
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#10
hard to think about laser weapons without think of Dr Evil
Posted by: lord garth ||
04/09/2013 9:56
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The reactor on the Ford will generate 50% more power than the Nimitz class. While some of this will go to the catapults and radars, I suspect there's amperage to spare for whatever weapons systems evolve. More reason to doubt the recent rash of "the carrier is obsolete" articles.
#13
Thanks Steve, for some reason, Seaman Scottie running amok on the bridge never crossed my mind.
Nimble, yes the reactors will build a lot of power, but it only takes a disrupted circuit (or two) to kill the flow of electrons. and with the Navy's big push to automate many tasks will reduce manning, that means fewer Damage Control parties, or fire teams or just warm bodies to do the dirty crap. think what the Forrestal fire would have done if the manp0wer wasn't there to replace the primary teams when they got blown away by the exploding ordnance. Being a participant in the 1988 Nimitz fire, i can tell you that there was nobody not actively engaged in some capacity. fewer men, greater reliance on automation, and you will be looking at some holes in the water where a man of war once rode. ( and that doesn't even invoke shades of HAL 9000, going rogue due to bad 'trons). sorry for the rant, but i do not expect this to end well.
Pyongyang on Monday halted operations at the joint-Korean Kaesong Industrial Complex by withdrawing all North Korean workers.
Thus cutting off one of the Norks' last remaining ways to generate legitimate cash...
On a visit to the industrial park, Kim Yang-gon of the Worker Party's United Front Department, said in a statement, "We are temporarily suspending the operation of the Kaesong Industrial Complex and reviewing whether to maintain it or not. How the situation develops is totally dependent on the attitude of the South Korean authorities."
Some 54,000 North Korean laborers work for 123 South Korean firms in the industrial park.
The complex now faces the first real danger of being shut down since it was launched based on an inter-Korean agreement in 2004. It kept operating even after the North sank the Navy corvette Cheonan in March and 2010 and shelled Yeonpyeong Island in November that year.
"Despite our repeated warnings, the South Korean confrontationists keep hurling unbearable verbal abuse at us, insulting our dignity by talking about a 'cash cow,' and 'detention' and 'hostage taking' [of South Korean workers there], Kim complained. South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin "revealed his true intentions of sending special U.S. forces into the Kaesong complex while talking about a possible rescue operation for hostages."
The Unification Ministry said there is "no justification" for the move and added North Korea is solely responsible for any consequences.
Some 475 South Korean staffers remain at the industrial park and all of them are safe, the government here said. An official said, "We're prepared for a contingency but have no plan right now to withdraw all staff from the industrial park."
I think that I'd call in sick tomorrow just in case...
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/09/2013
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ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has issued notice for today to former president and chief of army staff (COAS) General (r) Pervez Musharraf for subverting and holding the constitution in abeyance.
The court has also ordered the interior secretary to forthwith put the name of the former dictator on the Exit Control List (ECL), if it has not been done already, and submit its report during in the court office. A two-member bench comprising Justice Jawwad S Khawaja and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain, while hearing five identical petitions, also asked the federation and its functionaries make sure that Musharraf does not leave the jurisdiction of Pakistan until final decision in the case.
The Islamabad IGP was ordered to serve the notice on Musharraf if he is in the federal capital, otherwise the IGP of the province where he is should do so. The court observed that the Senates January 23, 2012, resolution against Musharraf itself carried a lot of weight. The petitions were filed by Maulvi Iqbal Haider, AK Dogar, Lahore High Court Bar Association President Taufiq Asif, LHCBA ex-president Ahsanuddin Sheikh, former Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) vice chairman Abdul Hakeem Khan Kundi and Association Pakistan Lawyers (UK) Chairman Barrister Amjad Malik.
The bench has also issued notice to the federation to explain why it did not take action against the former dictator and gave him VIP treatment on his return to the country despite clear finding in the Sindh High Court Bar Association judgement and Senates unanimous resolution. On Maulvi Iqbal Haiders appeal against the Sindh High Courts decision, the court issued notices to all respondents in this case, including former attorney general of Pakistan Malik Qayyum and Musharrafs legal adviser Sharifuddin Pirzada.
The counsel representing the petitioners, particularly AK Dogar and Hamid Khan, submitted that respondent Gen Musharraf be taken into custody to ensure that he remains in the country for the purpose of the trial under Article 6 of the constitution read with the provisions of High Treason (Punishment) Act, 1973. The court, however, observed that in the first instance, notice of these petitions be served on the said respondent for tomorrow (Tuesday).
The petitioners also contended that not only Pervez Musharaf but his collaborators should also be proceeded against under High Treason (Punishment) Act.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/09/2013
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PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Four days of fierce fighting in northwestern Pakistan left 30 soldiers and nearly 100 militants dead as the army attempted to wrestle control of a remote, mountainous valley from the Taliban and their allies, military officials said Monday.
The army launched its offensive in the Tirah Valley on Friday after weeks of fighting between rival militant groups forced tens of thousands of civilians to flee the area. The valley is located in Khyber, part of the semiautonomous tribal region bordering Afghanistan, the main sanctuary for the Taliban in the country.
The army has launched scores of operations against the Pakistani Taleban in the tribal region in recent years, but certain areas like Tirah have remained outside their control. The Taliban have remained a serious threat and continue to launch attacks throughout the northwest and other parts of the country with frightening regularity.
The Pakistani Taleban have been waging a bloody insurgency against the government because of its alliance with the U.S. in fighting Islamic militants, and to establish Islamic law in the country. The group is allied with the Afghan Taliban but has focused its attacks inside Pakistan instead of Afghanistan.
The fighting in Tirah over the past four days has killed 30 soldiers and 97 militants, military officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. The air force has also conducted heavy bombing during the offensive, they said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/09/2013
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MOGADISHU US President Barack Obama renewed sanctions on Somalia for 1 more year, Garowe Online reports. President Obama issued a letter on Thursday citing that the sanctions would be extended for 1 more year due to people working to destabilize Somalia.
Although the U.S. recognition underscores a strong commitment to Somalia's stabilization, it does not remove the importance of U.S. sanctions, especially against persons undermining the stability of Somalia, read the press release.
In January the US officially recognized Somalia after 22 years of transitional governments.
The extension of the national emergency on Somalia comes after the UN Security Council lifted an arms embargo last month.
Also the U.K. government urged that their nationals leave Somalia due to security threats. The Foreign Commonwealth Office stated that an imminent attack in the capital Mogadishu would be carried out by terrorists.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/09/2013
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#1
So somebody please 'splain this and the art directly above. In art 1, T.S.M.I.T.R. gives Somalia military training aid, and in Art 2 he slams their economy through sanctions. What is he doing? does anybody have a clue?
#2
Simply empowering Kerry in order to insert CIA assets military trainers and guns. Bibles, gardening tools, and medical supplies would hold no tribal allure.
#10
There was a "colony" of Jewish Moroccans living in San Francisco in the late seventies - restraunteurs and small business owners - almost without exception they were, male and female, extremely good-looking. Happy genetic combination?
I was once engaged to a woman who was a Moroccan Jew via Sardinia.
She was extremely beautiful and a sweet spirit. Her dad was pretty well connected with a conservative party in the Knesset and he wouldn't stand for a gentile in the gene pool so she and I parted ways.
I thought the option was to transfer to Washington and become a desk flying drone instead of a field manager. She was just so tied to her family. Lots of tears on both sides on that split up. I really wanted her to have my children.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
04/09/2013 13:35
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#12
I just got a message that I need ti install Java to run some things on this page. I didn't do it and everything looks fine.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/09/2013 20:04
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PODGORICA, Montenegro -- Both the incumbent and the opposition candidate claimed victory in Montenegro's presidential election Sunday, fueling political tensions in the small Balkan country which is striving for European Union membership. State election authorities had yet to release any official results in the race for the largely ceremonial post.
President Filip Vujanovic, from the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists, said that based on his camp's own, full count of the votes, he had won 51.3 percent of ballots, while opponent Miodrag Lekic won 48.7 percent.
"I want to inform the public that I have achieved a victory," Vujanovic announced. "I would like to thank the citizens of Montenegro."
Lekic's camp, however, said it had counted 97 percent of the ballots and that their candidate had won 50.5 percent of the votes, compared to 49.5 for Vujanovic. The opposition said it expected the result to remain the same until the end of the counting process. Lekic described his opponent's declaration of victory as "resembling an attempted coup d'etat."
"The citizens of Montenegro have trusted me to become the president," Lekic said. "I urge the other side to act in a serious and responsible manner. We will demand that each ballot be counted."
A contested vote could raise political instability in Montenegro, which opened European Union accession talks last year and needs to move ahead with the necessary reform process.
The presidency, which comes with a five-year term, does not have much power, but the tight result in the election still deals a blow to Montenegro's governing coalition, which has ruled the country virtually unchallenged for more than two decades.
Vujanovic is after his second presidential term since Montenegro became independent in 2006. He is an ally of Montenegro's powerful prime minister Milo Djukanovic and a strong advocate of Montenegro's integration into the EU as well as NATO.
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04/09/2013
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For a map, click here. For a map of Tamaulipas state, click here.
By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
A total of ten unidentified individuals were killed in ongoing drug and gang related violence in Tamaulipas since last Friday according to Mexican private and official news sources.
An APRO wire dispatch which appeared on the website of El Diario de Coahuila news daily said that criminal gangs executed seven individuals, some of whom were said to have been informants for the Mexican Army.
A message left at the entrance of Ciudad Mante Monday listed two of the victims, executed by Los Zetas for being informants. A Mexican Army captain, said by the message to be the informants' handler, was identified as Army Captain Alejandro Martinez Vazquez.
Messages such as the one left in Ciudad Mante are colloquially known as narcomantas or narcopintas, the most common form of mass communication local drug cartel groups have with the public.
Two other victims were found over the weekend in Ciudad Victoria, the state capital of Tamaulipas. One of the victims was dumped near the base of the Mexican 77th Infantry Battalion, 8th Military Zone. Another message was left at the scene, but its contents were not disclosed.
The wire dispatch also mentioned, without detailing specifics, three other deaths related to drug trafficking.
Last Saturday the Tamaulipas state Procuraduria General de Justicia del Estado (PGJE), or attorney general released a statement reporting that three armed suspects were killed in an armed confrontation with a Mexican Army road patrol in Nuevo Laredo.
The firefight took place at around 1600 hrs near the intersection of Carretera Nacional and Alvaro Obregon in Concordia colony. The suspects were travelling aboard a Mercury Grand Marquis when the exchange of gunfire took place.
Soldiers secured one rifle and six weapons magazines at the scene.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
[Ynet] 'Unless these soldiers are punished and Gazoo blockade is lifted, we won't accept compensation,' says Turk who was injured in 2010 IDF raid on Gazoo-bound flotilla
Israel's apology to Turkey over the 2010 killing of nine Turks aboard a Gazoo-bound aid ship did not go far enough and Israeli soldiers will be pursued in court, Turkish nationals who were maimed in the incident said on Monday.
In a rapprochement brokered by US President Barack Obama Republicans can come along for the ride, but they've got to sit in the back... , Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized to his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan on March 22 for the killings, pledged compensation to the bereaved or hurt and agreed to ease a six-year blockade on Gazoo. Erdogan said these gestures met his conditions for normalizing relations with its erstwhile ally.
US Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... said while visiting Istanbul on Sunday that restoring full ties between Turkey and Israel was vital to regional stability.
With the apology, Israel aimed to end a three-year diplomatic crisis with Turkey, once its closest regional ally, that erupted when Israeli soldiers stormed an international flotilla challenging the Gazoo blockade.
As part of the agreement on compensation, Israel wants lawsuits against its soldiers to be dropped.
"We will continue with the criminal lawsuits we have opened against the Israeli soldiers and commanders, and we won't accept dropping this suit if compensation is paid," said Musa Cogas, who was maimed by Israeli gunfire on board the Turkish-owned Mavi Marmara, part of the Gazoo-bound flotilla.
An Istanbul court is hearing charges that have been filed against four of Israel's most senior retired commanders, including the ex-army chief, in absentia and could carry life sentences. Israel has called this a politically motivated "show trial".
Ahmet Varol, a journalist who was on the Mavi Marmara, said one "formula for a resolution" would be for Israel to provide a timetable for ending the blockade of Gazoo, ruled by the Islamist Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, movement, and make Turkey a monitor of that process.
"Our efforts are for the full lifting of the blockade. Nobody wants compensation, and while an apology may have diplomatic meaning, it means nothing to the victims," he said.
The apology nonetheless showed Israel had accepted its wrongdoing in the incident, Varol added.
The United States has urged the two sides to mend fences to ease Israel's diplomatic isolation in the Middle East and to improve coordination to contain spillover from the Syrian civil war and face the challenge of Iran's nuclear program.
A senior Israeli official told Rooters last month Israel did not commit to ending its Gazoo blockade as part of reconciliation with Turkey and could clamp down even harder on the Paleostinian enclave if security is threatened.
"It's not possible to heal my wounds with just an apology," said Cogas, who was shot in the shoulder by Israeli marines. His friend of 30 years, Cengiz Songur, was killed in the raid. "Unless these soldiers are punished and the blockade is lifted..., we won't accept compensation."
[Ynet] Missile defense batteries placed in Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council, Ashkelon area after rocket lands in south on eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[NgGuardian] 
A suicide car bombing in Damascus on Monday killed 19 people and injured many others, among them many in serious condition, Syria's state media and activists reported.
[IsraelTimes] At least 11 Hezbollah fighters and five Iranians were killed in Syria as fighting intensified between the Lebanese Shiite organization and fighters of the Free Syrian army along the border over the past two days, local media sources reported on Monday.
[Jpost] The United States and its allies will stage a naval exercise in the Gulf in May to practice mine-sweeping and escorting ships, the US Navy said on Monday, a maneuver likely to be seen in the region as guarding against a potential threat from Iran.
Iran will launch its own communications satellite into space in 5 years, head of country's Space Agency, Hamid Fazeli said, IRIB News reported. Fazeli said that previously Iran already had a similar project named "Qaem", which never took off the ground.
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has issued notice for today to former president and chief of army staff (COAS) General (r) Pervez Musharraf for subverting and holding the constitution in abeyance.
PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Four days of fierce fighting in northwestern Pakistan left 30 soldiers and nearly 100 militants dead as the army attempted to wrestle control of a remote, mountainous valley from the Taliban and their allies, military officials said Monday.
