Chinese politician Bo Xilai, once a rising star, has been stripped of his elite Communist Party post while his wife is being investigated for the murder of a British national, state media said.
Xinhua first issued a short dispatch late Tuesday announcing Bo had been suspended from the party's powerful 25-member Politburo and from the wider Central Committee, which consists of more than 300 top officials.
The report said "Comrade Bo Xilai" was suspected of being involved in "serious discipline violations", which in China usually refers to corruption, but gave no details.
Bo was one of China's most high-profile politicians and a rising star in the party until he was sacked last month as party chief of the southwestern metropolis of Chongqing.
The 62-year-old's troubles started in February when Wang Lijun, his former police chief, fled to a US consulate and reportedly asked for asylum.
The scandal remained shrouded in mystery until news emerged late last month that London had asked China to reinvestigate the death of a British national in Chongqing in November amid rumours it might be linked to Bo's family.
On Tuesday, in a second brief dispatch, Xinhua said police had reopened a probe into the death of Neil Heywood after finding evidence Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, may have been involved in his murder.
Gu has been "transferred to judicial authorities for the suspected crime of intentional homicide" of Heywood, the report said, adding Wang made allegations about the death of the British businessman when he visited the US consulate.
The Muslim Brotherhood's main presidential candidate Khairat al-Shater seeks to fundamentally Islamize Egyptian society if elected, according to newly uncovered footage of an extended address he gave supporters last year shortly after his release from prison.
Egyptian activists have transcribed Shater's 90-minute address into English, offering a rare glimpse into the worldview of the normally tight-lipped candidate who is a frontrunner in upcoming elections to lead the Arab world's most populous state.
Shater delivered the address, entitled "The Islamic Renaissance Project," in Alexandria on April 21, 2011, less than two months after his release from prison. The veteran Brotherhood financier had served four years of a seven-year sentence for money laundering and membership in the once-banned Islamist group when he was freed in the aftermath of President Hosni Mubarak's ouster.
Footage of his remarks has been available on YouTube for the past year, but only in Arabic. Following Shater's announcement as the Brotherhood's candidate late last month, activists from the Egyptian Union of Liberal Youth translated and transcribed the video and last week posted it online. The English translation is now available on the homepage of Current Trends in Islamist Ideology, a journal published by the US-based Hudson Institute.
"Everywhere, the Brothers are working to restore Islam in its all-encompassing conception to the lives of people," Shater says in the address. "Thus the mission is clear: restoring Islam in its all-encompassing conception, subjugating people to God, instituting the religion of God, the Islamization of life, empowering of God's religion, establishing the renaissance of the ummah [worldwide Muslim nation] on the basis of Islam... Every aspect of life is to be Islamized."
"We call upon God Almighty to make this transformation the beginning of a new renaissance for the ummah and the shaking off of the state of backwardness from which it has suffered for decades," Shater says in the clip. "As Muslim Brothers, it is imperative that we, as well as the entirety of the ummah, God willing, take advantage of this revolution which took place in Egypt and continues in the countries surrounding us."
The most transparent administration ever has just invoked Executive Privilege in refusing to allow Congressman Issa and Senator Grassley to question former NSA White House staffer, Kevin O'Reilly regarding Operation Fast and Furious.
Kathryn Ruemmler, counsel to the president, denied Issa's demand to speak with O'Reilly.
Over six months ago, the White House produced documents responsive to your prior request for communications between Mr. O'Reilly and ATF agent William Newell that relate to "Operation Fast and Furious" or any ATF gun trafficking cases in Phoenix, AZ... none of these limited communications between Mr. O'Reilly and Mr. Newell revealed the existence of any of the inappropriate investigative tactics at issue in your inquiry, let alone any decision to allow guns to "walk."
O'Reilly was transferred to Clinton's State Department in late spring 2011 and then sent to Iraq in September after documents released to the House Oversight Committee revealed extensive communications between himself and ATF Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix office Bill Newell who led Fast and Furious.
Emails show Newell was in routine contact with Kevin O'Reilly, then White House director of North American Affairs for the National Security Council.
In September Issa sent a letter to National Security Advisor Thomas E. Donilon, a top aide to President Obama requesting all communications between the White House and the Phoenix ATF office. The request came after Issa determined some of the emails between Newell and O'Reilly contained information directly linked to Operation Fast and Furious.
In the letter Issa referred to an email in which Newell told O'Reilly about a "specific case ATF agents had been aware of for three months involving a 22-year-old illegal gun purchaser whom the ATF allowed to buy nearly 700 firearms."
Emails show Newell was in routine contact with Kevin O'Reilly, then White House director of North American Affairs for the National Security Council.
In September Issa sent a letter to National Security Advisor Thomas E. Donilon, a top aide to President Obama requesting all communications between the White House and the Phoenix ATF office. The request came after Issa determined some of the emails between Newell and O'Reilly contained information directly linked to Operation Fast and Furious.
In the letter Issa referred to an email in which Newell told O'Reilly about a "specific case ATF agents had been aware of for three months involving a 22-year-old illegal gun purchaser whom the ATF allowed to buy nearly 700 firearms."
The purchaser was on food stamps and, Newell said in a follow-up email to O'Reilly, "when a 22-year-old kid on State financial assistance walks into a gun store and plops down $12,000 in cash to buy a tripod mounted .50 caliber rifle that's a clue even for us that he's involved in trafficking firearms for a Mexican DTO cartel.'[sic]
According to Issa, that exchange of information makes it "clear the case Mr. Newell and Mr. O'Reilly were communicating about Fast and Furious."
The emails link the operation that ended up killing two federal agents and hundreds of Mexican citizens (where're La Raza and MALDEF?) directly to the White House.
I'm no lawyer but in the 2006 U.S Attorney firing scandal "the court held that the privilege over presidential communications can never be used to withhold information on matters that do not call for the President's direct involvement."
Instead, the court adopted an organizational approach based on proximity to the President, and affirmed what it 'saw as Espy's holding: that the presidential communications privilege extends only to those documents and communications authored by or "solicited and received" by the President or immediate advisers in the Office of the President who have "broad and significant responsibility" for advising the President.
Both Holder and Obama said early on they had no knowledge of the gun walking program. Obama told CNN Espanol in March, 2011 he heard it "on the news" and "the attorney general has been very clear he knew nothing about it."
Then Holder contradicted the President's statement in a May 3 congressional hearing when he said he found out about the operation "over the last few weeks." Even worse when Newell was asked to explain why he broke the chain of command by communicating with a White House staffer he insisted that he and O'Reilly were just friends exchanging emails back and forth.
So how exactly does Executive Privilege apply in this situation?
Iran said on Tuesday it had identified a "major terrorist group" it said was affiliated to its arch-foe Israel and had arrested some of its members, the official IRNA news agency reported, citing a report by the country's Intelligence Ministry.
"Iran's Intelligence Ministry announced it has identified a major terrorist group from the Zionist regime (of Israel) and has arrested some of its protected operational members inside the country," IRNA reported without making clear when the arrests had taken place.
The semi-official Fars news agency said the suspects were arrested "while preparing to carry out terrorist acts", adding that a considerable number of bombs, machine guns, military and communication equipments were seized.
Tehran has in the past accused Israel of being behind the killings of its nuclear scientists.
The Islamic state blamed Israel in January when a nuclear scientist was killed by a bomb placed on his car by a motorcyclist in Tehran.
A United Nations convoy was targeted on Tuesday when unidentified attackers threw a hand grenade at it in Libya's eastern city of Benghazi, an intelligence source said.
The grenade missed the convoy, setting off an explosion but there were no injuries or deaths, the source told Reuters.
22 soldiers were injured, five of them in critical condition, in a landmine explosion near a fallen Abu Sayyaf camp in the hinterlands of the nearby province of Basilan.
Western Mindanao Command (Wesmincom) spokesman Lt. Col. Randolph Cabangbang said the explosion occurred around 8:40 a.m. Tuesday at Abong-Abong Peak, Sitio Pansol, Barangay Baiwas, Sumisip, Basilan. The identities of the injured soldiers were not immediately available except that they are from the 13th Scout Ranger Company of the Army's 4th Scout Ranger Battalion based in Basilan province.
The explosion happened when some troops tripped on an improvised bomb fashioned out as a landmine while there were conducting combat recon patrol near a former Abu Sayyaf camp. Government troops took the Abu Sayyaf camp last month.
Wesmincom chief Maj. Gen. Noel Coballes said the Abu Sayyaf terrorists bandits had "designed the area to be impenetrable" before it was overrun by the troops last month.
Coballes said the military would continue despite the incident. He said, "Efforts to clear the area of Abu Sayyaf bandits along with their landmines and improvised bombs will continue in order to ensure that civilians who would want access to Abong-Abong Peak for farming are assured of their safety."
The judges gave a final ruling on six extradition cases in a verdict which effectively passed judgment on whether America's treatment of terrorist suspects amounts to "inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" in breach of the European human rights code.
Human rights judges have this morning ruled the Government can lawfully extradite radical preacher Abu Hamza
...Abu Hamza el-Masri, the radical Egyptian cleric with alleged al Qaeda ties who used to preach at the Finsbury Park Mosque in London and whose followers included convicted terrorists Richard Reid and Zacarias Moussaoui...
to America to face terrorist charges.
The judges gave a final ruling on six extradition cases in a verdict which effectively passed judgment on whether America's treatment of terrorist suspects amounts to "inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" in breach of the European human rights code.
They decided it would be lawful for five of the six to be jailed for the rest of their lives in a so-called 'super-max' prison.
The ruling stated that the five, including radical preacher Abu Hamza, would not be subject to "ill-treatment" at ADX Florence, a so-called 'super-max' prison. The court adjourned its decision on Haroon Rashid Aswat pending consideration of further complaints lodged by him.
The ruling granted the men the right to appeal to the court's Grand Chamber, meaning any extradition could be some time away.
Al-Qaeda has warned Britain against handing over a radical Islamic cleric to Jordan after his release from prison, saying such a move will open the "door of evil" for the British government and its people, according to an Islamist website.
Britain freed Abu Qatada from prison in February to live under virtual house arrest after a court ruled that his detention without trial was unlawful.
"It has come to our attention that the British government intends to hand over the honorable Sheikh Abu Qatada al-Filistini to the agent Jordanian government, claiming it had secured assurances and covenants not to torture him," the group said in a statement posted on an Islamist site late on Monday.
"Based on all that, we in Qaedat al-Jihad (Al-Qaeda) place the responsibility on the British government of handing over Sheikh Abu Qatada to the Jordanian government, and let it be known that by doing so, under any pretext, it will open the door of evil for it and its citizens, which it can do without." Okay, just shoot Abu Qatada...
It was not immediately possible to verify the authenticity of the statement in Arabic.
Twice convicted in absentia in Jordan of involvement in terrorist plots, Britain says Abu Qatada is still a national security risk and should be deported before London hosts the Olympic Games in July and August.
The 51-year-old, whose real name is Omar Othman, has been in and out of jail since he was first detained without charge under British anti-terrorism laws in 2002.
Libya's interim authorities have stopped paying bonuses to former rebels due to widespread fraud costing millions of Libyan dinars, the official LANA news agency reported on Monday.
"Payment of rewards to rebels has been stopped due to violations and abuses," Mohammed Harizi, spokesman for the ruling National Transitional Council, was quoted as saying.
"Millions of (Libyan) dinars allocated to revolutionaries were lost in (illegitimate) payments to non-beneficiaries," he said.
The interim government had been handing out cash payments of up to 4,000 Libyan dinars ($3,200, Dh11.75) to civilians turned fighters who took on the forces of Moamer Gaddafi last year.
But the system -- much like a scheme to finance the treatment of the country's war wounded abroad -- proved vulnerable to false claims.
Violations were referred to the offices of the attorney general and audit bureau for investigation, the spokesman said.
No further payments would be made until distribution mechanisms are revised and the lists of beneficiaries approved by local military councils across the country, Harizi added.
He stressed that the main purpose of the cash scheme was to encourage rebels to join the official institutions of the state and hand in their weapons.
Militiamen angered by non-payment have recently staged small protests in front of the headquarters of the interim authorities in Tripoli and raised checkpoints blocking traffic in some neighbourhoods of the capital.
All in one short article we have ex-fighters , revolutionaries, rebels, civilians turned fighters, and Militiamen . And officially, there deemed the list of beneficiaries Hows bout we just call em what they really are...Radical islamic thugs. Thanks NATO.
Just when we thought we had seen the epic failure of every single possible "alternative energy" project by this administration, along comes the announcement that the USDA is investing $5 million in a "biogas anaerobic digester" that will use "cow manure to heat an ethanol plant and create 15 permanent jobs." Which for anyone confused, is roughly exactly what it sounds like. Perhaps if "Hope and Change" is a little passe now, a far more appropriate slogan for the 2012 Campaign will be "From Bullshit to Jobs, and Back Again."
So how many shit shovelers does it take to run a "biogas anaerobic digester"? Apparently 15. At $333,333 a poop, pardon pop.
#1
I don't understand why they need $5 million for this unless it is some Congressman paying back some dairy farmer for his political contributions. Farms do that all the time where I come from. Chicken houses use chicken crap in anaerobic digesters to make methane to heat the chicken houses. Dairy farmers use cow poop to make methane to heat the milking barns, hog farmers use pig poop to heat the hog barns.
This is nothing new, exciting, or cutting edge and people have been doing it since the 1970's that I am aware of. This sounds to me like a Congress Critter sliding a bone to a constituent who was a big donor to their campaign.
#7
With the amount of BS produced hourly in Washinton they'd generate enough ethenal to fuel the world. Problem is half think the BS are precious nuggets of wisdom.
There is no finer mark of a Pakistani man than a fully oiled, waxed and twirled moustache. Male grooming is something of an obsession in Pakistan, and well-tended moustaches are sported by prominent politicians, sportsmen and military leaders (although you should never appoint a man with a moustache as the head of your army -- he'll overthrow you).
The ritual showdown at the Wagah border crossing, when Indian and Pakistan border guards strut and stamp their rivalry, is conducted amid much moustache twirling.
NINE people were killed when two suicide bombers rammed their vehicle into a local government compound on the road from the airport to the western Afghan city of Herat today, police said.
An AFP reporter, among the first to arrive at the scene, said he saw shattered bodies lying among rubble and mangled pieces of metal after the bombing.
Herat province as well as most of western Afghanistan is relatively calm as insurgents have concentrated their attacks in the south and east.
The responsibility for nearly all of Herat province has been transferred, or is in the process of being transferred, from NATO troops to Afghan forces.
Egypt's hopes of securing a US$3.2 billion (Dh11.7bn) loan from the IMF have taken a further knock after a front-runner in next month's presidential election has said he would not support the bid unless the terms were changed.
The government has been in talks for several weeks with the IMF about the funding, which is needed to stop the country slipping into a fiscal crisis.
But the comments by Khairat Al Shater, who is in the running for the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, signal the struggle that negotiators face to win political support for the funding bid.
The IMF says the cash is dependent on broad political backing for the plan.
"We are not opposed in principle. We are opposed to the timing and the method of implementation," Mr Al Shater was quoted by Reuters as saying.
"We told [the government] you have two choices. Either postpone this issue of borrowing and come up with any other way of dealing with it without our approval, or speed up the formation of a government," Mr Al Shater told Reuters.
An kaboom hit the Egyptian pipeline carrying gas to Israel and Jordan on Monday for 14th time since the uprising against President Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... began last year, security sources said.
The blast took place in the northern Sinai at the entrance of the Mediterranean coastal town of Al-Arish. Residents in the city told Rooters they had heard the sound of the kaboom.
The blast took place in the northern Sinai at the entrance of the Mediterranean coastal town of el-Arish. Residents in the city told Reuters they had heard the sound of the explosion.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks on the installation that crosses the increasingly volatile Sinai Peninsula. Security in Sinai was relaxed after the fall of Mubarak in 2011 as the police presence thinned out across Egypt.
The pipeline has been shut since an explosion on Feb. 5.
An Egyptian military source told Ma'an's correspondent that Jihadist groups had thought the pipeline was in use. "They have dug about two meters deep into the sand and laid their explosive device," he said.
The United States urged North Korea on Monday not conduct a nuclear test or launch a satellite and called on China to exert its influence over its neighbor to try to ward off such "provocative actions."
"Our position remains: don't do it," said spokeswoman Victoria Nuland. "North Korea's launch of a missile would be highly provocative, it would pose a threat to regional security and it would be inconsistent with its recent undertakings to refrain from any kind of long-range missile launches."
Yes, that will definitely take care of it. Tea, anyone?
#3
Got some secret info everyone in South Korea in the U.S. Military is going to have to start wearing polyester leisure suits and black platform shoes in the DMZ!
#4
They had an opportunity to get tons of free food and threw it in the trash. Why even bother with the formalities with this regime? Blast them and be done with it.
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04/10/2012 19:38
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I'm shocked, shocked!
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/10/2012 20:09
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While, we may have suspended food aid, our Chinese brothers have probably not. Also, they would really like to see if our anti missile system really works and what exact frequencies our space radars use from which orbits...
that is, do not expect the Chinese to suppress their little brothers nor for their little brothers to suspend their business.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
04/10/2012 9:23
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#6
Who cares the stupid F'in losers make the women in the military wear head coverings and support a government that cuts the clitoris of children. (1.5 billion) Who ever is in charge of the chicken s t outfit needs to go south with the rest of the ghoul zombies from Chicago to L.A. The next recruiting poster for the U.S. Military a free head covering with every FGM carried out. At what point does it occur to people that our own leaders are demoralizing our own troops with their Bull Sh ! When do our Generals take liitle children to marry like their favorite religious leader and commander!???????! F Them ALL! Health care bill - have to have it down the road have to have it cut off clitoris, it always happens in very obfuscated small pieces the more coming at the public the better the GHOULS LIKE IT GET IT!
#7
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer does not mean to adopt them and their beliefs or sell out your own country in the process. I remember our troops wearing black PJ'S in Nam and the men storming the beaches in lederhosen and all the women looking like the Saint Pauli Girl in World War 2. Our leaders SUCK !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How many times do they need to fail before they give up? Last time most of them were stopped at point of departure at the request of the Israeli government, and almost all of the rest were turned round at Ben Gurion Airport and sent back. As I recall, it was less than a dozen who actually escaped into the wild, and even they were found in a few days.
Is a second fly-in underway? Hundreds, possibly thousands, of foreign pro-Paleostinian activists are set to arrive in Ben Gurion International Airport on Sunday ahead of trip to Paleostinian Authority.
The measure is perceived as having volatile potential, and police sources said Monday that security forces are gearing to stop the activists at the airport should they cause a public disturbance -- something authorities believe is very likely.
Police will beef up their presence at the airport and single out activists when they deplane with the intention of arresting them and deporting them back to their point of origin as quickly as possible, with minimum disruption to ordinary passengers in the airport.
Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch told Channel 1 news on Monday evening that Israel hopes it will succeed in preventing many of the travelers from boarding planes in their home countries, by sending blacklists with activists names to foreign airports like it did last year.
Welcome to Palestine 2012, the umbrella organization overseeing the initiative, calls on activists to challenge Israels policy of isolating the West Bank while the settler paramilitaries and army commit brutal crimes against a virtually defenseless Palestinian civilian population, according to a message posted on the groups website.
The group has received endorsements from Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu, former South African politician Ronnie Kasrils and linguist Noam Chomsky, among others.
In July, police arrested and deported 124 activists from the US, Spain, Belgium, France and the Netherlands.
A small number of activists managed to bypass police and walk out of the airport, though the police intercepted the majority of them. Beforehand, blacklisted activists were prevented from boarding Israel-bound passenger flights at European airports.
The organizers of this years effort said that they received promises from several European airports not to prevent travelers from boarding the planes, since this involves reimbursing passengers for the ticket prices.
#6
So what organization is buying the tickets? Follow the money trail.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/10/2012 21:27
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Looked at "Welcome to Palestine 2012" website. Saw a list of names of signatories. One of them was Hedy Epstein. Check out Harry's Place blog with a writeup on her: The sad case of Hedy Epstein . Again, who is bankrolling this outfit?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/10/2012 21:40
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[Sydney Morning Herald] Zim-bob-wean president Bob Muggsy Mugabe Octogenarian President-for-Life of Zim-bob-we who turned the former Breadbasket of Africa into the African Basket Case... is reportedly fighting for his life in a Singapore hospital with his wife and close family by his bedside.
The 88-year-old dictator, who is believed to be suffering from prostate cancer, flew to Singapore late last month on what his aides described as a "private visit".
A senior member of Mugabe's Zanu PF party told The Zim-bob-we Mail that Mr Mugabe was enjoying an Easter break with his family in Asia, and denied that he was seeking treatment for a medical condition.
However rumours are swirling that the ageing leader, now in power for three decades, is seeking treatment for prostate cancer following several bouts of therapy in Asia in recent years.
Mugabe was said to be close to death last night and was surrounded by close family, including his wife Grace, The Daily Mail reported.
It came as sources close to Mr Mugabe told The Daily Telegraph in London that Mugabe had reached a secret "gentleman's agreement" to hand over power in Zim-bob-we to his feared defence minister, Emmerson Mnangagwa, a former spy chief nicknamed "The Crocodile" and known for his ruthless style.
Mnangagwa was widely blamed for the brutality following the 2008 presidential election after Mugabe's rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, took an early lead in the voting.
Mr Mugabe's aides said he was also in Singapore to oversee arrangements for his daughter Bona to begin post-graduate university study, The Zim-bob-we Mail reported.
"The President is on his Easter holidays, like everyone else," the unidentified aide told the newspaper.
"He returns to his post this week, at the same time as those who are asking about his whereabouts from their holiday hideouts."
The ailing leader's health has been the subject of intense speculation since WikiLeaks last year released a 2008 US diplomatic cable saying central bank chief Gideon Gono had told former US ambassador James McGee that Mr Mugabe had prostate cancer that would kill him by 2013.
The WikiLeaks document said: "President Robert Mugabe has prostate cancer that has metastasised and, according to doctors, will cause his death in three to five years."
Despite frequent speculation fuelled by Mr Mugabe's trips to Asia, top Zanu PF officials have repeatedly denied that Mr Mugabe, who has ruled Zim-bob-we since 1980, has a health problem.
They said previous trips had been necessitated by a cataract operation for Mr Mugabe and by back injuries his wife sustained falling in the couple's Harare mansion.
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Mugabe and Chavez at death's door. My God, this could be a great year.
[Yemen Post] The dismissed director of the Yemeni Economic Corporation (YEC) stormed on Monday the government-owned corporation and held a board of directors meeting as though he was still it's the chairman.
Hafedh Maed, one of the biggest aides of the former President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... , who was dismissed two weeks ago by a republican decree, returned to the Corporation headquarters with the help of gunnies and held a board of directors meeting.
During the meeting, he was reported to have said, "we are the ones who appointed Hadi as President. Apparently, he believed himself that he is a real President and started issuing decrees."
Maed warned the directors against dealing with the newly-appointed chairman of the board or carrying out his orders unless his stamp on it.
He showed his complete rejection of Hadi's recent decrees by which he also sacked former President half brother, Mohammed Abdullah Saleh, and nephew, Tariq Mohammed Abdullah Saleh, from their key military positions.
Before Mead comes to the YEC, gangs have stormed the office of the new general director and forcibly took his official stamp and stamped on several papers, the local Marib Press reported citing familiar sources.
The papers which have been stamped are believed to be remissions of money, the sources said.
For his part, Hadi ordered the security forces to send dozens of military vehicles and hundreds of troops to kick out the armed thugs and their leader and to protect the building of the Yemeni Economic Corporation.
But, by the time the troops arrived to the YEC, the gunnies along with Maed had already left.
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[Yemen Post] At least 15 suspected al-Qaeda cut-throats were killed in the battles with the army in the Louder city of Abyan on Monday, a day after two dozens were reported killed by drone attacks in the province, the Yemeni official agency Saba reported.
Security officials in Abyan told Yemen Post that seven troops were also killed.
With direct support from the US, Yemen is fighting al-Qaeda cut-throats and the Sharia Supporters in southern and southeastern regions, who have recently revealed plans to expand their presence.
In June, the cut-throats seized some towns in Abyan and declared them as Islamic emirates and since then these towns have become their strongholds.
Yemen has been clashing with Islamic cut-throats for more than a year.
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] The man set to be sworn in as Mali's interim president to oversee the country's return to democratic rule met Monday with the army captain who seized power with other soldiers on March 22.
Dioncounda Traore, who is currently Mali's speaker of parliament, arrived at a military camp near the capital Bamako to meet with Captain Amadou Sanogo.
The meeting, in Sanogo's offices, lasted for about an hour.
Afterwards, Sanogo told news hounds the meeting "went well", adding that more information would be released soon.
Other officials, including Burkina Faso ...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and may be in the process of being chased out now... 's Foreign Minister Djibrill Bassole and Ivory Coast African Integration Minister Adama Bictogo, who are acting as mediators, declined to comment.
The meeting came the day after Amadou Toumani Toure, who was ousted in the coup, formally resigned Mali's presidency.
Under the transition deal, the move means Sanogo must prepare to step down and allow for Traore to be sworn in as interim president, but it was not immediately clear exactly when that would happen.
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[Dawn] Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani on Monday sacked seven police officials on duty when unidentified gunniesrubbed out six Shia Moslems in Quetta, DawnNews reported.
According to police sources, 17 suspects have also been locked away in connection with killing of Hazara community earlier today.
The drive-by shooting took place at the busy Prince Road in the Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... capital.
"Two gunnies riding a cycle of violence opened fire on a shoe store killing four Shia Moslems and wounding three others," senior police official Muhammad Tariq told AFP.
"It was most probably a sectarian incident but the police are investigating," he said.
Another police official, Jehangir Shah, also confirmed the incident and the four casualties.
Later, two out of three injured gave up the ghost in a hospital.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Balochistan is rife with religious militancy and sectarian violence between majority Sunnis and minority Shia Moslems, and a regional separatist insurgency.
Hundreds of civilians have been killed since Baloch rebels rose up in 2004 against the federal government, demanding political autonomy and a greater share of profits from the oil, gas and mineral resources in the region.
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(Sh. M. Network)- One of Somalia's Transitional Federal Paramount has on Monday warned TFG to grant land to the Turkish Agencies operating in the country for the past few months since the start of the drought and famine that hit south and central the country.
Sulayman Mohammed Ibrahim, the politician told Shabelle Media by phone urged Somali government not to hand out to Turkish Agencies to the base of Somali naval forces in the seashore Mogadishu known as (Mariiniska).
"It was really unfortunate that some parts of the naval base in Mogadishu have been already provided to these Turkish Agencies by TFG. They (Turkish Agencies) are just planning to get the rest of the building," Said the politician.
Mr. Ibrahim added that it will not be acceptable to sale illegally the national property. Former Somali government led by Aden Abdulle Osman which endorsed that it could not sale the property of the country without parliamentary vote.
It was immediately unavailable to reach the Turkish agencies for comments on the accusations so far. These agencies entered inSomalialast year to help the drought and famine stricken families in Mogadishu IDPs camps.
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(Sh.M.Network)- At least 3 people were killed and dozens injured as heavy fighting ... as opposed to the more usual light or sporadic fighting... between Transitional Federal Government (TFG) troops backed by Kenyan army and Al-Shabaab ... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord... hard boyz raged in Gedo state, over the last 24 hours, reports said on Monday.
The Fierce fighting erupted after TFG military forces attacked Al-Shabaab's large military base in Mudaale village which sets between Bardere and Fahfah-dhuun towns in Gedo region of southernSomalia, according to residents and officials.
Residents of Bardere district said that they could hear the sound of gunfire and heavy weapons from both warring sides during the combat, killing three combatants. Al-Shabaab fighters are still in the village.
Gedo region has been a battle zone over the past few months, particularly jihad boy-held areas where the hapless Somali government backing Kenyan army want to retake from Al-shabab linked with Al Qaeda.
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04/10/2012
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[An Nahar] A home-made Molotov cocktailwent kaboom! in the early hours of Monday in Athens in front of a building housing offices of Greece's Administrative Reform Ministry, police said.
The kaboom at 1:52 am (2252 GMT) in front of the ministry annex started a fire that seriously damaged the building's ground floor and a car parked nearby.
Greek police blame the country's recent surge in Molotov cocktails on the anti-government protests that have shaken crisis-hit Greece since it began imposing austerity measures under an international bailout.
The attacks typically target government buildings, banks, embassies and foreign companies.
Last week a group calling itself the February 12 Movement -- the date parliament passed a new round of austerity measures imposed by the EU and IMF -- claimed a late-February Molotov cocktail attempt in the Athens subway, the first attack on the public transport system.
Administrative Reform Minister Dimitris Reppas recently announced a series of measures to slash the number of government workers, a move demanded by the country's creditors.
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04/10/2012
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[Dawn] An Indian court convicted 23 people on Monday over the massacre of nearly two-dozen Moslems during religious rioting in Gujarat ...where rioting seems to be a traditional passtime... state in 2002 that left more than 2,000 dead.
Another 23 people were acquitted for lack of evidence in the case, in which rioters in the small Gujarati village of Ode bolted the doors of a house where Moslem families had taken refuge and then set it on fire.
Of the 23 who died in what became known as the "Ode massacre", 18 were women.
The violence in Gujarat was triggered by the killing of nearly 60 Hindu pilgrims travelling in a train that was torched by a mob.
Some 31 Moslems were found guilty last year on murder and conspiracy charges for the train attack that sparked an anti-Moslem backlash.
Hindu mobs hungry for Dire Revenge™ rampaged through Moslem neighbourhoods in several cities across Gujarat during three days of bloodshed.
More than 2,000 people, most of them Moslems, were hacked, beaten or burned to death.
Gujarat's Chief Minister Narendra Modi --a prominent member of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party --was blamed for failing to stop the riots, with some critics arguing that he actively encouraged the violence.
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04/10/2012
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[Dawn] Pakistain Moslem League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... on Monday said the United States should have taken Pakistain in confidence over announcing a bounty on Jamaat-ud-Dawa ...the front organization of Lashkar-e-Taiba... a (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed ...founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba and its false-mustache offshoot Jamaat-ud-Dawa. The United Nations declared the JuD a terrorist organization in 2008 and Hafiz Saeed a terrorist as its leader. Hafiz, JuD and LeT are wholly-owned subsidiaries of the Pak intel apparatus, so that amounted to squat... , DawnNews reported.
Speaking to media representatives at the residence of MNA Afzal Khokar, he suggested that all outstanding issues should be discussed with India. "Cricket teams of both the countries should visit each other," he added.
Commenting on wide range of issues, the PML-N chief said that the decision over resumption of NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... supplies must be in accord with will of people of the country.
The party chief assailed the government over ongoing confrontation with the judiciary. "Government has been engaged in a 'war' with the apex court," he added.
Sharif claimed that the PPP-led government was overcoming current fiscal debt by printing more currency notes.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/10/2012
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#1
What? Did we do an end run around the formal boodle bureaucracy?
[An Nahar] A peace plan for Syria was in jeopardy on Monday as deadly fresh festivities raged after Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad's Light of the Alawites... government laid down conditions for it to pull troops and armor out of protest hubs.
Security forces killed 151 people across the country, among them more than 30 women and kiddies and four rebels, the Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, said.
Fifty-two people were killed in Homs, 45 in Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... , 33 in Hama, 13 in Idlib, six in the countryside around Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... , one in Deir Ezzor and one in Daraa, the LCC said.
Tension also escalated with neighboring Turkey after shots across the border maimed two Syrians and a Turkish translator near a refugee camp hosting people who beat feet from forces loyal to Assad.
And a Lebanese television cameraman was rubbed out by Syrian troops manning the frontier with Leb which is also hosting thousands of Syrian refugees.
Under a peace deal brokered by U.N. and Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... envoy Kofi Annan ...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo... , Syria's armed forces are supposed to withdraw from protest centers on Tuesday, with a complete end to fighting set for 48 hours later.
But the truce already appears in jeopardy after Damascus said it would only carry its side of the bargain if rebels first handed over written guarantees to stop fighting, a demanded rejected by rebel army chief Colonel Riad al-Asaad.
The 11th-hour demand came as weekend violence claimed almost 180 lives, most of them civilians, a surge in bloodshed that former U.N. chief Annan described as "unacceptable."
Making matters worse, fresh fighting killed another 155 people on Monday, including 19 soldiers, according to the LCC and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
At least 35 non-combatants were killed in regime forces' shelling of the village of Latamna, in the central Hama province, according to the Observatory.
"The regime had thought that it would control all areas (of rebels by April 10). As this is not happening, it is procrastinating to gain time," said the Observatory's Rami Abdel Rahman.
"If the Annan plan does not work, no other plan would, and Syria would plunge into a civil war," he told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Two others died of wounds after being smuggled into Turkey along with 15 others injured in an overnight clash with regime forces in the province of Aleppo, Anatolia news agency said citing a health official.
Tension heightened along the borders as shots fired from Syria maimed two Syrians and a Turkish translator, in the first case of Syrian fire from across the border hurting people on Turkish soil.
The incident, which happened on the eve of a visit by Annan to the refugee camps, prompted the Turkish foreign ministry to demand the Syrian mission in Ankara to "immediately halt the shooting," according to a diplomatic source.
Around 25,000 Syrian refugees are currently housed in camps in Turkey's three provinces bordering Syria, where civilians have been fleeing the deadly crackdown over the past year.
The Milliyet newspaper reported Monday that Turkey would consider using troops to secure humanitarian corridors in border areas should the number of Syrian refugees swell to above 50,000.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Miqati, whose government is dominated by pro-Syrian parties, condemned the death Monday of Lebanese cameraman Ali Shaaban, who worked for the Beirut-based al-Jadeed television, killed by Syrian gunfire.
Chinese foreign ministry front man Liu Weimin, meanwhile, urged the Syrian government to honor its truce commitments.
"China urges the Syrian government and parties concerned in Syria to seize the important opportunities, to honor their commitment of ceasefire and withdrawal of troops," said Liu.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem was due to hold talks Tuesday in Moscow with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. Ally Russia, along with Beijing, has blocked two U.N. Security Council draft resolutions condemning Damascus for its bloody crackdown.
On Sunday, the Syrian foreign ministry outlined the regime's new conditions in a statement.
"To say that Syria will pull back its forces from towns on April 10 is inaccurate, Kofi Annan having not yet presented written guarantees on the acceptance by armed terrorist groups of a halt to all violence," it said.
It said the regime was also awaiting written guarantees from the governments of Qatar, Soddy Arabia and Turkey "on stopping their funding to terrorist groups," referring to the regime's key regional critics.
Rebel army chief Colonel Asaad countered: "We are committed to the Annan plan... We will present our guarantees and our commitments to the international community, but not to this (Syrian) regime."
FSA front man Colonel Qassem Saadeddine reiterated on Monday the rebel force's readiness to cease fire on Tuesday "if the regime commits to respecting the terms of the (U.N.) plan."
After Turkey, Annan will travel to Syria's ally Iran, for a visit to Syrian refugee camps near the border, a Turkish diplomatic source said.
On Sunday, he urged Syria's government to respect its commitments on troop withdrawals.
"I remind the Syrian government of the need for full implementation of its commitments and stress that the present escalation of violence is unacceptable."
The Security Council has formally endorsed the Tuesday deadline for a ceasefire, but Damascus said a day later that the number of "terrorist acts" has risen since the deal was agreed with U.N.-Arab League envoy Annan.
Annan "said he would work to stop the violence, disarm gangs... initiate a comprehensive national dialogue with opposition movements," when he met Assad last month, the foreign ministry said.
La Belle France denounced as "unacceptable" the new Syrian demands.
The United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... says more than 9,000 people have been killed since anti-regime protests broke out in March 2011, while monitors put the number at more than 10,000.
On Monday, Human Rights Watch ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world... said security forces and pro-regime militias had executed more than 100 civilians and rebels in attacks on protest hubs since late 2011, urging any U.N. mission to Syria to collect evidence.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
04/10/2012
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#1
Sega is coming out with a new game for X-Mas this year like duck hunt but you hunt Syrian refugees instead over the boarder in TURKEY!
#5
EC: Are you suggesting Isreal would back Turkey's claim to Syria if they invaded and liquidated Assad and Jihadi's both? Cause I can't see Isreal sitting by and letting Turkey get the whole country without taking some Elbow-room.
Posted by: Charles ||
04/10/2012 11:47
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#6
by one count, the number of fatalities is close to 13,000
as a comparison, the total number of Paleo civilians killed by Israelis in 2011 was no more than about 20 (depending on what one considers a civilian, the actual number could be as low as 5)
Posted by: lord garth ||
04/10/2012 14:36
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#7
Extra butter with that, grom? ;-p
Posted by: Barbara ||
04/10/2012 18:42
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#8
Isn't that NOT-DICK CHENEY???
gut nuthin.
* ION WAFF > [Syruh FM Walid al-Moualem] SYRIA ACCUSES TURKEY OF ARMING MILITANTS, HELPING REBELS ACROSS BORDER.
versus
* SAME > RUSSIAN "SLAP" IN TURKEY [was] FOR [Northern] CYPRUS:"YOU ARE AN ILLEGAL OCCUPYING POWER.
ARTIC = Russ FM rcommends Russ Citizens refrain from investing or buying properties in alleged illegally Turk-occupied Northern Cyprus.
[Tripoli Post] Gunmen suspected of being members of a radical Islamist sect have reportedly killed over a dozen people - including a 6-year-old girl - in recent attacks in Nigeria's restive northeast, authorities said Monday.
In the northeastern city of Potiskum, gunnies opened fire on a policeman and his family, killing the policeman's six-year-old daughter, Toyin Gbadegeshin, Yobe a State police front man said.
Early Monday, gunnies killed three people when they attacked a cop shoppe, a church and a bank in the border town of Dikwa in the northeast.
Joint Security Task Force front man Lt. Col. Sagir Musa said a local politician, a police officer and civilian and three gunnies were killed in early Monday's attack.
Musa blamed the attack on members of the Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. Currently wearing a false nose and moustache and answering to Jama'atu Ahlus-Sunnah Lidda'Awati Wal Jihad, or Big Louie... sect.
Gbadegeshin, also blamed Boko Haram, a group waging an increasingly bloody fight with security agencies and the public. More than 380 people have been killed in violence blamed on the sect this year alone, according to an News Agency that Dare Not be Named count.
The attacks follow a Sunday suicide kaboom in the city of Kaduna that killed at least 38 people in a massive blast that rattled a city at the centre of religious, ethnic and political violence in the nation.
While no one immediately grabbed credit for the attack, suspicion immediately fell on Boko Haram, and some fear the attack could further inflame tensions around Kaduna, a region on the dividing line between Nigeria's largely Christian south and Mohammedan north.
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04/10/2012
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A small makeshift bomb exploded on Monday outside a branch of a Greek ministry tasked with cutting 150,000 public sector jobs by 2015, causing damage but no injuries. The bomb was made of at least five gas canisters, police said. A similar bomb exploded at the office of former Prime Minister Costas Simitis on Tuesday last week.
He's likely as good as his dad in consuming cognac...
New North Korean leader Suet Face Kim Jong-un is staying well away from the impoverished country's economic affairs and concentrating on the military. Out of 35 public appearances Kim made this year, only one -- a visit to the building site of a folk village in Pyongyang on Jan. 11 -- had nothing to do with the military. But even that, according to a Unification Ministry official, "should in fact be classified as a military-related activity as the aim was to boost the morale of soldiers who'd been commandeered to work on the building site."
By contrast, Kim has made 22 visits to Army units and the like, suggesting that the military is the absolute priority as he seeks to consolidate his rule.
Besides economics is so complicated, and Pudgy didn't do well in math at the Swiss school...
His father, former leader Kim Jong-il, paid a lot more attention to economic matters, however unsuccessfully.
That's putting it mildly...
Out of 145 public activities Kim Jong-il carried out last year before he died, 61 were so-called on-the-spot guidance tours to businesses and other economic projects -- pictures of Kim senior looking blankly at vegetables or machinery made him something of an Internet phenomenon -- as against 39 military-related events.
A South Korean government official said, "There's a lot of circumstantial evidence that the younger Kim has abandoned economic issues. Notice that he didn't attend the ceremony marking the completion of Huichon Power Station in Jagang Province on Thursday last week" -- even though the power station had been widely publicized by the regime as a pillar of the impoverished nation's goal to become "a powerful and prosperous nation" this year.
Kim senior was very keen on the project, visiting the building site no fewer than eight times. But Kim Jong-un instead visited Naval Unit 155, which has the distinction of capturing an American naval destroyer, the USS Pueblo, a full 43 years ago. A South Korean intelligence official said Kim Jong-un seems to have delegated economic issues entirely to the Cabinet. In his place, Premier Choe Yong-rim has toured the factories and business projects.
Pundits speculate Kim Jong-un is steering clear of economic matters to avoid the blame for the country's signal failure to become powerful and prosperous. One North Korean defector who held a senior position in the North said, "Kim Jong-il carried out a purge of economic officials whenever he failed to achieve economic goals, and I expect Kim Jong-un is going to do the same."
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/10/2012
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#2
Kid, were I you, I would study why you have alleged 12 million working and the rest starving - according to you.
Your ass may have "power", but it's not time to play military games with FAR FAR FAR superior powers. Ok?
Yeah, I know the drill, launch a rocket saves the republik - but it's lost. Lets face it man, you are not too young to incur a cure from the TRUE ABOVE. So, do you or your damn uncle want to remedy this like tonight?
We are feeling bored these days. Grow up quick kiddo. It was not really you to be King of that shithole but your brother kind of grew up and ... ummm left. But you cancelled his cards.
#3
CHINA is already the DPRK's preeminent trading partner by a vast margin - again, by most accounts the Sino-DPRK FTAS will only expand China's influence + control, not lessen it. Ina way, I can understand Jong-un's focus on dev Nukes AMAP ASAP, as the latter may in reality be the Kim Regime's only real hedge agz China. ANY SEEMING "ECON AUTONOMY/INDEPENDENCE" ISSUES AS PER THE DPRK WAS LONG LONG L-O-N-G AGO DECIDED IN CHINA'S FAVOR, LONG BEFORE LATE BIG DADDY JONG-IL WAS EVEN BORN.
---------
As for China ...
* ION DEFENCE FORUM INDIA > CHINA: PHILIPPINES IS FACING ITS "LAST CHANCE" OER [Spratlys + SCS]TERRITORY DISPUTE | [Business Insider] AN OUTRAGED CHINESE GENERAL TELLS PHILIPPINES ITS THEIR "LAST CHANCE".
PLA MGen Luo Yuan.
The Good General doing an Obama + Hillary [Obillary = Iran]???
* SAME > CHINA CLAIMS 90% OF SPATLYS, BUT ACTUALLY CONTROLS 13%.
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > PLA GENERAL [Luo Yuan]: PHILIPPINES WILL PAY FOR ITS SOUTH CHINA SEA AGGRESSION.
* SAME > AFTER WARNING INDIA, CHINA ASKS RUSSIA TO STAY OUT FROM SOUTH CHINA SEA.
This has got late 1960's-style SINO-SOVIET BORDER/RIVERINE CLASHES written all over it.
As per SINO-SOVIET NAVAL, AIR CONFRONTATIONS, usually Red China + PLA backed away when the Soviets' heavy stuff appeared.
HOWEVER, THAT WAS THEN - MAY NOT BE THE CASE NOW, despite the SCO-CSTO???
Lest we fergit, MIL FORUMS + NET > Empowering of post-Cold War/9-11, Sino-Russia strategic cooperation + partnership, espec agz the US = US + NATO-EU, is deemed the best Policy course for China despite its historical or on-going differences wid Russia.
versus
* SAME, CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > JAPAN'S POTENTIAL NUCLEAR ARSENAL IS BIGGER THAN CHINA, INDIA, + PAKISTAN | US CIRCUMVENTED LAWS TO HELP JAPAN ACCUMULATE TONS OF PLUTONIUM: DC BUREAU.
Approxi 70 tons of Weapons-Grade Plutonium since the 1980's.
* WAFF > RUSSIA PREPARES FOR GENERAL MILITARY CONFLICT FROM CAUCASUS TO PERSIAN GULF, VIEWS US MILITARY INVOLVEMENT AS INEVITABLE.
* CHINESE DAILY FORUM > "RUMORS ABOUT NATO MILITARY BASES [Bases] IN RUSSIA" - A PROVOCATION!? As per Russ Commies = Communist Party of the Russian Federation [KPRF].
Moscow says are MINOR/TEMPORARY STORAGE FACILITIES located at Ulyanovsk AB are under Russian control = tote security.
KPRF = demands Vladvedev Govt in Moscow to D *** NG IT, GET 'EM OUTTA HERE - NO IFFS, ANDS, MAYBES, PERHAPS, ... ... OR BORSCH!
Robert Mugabe has struck a secret "gentleman's agreement" to hand over power in Zimbabwe to his feared defence minister, Emmerson Mnangagwa, sources close to the two men have revealed. Insiders say that Mr Mugabe, aged 88 and now in office for three decades, will stand as Zanu PF's candidate in elections one last time before handing over to Mr Mnangagwa, a former spy chief nicknamed "The Crocodile" for his ruthless reputation.
The pact between Mr Mugabe and Mr Mnangagwa is alleged to have taken place at State House in Harare in April 2008, after the president failed to secure an outright majority over Mr Tsvangirai. According to a long-serving Zanu PF minister who witnessed the meeting, the embattled Mr Mugabe offered Mr Mnangagwa the future presidency if he could help ensure that things went Mr Mugabe's way in the second round.
In the clearest sign yet that he is being groomed for the top job, Mr Mnangagwa, 65, was recently dispatched to Tehran where he met Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a key anti-Western ally. Zanu-PF colleagues say he is the one man feared even more than Mr Mugabe, a reputation he gained as CIO head during the suppression of the rival Zapu party in 1980s. In later years he has been seen as Zanu-PF's chief "money man", helping organise lucrative concessions linked to gold and diamond mining.
[Yemen Post] The Saudi Ministerial Council on Monday called on all Yemeni political forces to support the efforts of President Abd Rabu Mansour Hadi to continue the implementation of a power transfer deal brokered by the GCC and backed by the US, media outlets reported.
In a statement at the end of its meeting, headed by King of the Arabians, Sheikh of the Burning Sands Abdullah ... Fifth out of 37 sons of King Abdulaziz to ascend to the throne. He is, after his half-brothers Bandar and Musa'id, the third eldest of the living sons of Abdul Aziz ibn Saud. Abdullah's mother is from the Rashid clan, longtime rivals of the Saud. He has 6 sons and 15 daughters and about $20 billion. His youngest son is just seven years old... , the Council stressed the importance of the power transfer deal to put an end to Yemen's problems, they said. The deal was signed in November after months of turmoil in Yemen.
The statement coincided with a strongly worded warning from the countries backing the deal including the GCC, the US and others to ex-president Saleh and his loyalists that international sanctions will be imposed against them if they hinder the deal and the UN resolution 2014.
Under the deal, Saleh was given full immunity from prosecution and his aides were given immunity but not from terrorist crimes.
The Saudi al-Madina newspaper quoted a diplomat who was not named, as saying the warning came after half-brother of Saleh resisted a decree by Hadi sacking him from his post as the commander of the Air Force, and reappointing him as an advisor to the Defense Minister.
Some senior commanders in the armed and security forces are still relatives of Saleh and those who are very loyal to him including his son, Ahmed, the commander of the elite republican guard.
After he was removed, Saleh's half-brother, Muhammad Saleh, refused to hand over the post to his successor and his supporters surrounded Sanaa International Airport threatening to shoot down any leaving or incoming planes. The airport suspended all flights on Saturday and reopened the next day.
Other commanders were also reported to have resisted Hadi's decrees, which come within reforms in the army.
Since he took office, Hadi has also fired other bigwigs in civil offices, known as very loyal to Saleh.
All decrees have been applauded by the Yemeni people and other countries, especially those sponsoring the power transfer deal.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/10/2012
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For a map, click here For a map of Coahuila state, click here Updated with new information from El Diario de Coahuila news daily
By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
A total of four unidentified armed suspects died in an exchange of gunfire Monday in Castaños municipality in Coahuila state, according to Mexican news accounts.
A Mexican Army unit on road patrol observed a Chevrolet Cheyenne extended cab pickup truck in the town near the intersection of calles Zaragoza and Matamoros, which then attempted to flee the scene. Several of its occupants opened fire on the army unit.
The ensuing pursuit passed by Castaños city hall. The gunfire precipitated the temporary evacuation of about 80 individuals.
Army return fire killed all three passengers and the driver. Following the gunfight, soldiers recovered four AR-15 rifles, one submachine gun, 58 weapons magazines, 1,258 rounds of ammunition, eight bulletproof vests and one grenade. The truck had been reported stolen.
An unidentified woman was hit by the pickup truck as it attempted to elude the army patrol. An unidentified Coahuila state police agent was also wounded in the crossfire.
Castaños is five kilometers south of Monclova city and is on Mexico Highway 57, which leads to the border city of Piedras Negras. The site is also roughly 50 kilometers north of the state capital of Coahuila, Saltillo, which has recently been the site of several repeated confrontations between rival criminal gangs and Mexican security forces in including Mexican Army units.
Castaños is also 50 kilometers northwest of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon.
Nearly all Mexican federal agencies including Secretaria de Defensa Nacional (SEDENA), the controlling agency for the Mexican Army and Air Force, Secretaria de Marina (SEMAR), the controlling agency for the Mexican Navy and others have completely shut down their news functions in accordance with Article 41 of the Constitution of the United States of Mexico, which forbids government propaganda or news of any kind to be released during a federal election campaign.
Various state agencies, though not all, are observing the Article 41 suspensions.
Article 41 news suspensions are expected to be resumed the day after the July 1st presidential and federal legislators elections.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
[Dawn] The Human Rights Commission of Pakistain (HRCP) in its annual report 2011 mentioned that at least 943 women were killed in the name of honour. The data is based on media monitoring and field reports from the HRCP volunteers, and the number of victims of honour-related violence could be much higher as such cases often go unreported.
The report made public in early March states that the purported reasons given for this were illicit relations in 595 cases and the demand to marry of their own choice in 219 cases. In 180 cases the murderers were a brother and in 226 cases husband of the victim. Only 20 women killed in the name of honour were reported to have been provided medical aid before they died.
Though changes have been made in the relevant laws, but a lot more is still needed to check this practice. Still a mindset exists in the society which supports this practice on different pretexts. On this issue there is a clear divide in the society, which is also evident from judgments emanating from the superior courts. In some of the cases the courts favoured accused
persons on the ground of "grave and sudden provocation" whereas in other decisions the courts did not accept this ground for an honour-related murder.
In one case reported in 2008, the Lahore High Court ruled that killing over question of family honour on provocation had been accepted as an extenuating ground for grant of lesser punishment. It was added that murder committed on account of "ghairat" (honour) being not equivalent to "qatl-e-amd" (intentional murder) accused was entitled to same concession.
In that case the accused/appellant was convicted by the trial court for killing two of his women family members and was sentenced to death. The high court ruled that conviction of the accused under section 302 (a) of Pakistain Penal Code (PPC) was consequently altered to section 302 (c) and his death sentence was reduced to 20 years rigorous imprisonment.
In another case in 2006 the LHC ruled that family honour killings were to be discouraged, but it did not mean that the benefits of mitigation were not to be given at all to the accused in whose house someone had trespassed and invaded privacy to fulfill his lust. The same year in another judgment the LHC simply ruled that record having established that it was a case
of family honour, award of capital sentence to accused was not justified.
In another verdict the LHC ruled in 2007 that "human life was very sacred, but at the same time prevalent social setup, traditions and customs could not be ignored where men would sacrifice their lives to safeguard the honour of their womenfolk, which was not considered a big sacrifice in any manner." It was added that no religion allowed widespread immorality to destroy the fabric of a family life.
Contrary to these verdicts, the courts in some other cases ruled that honour-related murder could not be termed as mitigating circumstances which warrant lesser punishment to perpetrators. A bench of the Supreme Court ruled in 2004 that "it is correct that in our society, the illicit liaison of a female is not tolerated but mere suspicion of such relations cannot be an excuse to commit murder and claim mitigating circumstances for lesser punishment".
In one of the cases in 2009 the LHC ruled that the murder based on "ghairat", was not a mitigating circumstance for awarding a lesser sentence. It observed that nobody has any right nor can anybody be allowed to take law in own hands to take the life of anybody in the name of "ghairat."
It was observed that neither the law nor religion permits so-called "honour killing" which amounts to murder (qatl-e-amd). "Such inquisitive and vile act is violative of fundamental rights as enshrined in Article 9 of the Constitution, which provides that no person would be deprived of life or liberty except in accordance with law and any custom or usage in that respect is void under Art.9(1) of the Constitution," the court ruled.
Presently, the PPC does not contain any provision which can mitigate the offence of honour-related killing.
Experts believe that all the stakeholders, including the judiciary, civil society and media, have to play their active role in creating awareness of the law so as to check this illegal practice.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/10/2012
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A team of U.S. experts is in Pakistan to assist in recovery operations, two days after an avalanche buried more than 135 Pakistani soldiers and civilians in what is known as the world's highest battlefield. U.S. embassy spokesman Mark Stroh told VOA that in response to a Pakistani request, an eight-member team of American experts has arrived in Islamabad to assist in the rescue operation.
"This is a team that is trained to operate in search and rescue operations at very, very high altitudes. They are trained in recovery, mass casualty medical support and things of this nature," said Stroh. "Their intention is to do whatever is required from the Pakistani side. They have not yet been able to travel to Siachen because the weather has not permitted that travel."
#1
"two days" ? This was up way longer, no? or was that another avalanche?
With full faith and effort, 1. Those men would not have been on sand to start with but nevermind that and India and spat stuff.
Will any of them be alive to kill US later?
Just a question . I know it's kind of late.
According to AFP, the northern Pakistani town of Gilgit has been under an indefinite curfew since April 3, when at least 14 people were killed and over 50 wounded in two separate incidents involving sectarian violence between opposing Sunni and minority Shia communities.
As a result, an estimated 120 foreigners including Chinese, German, Japanese, Korean and Thai tourists (including 77 Japanese), were evacuated from Gilgit in a C-130 that was flown up to Gilgit to pick them up and return them to Islamabad. What the hell were they thinking? I'm genuinely curious to know. What is there to see in Gilgit? Why would anyone go there when there are so many other places in the world?
Clashes erupted in the northern town on April 3 after gunmen opened fire during a strike called by Sunnis over the arrest of a leader for his alleged involvement in a sectarian attack in February that left 18 dead. Five people also died in the April 3 incident.
Also on April 3 in Chilas, a Sunni-dominated town about 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of Gilgit, a mob blocked the main Karakoram Highway and killed nine Shia Muslims.
COMMENT: Perhaps it is time for a reality check for the tourists described above, who seemingly believe that Pakistan is now among the world's top ten tourist destinations.
From all indications many of these tourists have not been keeping up on current events as they relate to Pakistan, as demonstrated by the assassination of Chinese tourist Hua Jiang, 40, in Peshewar by a faction of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TPP) and the kidnapping of several foreigners over the last year.
#1
If you are American and want to travel, Please look at the State Department website first - and also, do not play in hostile countries. There are people who will hole you up and kill you.
Do not put our Embassies and Military personnel in more danger by having to find your stupid ass and do not expect to not find a bill afterwards. This is where your ignorance of the world must continue.
There is too much time fishing out people from world ghettos when they are making a ghetto of their own.
Why are such nasty places so enticing for you fools anyway?
If I hear of one more hiking trip on any border....
(Sh.M.Network)-President Museveni has cautioned UPDF soldiers waiting to be deployed toSomaliathis week against involvement in sexual relationships with Somali women.
Engaging in extra-marital affairs, Gen. Museveni said, is indiscipline and would "jeopardise" the peacekeeping mission.
Gen. Museveni was on Friday officiating at the passout of 1,700 reservists at Singo Training Centre in Nakaseke District.
They will reinforce the twoUgandabattle groups inSomaliaas they prepare for offensives against al-Shabaab militants.
"General Museveni strongly cautioned the soldiers to be vigilant and desist from extra-marital affairs while on their assignment inSomalia. He commended the UPDF leadership for their role in the training of the soldiers," a State House statement said.
President Museveni attributed the "impressive success" registered by the UPDF inSomaliato its discipline, thorough training and solidarity.
Only one case of sexual misconduct has been reported since Ugandan troops were deployed inSomaliain 2007. It involved a UPDF peacekeeper who had a child with a Somali woman inMogadishu.
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(Sh. M. Network)- Witnesses say a kaboom has killed at least 8 people and maimed 40 others, some of them seriously inSomalia's southern town ofBaidoain Bay region, just 250 Km south of the capital,Mogadishu.
Mohammed Ibrahim Habsade, a Somali MP confirmed the death to Shabelle Media station inMogadishuby phone while he was in the town. He also said the blast was hidden in a small refrigerator and has been targeted government soldier in military convoy at a market in the heart of Baidoa early hours on Monday.
Figures on the casualties were reported to be both soldiers and civilians who were nearby the site of the blast. The victimized have been rushed to the hospitals in Baidoa for treatment.
No group has so far grabbed credit for the attack, but security forces were put on high alert after the kaboom to avert further attacks.
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[Dawn] The government on Monday announced relaxation in the curfew which was imposed in Gilgit after sectarian festivities claimed at least 14 lives, DawnNews reported.
Officials said that the curfew would be relaxed from 2pm to 5pm.
Moreover, people would not be allowed to wear jackets or chadar during this time period.
The town has been under an indefinite curfew since April 3. There was a two-hour relaxation only on Friday.
The region had remained cut off from the rest of the country because of suspension of traffic on Karakoram Highway.
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Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff used a visit to the White House on Monday to complain about US monetary policy as she made her case for international action against currency "manipulation" directly to Barack Obama. In a meeting that highlighted the occasionally uneasy relationship between the two countries despite their potential to be strong partners, Rousseff said that excessive monetary expansion in the US and Europe was hampering growth in countries such as Brazil.
Brazil apparently is no fan of quantitative easing...
Brazil has a socialist economy. Quantitative easing is a feature, not a bug.
Their own easing, sure. Not ours.
Brazil is keen to win public support for its efforts to find a multilateral solution to what it calls the "currency war", competitive devaluations of exchange rates by countries hoping to improve their export prospects.
Rousseff has complained about a "monetary tsunami" that has swamped emerging markets, inflating the value of their currencies and rendering their industries uncompetitive.
"We expressed Brazil's concern with the expansionary monetary policies in rich countries ... which is leading to the depreciation of developed country currencies and compromising growth among emerging economies," she said, sitting beside Mr Obama after their meeting in the Oval Office. Her comments mirror similar complaints she made to the German chancellor Angela Merkel during a visit to Germany last month.
Brazil wants the issue to be addressed eventually through dispute-solving mechanisms in the World Trade Organisation. Rousseff's administration won a small victory late last month when it helped to organise a WTO symposium to discuss the matter.
Although few analysts expect the initiative to amount to anything concrete in the longer run because of sharp international differences over the issue, any US recognition of the currency war would be an important moral victory for Brazil. It would play well domestically for the Rousseff government, which has launched a high-profile programme to shield domestic industry from the effects of a strong currency.
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#1
It would play well domestically for the Rousseff government, which has launched a high-profile programme to shield domestic industry from the effects of a strong currency.
[Dawn] Chairman Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaaf (PTI) Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who ain't the brightest knife in the national drawer... Monday said that his party was ready to face both PML-N and PPP in the forthcoming general elections.
Speaking at a news conference at PTI Central Secretariat on the occasion of Tashfeen Safdar's joining of PTI, he said that the motives of both parties were similar, adding both have to form a caretaker government.
He said that both parties will become coalition partners in the upcoming elections.
Imran Khan, lashing out at the PML-N, said that the party was playing a dual game, adding first it enjoyed power for three years and then separated and became part of the opposition.
He alleged that Nisar and Nawaz came into power due to the military. He further said that the Supreme Court should take notice of money given by the ISI to other politicians.
He claimed that he had not received a single penny, saying he will quit politics if it was proved that he was paid by the ISI.
To a question regarding Maulana Fazalur Rehman's opposition for the resumption of NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... supplies, he said that he was the only person who has played "Noora Kushti" at a greater level then anyone else has ever played.
He said during the Musharraf era, Fazalur Rehman was apart of a friendly opposition and after that became the right hand of President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... He further said that PML-N has secretly agreed to restore NATO supplies. Imran Khan said that the war on terror it was not our war, adding that billions of dollars have been spent and Pakistain has rendered sacrifices of thousands of lives.
When speaking about the head money announced by the US on Hafiz Saeed ...founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba and its false-mustache offshoot Jamaat-ud-Dawa. The United Nations declared the JuD a terrorist organization in 2008 and Hafiz Saeed a terrorist as its leader. Hafiz, JuD and LeT are wholly-owned subsidiaries of the Pak intel apparatus, so that amounted to squat... , he said everyone has complete confidence in the Supreme Court. He said it was common practise that if someone's crime was unproven, he could not be declared a criminal.
Imran Khan said that announcing head money for Hafiz Saeed was wrong, adding any sovereign country does not allow this kind of move.
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[Yemen Post] Former President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh's ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... eldest son, Ahmed, affirmed his support for the newly-elected President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, calling on the media of the National Unity Government to review its policies.
In a statement released Sunday from the Republican Guard headquarters which was reported by the GPC party, Ahmed said he will stand by Hadi as he stood by his father, stressing that he will support the constitutional legitimacy at any time.
The Republican Guard discusses the decrees issued by the commander in chief of the armed forces with the state's leadership through the legal means not in the media and press, said the statement.
The Republican Guard forces will work as a part of the armed and security forces, which have been and still defend Yemen regardless of the minority who took advantage of their military posts in furthering personal and partisan interests, added the statement.
The Republican Guard leadership called on the media to revise its polices in a way that copes with the importance and delicacy of the current stage.
Ahmed, who was once the one time apparent heir of his father's rule, is the commander of the Republican Guard, the best trained and equipped troops in Yemen.
The elite republican guards forces had a leading role in helping Saleh endure more than a year of tenacious protests against his long rule and in cracking down on peaceful protesters.
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[Tripoli Post] Libya has once again confirmed that it will not send Seif al-Islam Qadaffy to the International Criminal Court ... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ... (ICC) in The Hague, but will instead be put on trial in his own country by Libyan judges, on charges of financial corruption, murder and rape, the country's justice minister Ali Ashour has said.
Although the ICC says it has jurisdiction in the case and wants Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of thich is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... to hand him over. Mr Ashour said Seif remains in a secret prison in the custody of the Zintan rebels who caught him last year.
The ICC ordered Libya on Wednesday to "comply with its obligations to enforce the warrant of arrest" and surrender Seif al-Islam to the court's custody without delay, and rejected Libya's request to postpone his surrender. Then on Sunady an ICC delegation arrived in Tripoli to discuss the case with the justice ministry.
Ashour also denied allegations by an ICC defence lawyer that Seif was being mistreated and beaten. "He eats with the people who guard him, and he is in good condition," Ashour said.
Pressure is mounting on Libya to hand Seif to the ICC. The court says that a UN Security Council Resolution obliges Libya to cooperate with the court, and Tripoli's failure to hand over Seif al-Islam could result in it being reported to the council. Human rights organizations say the country is unable to give him a fair trial.
The ICC says it has jurisdiction over the case because it issued warrants last year for the arrest of Muammar Qadaffy ... the like of whose wardrobe will never be seen again. At least that's what we hope... , Saif al-Islam and intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi, who was tossed in the slammer last month in Mauritania.
However, we can't all be heroes. Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by... Ashour said on Sunday that there is no intention to hand him Seif over to the ICC, and "Libyan law is the right system to be used to try Seif Qadaffy".
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[An Nahar] Syrian security forces and pro-regime militias have executed more than 100 civilians and rebel fighters in attacks on protest hubs since late 2011, Human Rights Watch ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world... said on Monday.
Many of the summary and extrajudicial executions were carried out last month, and at least 85 of those killed were residents who never took part in fighting, including women and kiddies, said the New York-based watchdog.
HRW, which made the allegations in a 25-page report based on the accounts of witnesses, urged the United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... Security Council to ensure such crimes are documented.
"In a desperate attempt to crush the uprising, Syrian forces have executed people in cold blood, civilians and opposition fighters alike," HRW emergencies researcher Ole Solvang said in a statement.
"They are doing it in broad daylight and in front of witnesses, evidently not concerned about any accountability for their crimes."
The report said many of the executions occurred in the flashpoint provinces of Homs and Idlib, among them "at least 47 people, mainly women and kiddies" in the city of Homs on March 11 and 12.
It said that in such cases, the security forces acting alone or together with Shabiha snuffies executed people trying to flee, shot or stabbed people in their homes, or executed residents while conducting house searches.
In the report, one resident of Homs' Baba Amr district described how the army executed his brother and four of his neighbors when they overran the city on March 2
"Louai, who asked that his real name not be used for fear of reprisals, said that the army first entered his neighbors' house, dragged the four men who were there outside, and slaughtered them with knives in front of their families.
"The soldiers then came into Louai's house, and, when he and his brother raised their hands, shot at them both, wounding Louai and killing his brother," said HRW.
The watchdog appealed to the Security Council to ensure any U.N. mission mandated to oversee a peace plan drawn up by international envoy Kofi Annan ...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo... is allowed to collect evidence of such crimes.
The plan on ending the year-long bloodshed in Syria appeared to be in jeopardy on Monday, less than 24 hours before government forces were supposed to start pulling back their armor from protest hubs.
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#1
Hey, you can't execute me! I have a letter here that "strongly deplores" that sort of thing! See, your bullets can't penetrate it.
[An Nahar] The Syrian rebel army said Monday it is ready to respect a truce brokered by U.N.-Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... envoy Kofi Annan ...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo... if the regime of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad The Scourge of Hama... abides by the peace deal.
"We have announced that we will cease operations against the army of the regime on the morning of April 10, and we will respect this pledge if the regime commits to respecting the terms of the (U.N.) plan," Free Syrian Army front man Colonel Kassem Saadeddine said in a statement received by AFP.
He said the FSA reiterated its "total commitment to the plan" which demands the regime withdraw from protest cities on Tuesday with a complete ceasefire set for 48 hours later.
The peace plan appears to be in jeopardy after the regime laid down conditions for a pullout, saying it would only carry out its side of the bargain if rebels first handed over written guarantees to stop fighting.
Rebel army chief Colonel Riyadh al-Asaad countered: "We are committed to the Annan plan... We will present our guarantees and our commitments to the international community, but not to this (Syrian) regime."
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[Dawn] Demanding immediate recovery of "kidnapped" Hindu girl Asha Kumari and social worker and religious figure Gangaram Motiani, a large number of Hindu community and civil society members staged a demonstration at the Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... Press Club on Sunday.
The participants of the demonstration organised by the Pakistain Hindu Council (PHC) rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud for the immediate recovery of Asha Kumari and Gangaram Motiani. Speaking on the occasion, PHC chief Ramesh Vankwani said Asha Kumari was kidnapped in Jacobabad over 41 days back, and even the March 8 Supreme Court directive for her recovery had not been followed by the police.
He said that while the minor girl had not been recovered, Gangaram Motiani, who is the president of the Hinglaj Mata Shewa Mandli, had been kidnapped by people in police uniform in a Bela area of Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... on April 6.
The incident happened just days before one of the largest annual Hindu community gatherings at the Hinglaj Mata temple in Hingol National Park, he added.
He claimed that Mr Motiani was kidnapped to sabotage the three-day annual fair starting on Monday, adding that people from all over the world were coming to attend the event.
He warned that if the kidnapped people were not recovered by Tuesday, the community members returning from the fair would stage a sit-in at the Zero Point on the Coastal Highway on Wednesday.
He said kidnappings of minority Hindu community members were being carried out to harass them to force them to leave the country, but they would not migrate to any country.
He claimed that Hindu girls were kidnapped, compelled to change their religion and married off by force while Hindu children and men were kidnapped mostly for ransom.
He said he suspected that the kidnapping of Mr Motiani was not carried out for ransom because he was not a rich man and he might be have been kidnapped for his religious activities.
Community leaders Mangla Sharma, Dr Verma, Dr Lajpat, Dr Jaipal and others on the occasion demanded that the kidnappers were nabbed and tried under the Anti-Terrorism Act and severely punished according to the law.
Members of the Young Hindus Forum, civil society organizations, including the Aurat Foundation and Minority Committee of Pakistain, took part in the demonstration.
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[An Nahar] Al-Jadeed TV cameraman Ali Shaaban was killed on Monday in the northern border area of Wadi Khaled when he and two of his colleagues came under gunfire from the Syrian side of the border.
Reporter Hussein Khreis and cameraman Abed Khayyat managed to escape unharmed.
The TV network said the crew was in the area with the aim of filming a report about the situation there.
Shaaban was rushed to Al-Salam Hospital in al-Qbayyat where he later died of his wounds.
Khreis confirmed that he and his colleagues came under gunfire from the Syrian side of the border and that they were inside Lebanese territory.
Al-Jadeed accused the Syrian army of the deadly shooting, saying it shot up its team which was on the Lebanese side of the border.
"Ali Shaaban became a martyr after the Syrian army opened fire on the al-Jadeed car," the channel said.
Khreis said the shooting took place even though the television team had "greeted the Syrian forces guarding the border."
"We were filming the Syrian areas, but we were in Lebanese territory, and we chatted with the Syrian brothers (border guards) and continued our trip," said Khreis.
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#1
Brothers.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
04/10/2012 1:47
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[Bangla Daily Star] Abul Kalam Azad, a runaway war crimes suspect widely known as Bachchu Razakar, decamped to India through the Hili border in Dinajpur on April 2, Rab said yesterday, quoting his jugged sons.
Members of Rapid Action Battalion yesterday picked up Azad's elder son Shah Mohammad Faisal Azad, 36, younger son Abul Kashem Muhammad Mushfiq Billah alias Jihad, 34, brother-in-law Kazi Ehtesham-ul Huq Liton, 40, from a house in the capital's Sutrapur around 5:30am and friend Abul Kashem Azad, president of C & F Agent Association, from Hili Port in the evening.
The four were tossed in the slammer for helping Azad flee the country, said Commander M Sohail, director of Legal and Media wing of Rab.
Azad is facing an arrest warrant for committing crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War. The International Crimes Tribunal-2 had issued the warrant on April 3.
Azad left Dhaka on March 30 and stayed at hotel Capila, owned by Abul Kashem Azad, at Hili Port, added Sohail.
Earlier on Sunday, Azad's daughter Samania Zannati filed a writ petition with the High Court seeking its directives to the government to produce before it two "missing" sons and a brother-in-law of Azad.
Samania claimed that law enforcers had picked up her brothers Faisal and Jihad and maternal uncle Kazi Ehtesham-ul Huq Liton early on Friday from Dhaka and her family still did not know of their whereabouts.
According to the petition, plainclothes members of Detective Branch of police and Rab picked up Faisal and Jihad from the residence of one of their relatives in Gandaria and Ehtesham from his Shyampur home.
The families of the trio have looked for them at different cop shoppes, but police denied any one of them had been jugged.
Contacted by The Daily Star, the petitioner's counsel barrister Nasir Uddin Ahmed Ashim said his client had requested some coppers to record a general diary over the incident, but they did not.
The HC bench of Justice Abdul Awal and Justice Md Ashraful Kamal yesterday fixed today for hearing the petition, added Nasir.
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#1
Reckon the 'missing' family members will be found on 'the spot' in some allah-forsaken upazila with a round of bullet nearby?????
Unlikely the stutter gun will be there, having been polished to a rich shine prior to being resecreted in the velvet lined case....
A British Chinook helicopter made an emergency landing during an exercise in the Arizona desert, US and British military officials said. Seven people were sent to the hospital for evaluations but all were reported uninjured.
The crew was practicing how to land the aircraft 15 miles northeast of Yuma Saturday afternoon when 'something went wrong,' said a spokeswoman for Naval Air Facility El Centro in California. The facility hosts allied troops throughout the year for training over the California-Arizona border because the area's craggy mountains and hot, dusty conditions are similar to Afghanistan's harsh environment.
#2
Flying machines are not Hondas. The last crash Pilot was a Hero and dumped fuel and hit the only place he thought he could hit before ejecting. Then apologized for the crash landing. What awesomeness.
I hope the Brits continue training, and properly check this.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Police fired tear gas Monday to disperse a rally on a central Tunis avenue where demonstrations are banned.
Hundreds of demonstrators, marking Martyrs' Day and protesting against the ban imposed on March 28, sought shelter in neighbouring streets and shops from baton-wielding riot police who beat and jugged protesters.
Wrapped in Tunisian flags and shouting "We're not afraid, the people are here", the demonstrators had begun running up Habib Bourguiba Avenue around 10:00 am (0800 GMT), defying cop shoppeed along the main thoroughfare with helmets and batons.
"I'm here to honour our deaders, and to protest against the ban on demonstrating here. We're the ones who freed Tunisia, they don't have the right to ban our peaceful marches," septuagenarian protester Mohsen Ben Henda told AFP.
Other demonstrators said they were protesting against governing Islamist party Ennahda.
"We came here today to demand our freedoms, to denounce the repression that Ennahda militias inflict on us every day," said Raed Korbi, a young doctor who had taken refuge in a cafe.
"What's happening today is terrible," said a woman who gave her name only as Yamina and said she was a lawyer, tears welling in her eyes.
"We are peaceful people and they bar us from using Habib Bourguiba Avenue, but they gave it to the Salafists," ...Salafists are ostentatiously devout Moslems who figure the ostentation of their piety gives them the right to tell others how to do it and to kill those who don't listen to them... a Moslem fundamentalist group, she said.
Tunisia's interior minister banned demonstrations on Bourguiba Avenue, a symbol of the Tunisian revolution and a common site for rallies, shortly after Islamist protesters demanding sharia law last month attacked actors who had gathered for a separate rally for World Theatre Day.
Saturday, police forcefully dispersed a protest by thousands of unemployed graduates who tried to march on the avenue, wounding about 20, according to organisers.
"I'm shocked," former Tunisian Human Rights League chief Mokhtar Trifi told AFP. "The people whom the revolution swept to power are now those who stop us from demonstrating. This is a really sad day."
"Look, this is the free Tunisia, the Tunisia of Ennahda," shouted another demonstrator.
A correspondent for French news weekly Le Point and the editor in chief of Tunisian online news service Kapitalis were roughed up by police.
The front man for the interior ministry, Khaled Tarrouche, meanwhile defended the ban.
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[An Nahar] The March 14 forces warned the cabinet on Monday against handing over any Syrian refugees who entered the country to escape the Syrian regime's crackdown against protests, the Kuwaiti newspaper al-Seyassah reported.
According to sources the opposition will take all the necessary measures on the issue and will hold the government responsible for the repercussions of such a decision on Leb.
Al-Mustaqbal ... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri... Movement MP Khaled Zahraman rejected handing over the Syrian refugees who have decamped the deadly crackdown by the regime on protestors as it violates the international treaties.
"If Leb responded to the Syrian regime's demands, then Prime Minister Najib Miqati's cabinet will be the regime's accomplice in killing the Syrian people," Zahraman said.
He lashed out at ministers who described the Syrian refugees as "terrorists" during the last cabinet session.
Zahraman said that the government's failure to approve a request by Social Affairs Minister Wael Abou Faour to allocate LL100 million to provide more humanitarian assistance to the Syrian refugees is "shameful".
Media reports said on Saturday that Lebanese authorities are hesitant in handing over Syrian refugees to Damascus ...Home to a staggering array of terrorist organizations... , fearing that such a move would lead to increased international pressure on Leb.
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[Yemen Post] Unidentified gunnies suspected of having links to Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) shot a soldier dead in the southern Yemen port city of Aden, security official told Yemen Post on Monday.
Gunmen killed the soldier in Al-Mansoura district of Aden this morning, said the security official, declining to give any further details.
Separately, local sources from Aden told Yemen Post anonymously that some pro-separation gunnies blocked the main roads in the city in a bid to forcibly impose a complete civil disobedience.
They said sporadic gunshots are heard every now and then from many areas in the city, especially from Al-Mansoura Central Prison, striking fear and panic into the hearts of the residents.
Online Aden News website reported that the main roads of Aden are blocked and that the Southern Movement followers are firing gunshots into the sky.
The Pro-Secessionist Southern Movement, which calls for an outright independence of the south, is very active in Aden, exploiting the
southerners hardships and poverty.
Security situation has spiraled in Aden recently, with cut-throats of Ansar al-Sharia ...a Yemeni Islamist militia which claims it is not part of al-Qaeda, even though it works about the same and for the same ends... , al-Qaeda offshoot in the country, roaming the main streets of the city unchallenged.
The terror network has taken over some towns in the south, taking an advantage of the week, distracted government.
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Posted by: Fred ||
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Top|| File under:
#1
Halters...why do they hate us???
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
04/10/2012 1:39
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#2
Happy Birthday/Daily Gam Shot
Chyler Leigh aka Dr. Lexie Grey in "Grey's Anatomy (TV 2005 )" aka Janey Briggs in "Not Another Teen Movie (2001)" aka Cindy in "Kickboxing Academy (1997)" aka Molly Reins in "Brake (2012)" (age 30)
[Dawn] These days the capital police are busy trying to create a "top quality working environment". As a handout of a meeting held on April 3 reveals, the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Bani Amin Khan has directed all station house officers and supervisory officers to repair and construct boundary walls, and provide quality mess and recreational facilities to employees within 15 days.
Furthermore, the handout states that the IGP and the AIG (operations) Tahir Alam Khan will be paying surprise visits to cop shoppes and if any shortages are found then the relevant staff would face "strict" disciplinary action.
However, the way to a man's heart remains through his stomach... it is most ironic and sad that the IGP is laying so much stress on improving the conditions in which coppers work and not the manner in which they conduct business.
As investigations into two recent cases by Dawn reveal, such superficial measures will in no way help the police redeem their image -- corruption and nepotism afflict all ranks and need to be dealt with urgently.
The first case is of Zaraq Khan who has lodged a complaint with the Aabpara police that an official who was investigating the case of his brother's disappearance demanded Rs30,000 through his agent and received part-payment of it.Zaraq Khan's brother Faiz Ali Akbar, a local officer of the German embassy, disappeared on March 22 and his body was found on March 28 in Rawal Dam. This case was highly publicised in the local media as well.
According to the FIR, a copy of which is available with Dawn, Zaraq Khan first filed an FIR on March 23 about his brother's disappearance and the same day Mian Imran was appointed as the investigating officer (IO). Mr Khan met Mian Imran on March 24, and during this meeting he alleges that the IO assured him that he will give him good news and asked him to pay Mushtaq (his agent) Rs30,000.
Mr Khan conceded in his FIR that he paid Rs10,000 and the very next day he was told that his brother's cycle of violence had been found. The same evening, he was also informed by the IO that they had shortlisted some suspects.
On March 26, the IO rounded up three suspects -- a girl, her father and brother -- who admitted that they had caught Faiz in front of their house talking to the girl but had let him go after beating him. Two days later, Faiz's body was found from Rawal Dam.
In his FIR, Mr Khan has explicitly nominated the IO and demanded justice and legal action against him. Following this thought the police swiftly set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock the agent, Mushtaq, recovered Rs9,000 from him and sent him on judicial remand. However, the man who has no enemies isn't anybody and has never done anything... no action has been taken against the IO even though his name appears there.
In a bid to save their colleague's skin, the police are claiming that Mushtaq and Zaraq Khan were natives of the same village and Mushtaq was extorting money from him (Zaraq Khan), and the IO has no relationship with him.
Interestingly, when Dawn contacted the complainant, Zaraq Khan, he first said he did not want to comment on the issue and denied lodging any such complaint. When probed more with reference to the FIR number and his statement recorded as part of it, he simply laughed it off.Meanwhile, ...back at the secret hideout, Scarface Al sneeringly put his proposition to little Nell... in another unrelated case, one suspect got it easy because of alleged contacts within the police. On March 20, the Bhara Kahu police in a raid set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock a couple, both doctors by profession, for their alleged involvement in selling unwanted newborn babies and conducting illegal abortions.
Even though the male doctor was produced in the court of law the very next day and also sent for judicial remand, his wife was neither nominated in the FIR nor produced in the court of law with him. Rather she was produced in the court of law on March 22.
A source within the police informed this news hound that the female doctor was related to a senior officer in the capital police who did not let her name be nominated in the FIR. However, today is that tomorrow you were thinking about yesterday... there was no way to independently verify this allegation.
Even then it's quite obvious that the police need to take a deep look within and revamp rather than going for surface measures that will not improve the quality of the police service.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/10/2012
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[An Nahar] Leb was on the verge of civil strife last week, similar to the situation that pervaded the country after the 2005 liquidation of former Premier Rafik Hariri, after news of the failed liquidation attempt against Lebanese Forces A Christian political party founded by Bashir Gemayel, who was then bumped off when he was elected president of Leb... leader Samir Geagea ... Geagea was imprisoned by the Syrians and their puppets for 11 years in a dungeon in the third basement level of the Lebanese Ministry of Defense. He was released after the Cedar Revolution in 2005 ... broke out, reported the Kuwaiti al-Seyassah on Monday.
A former Lebanese security official residing in Gay Paree told the daily: "The moment the attempt was announced, hundreds of LF, Phalange Party The Kataeb (Phalange) party was founded by Pierre Gemayel in 1936, who modeled the party after Spanish and Italian Fascist parties he had observed as an Olympic athlete during the 1936 Summer Olympics held in Berlin, then Nazi Germany. The movement's uniforms originally included brown shirts and members used the Nazi salute. Despite the party's uniform, its strong sense of nationalism and dedication to a single charismatic leader, the Lebanese Kataeb was not and never became a fascist party nor did it espouse a totalitarian ideology. , and National Liberal Front fighters, as well as Lebanese army backers, headed to the regions that surround Beirut's southern suburbs and Shiyyah area, Hizbullah and AMAL's respective stronghold."
The fighters, who came from the areas of Hazmieh and Fayyadiyeh, deployed in Ain al-Rummaneh, Baabda, and al-Antouniyeh near the Dahiyeh southern suburbs ahead of storming al-Shiyyah and later Dahiyeh, said the unnamed official.
He revealed that Lebanese intelligence confirmed that some 2,300 Christian fighters had in fact deployed in those areas.
The development could have resulted in sectarian strife, but it was avoided after it was announced that Geagea had survived the attack on his life, he added.
The official stated that Geagea and his parliamentary bloc had indirectly accused Hizbullah and its ally Free Patriotic Movement Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic... leader MP Michel Aoun ...a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah... of being behind the liquidation attempt.
This accusation can be interpreted as a sign of "an impending invasion by the Christians of the March 14 camp of the FPM regions in order to end its presence in Christian areas and return unity among the Maronite ranks," the former security official told al-Seyassah.
Last Wednesday, Geagea beat feet an liquidation attempt by snipers as he was taking a walk in the garden of his Maarab residence.
The LF leader did not make a direct accusation of who he thinks is behind the attack, saying that he will keep his thoughts to himself.
He noted however that one camp in Leb "has not and will not be a target of an liquidation."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/10/2012
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Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
Rubbish. If this had happened, it wouldn't take a week to get to the press.
Posted by: Matt ||
04/10/2012 8:55
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In the first full week of campaigning, albeit interrupted by a major holiday, Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) presidential candidate Enrique Pena Nieto extended his already commanding lead over the field of rivals by 20 points, according to graphical data published by Milenio news daily.
Enrique Pena Nieto
The latest poll shows that his other two major rivals have fallen behind, while a third, Partido Nueva Alianza (PANAL) candidate Gabriel Quatri de las Torres has gained points.
Pena Nieto has 50 percentage points, while Partido Accion Nacional (PAN) candidate Josefina Vazquez Mota has 30 percent and Partido Revolucion Democratica (PRD) candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has 19 percent.
Josefina Vazquez Mota
For the first time since his campaign began Quatri de la Torres polled more than one percent of those surveyed with 1.2 percent.
The latest poll does not factor in undecideds, which in terms of candidate and party preference is the second largest percentage of preference after the PRI candidate.
When undecideds are factored in, Pena Nieto still has a commanding lead over his field of rivals with 38.4 percent, while Vazquez Mota has slightly increased her share since last week with 21.1 percent. Lopez Obrador trails Vazquez Mota with 14 percent, an improvement of 1.5 percentage points since last week.
Pena Nieto's lead has also increased when undecideds are factored in by 2.6 percentage points.
Party preference, an indication of how votes will split for legislators, has increased for PRI as well from last week with PRI gaining 1.4 percentage points while all the other parties have fallen, PAN by three points now at 18 percent over 21 percent last week and PRD relatively steady having fallen less than one tenth of a percent.
Polling data suggests that at the moment PRI is doing everything right, while PAN is startng to slip even from its distant 2nd place spot. If these trends continue, Vazquez Mota's campaign may be forced to rethink her decision to continue with Roberto Gil as her campaign manager, this following two campaign gaffes, including less than optimal attendance by crowds at rallies.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
[Dawn] While police were on high alert and a ban was imposed on riding double in the city, there was no let-up in assassinations on Sunday, when at least three people were rubbed out by gunnies riding cycle of violences in different areas.
A 42-year-old man was killed and two workers of the Pakistain People's Party were maimed in separate incidents of firing in Orangi Town.
Ibrahim Mehroz Khan was returning home early Sunday morning when he was bumped off at Frontier Morr, said a duty officer at the Pirabad cop shoppe.
He said gunnies riding a motorbike fired at him and sped away. The victim sustained gunshot wounds to the head and chest.
The body was taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital and handed over to the victim's family after medico-legal formalities, said the official.
He was a resident of Pareshan Chowk in the Mominabad area.
Shortly afterwards, two workers of the Pakistain People's Party were targeted within the remit of the Pirabad cop shoppe. District West PPP general secretary Siddique Akbar and his
associate Haroon were maimed in the attack near Kati Pahari.
Both sustained multiple bullet wounds and were shifted to a private hospital, police said.
The official quoted party sources as saying that Akbar was also the chairman of the party's district west Zakat committee.
Just a couple of days back, three senior workers of the PPP were killed in Orangi Town.
In Nazimabad No 2, a young man was rubbed out near Inquiry Office after being kidnapped, police said.
Four men riding two motorbikes brought a hostage with them near Zia-ul-Haq School and fired multiple shots at him before speeding away, said SP Liaquatabad Division Noman
Siddiqui.
Police said the body was taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for a post-mortem examination.
Another young man was killed near old Sabzi Mandi over what police described as personal enmity.
Shakeelur Rehman, 26, was returning home when he was targeted by gunnies riding a motorbike, police said.
They added that the victim worked as a munshi at a rickshaw stand.
The police quoted the victim's family as saying that he had personal enmity with his cousins.
A case (FIR 92/2012) was registered at the PIB cop shoppe under Sections 302 (premeditated murder), 109 (abetment) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistain Penal Code against the victim's paternal cousins on a complaint of his father, Qareebur Rehman.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/10/2012
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Top|| File under:
#1
Well, if bans on pillion riding won't work, maybe they could try banning weapons.
U.N. leader the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... on Monday "strongly" deplored the fatal cross-border shootings from Syria into Leb and Turkey earlier in the day, U.N. front man Martin Nesirky said in a statement.
Ban also made a final plea for Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad The Scourge of Hama... to halt attacks on civilians ahead of a Tuesday deadline to withdraw troops and heavy guns from Syria's cities.
"The secretary general reiterates his demand that the government of Syria immediately cease all military actions against civilians and fulfill all of its commitments made through joint special envoy Kofi Annan ...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo... ," said Nesirky.
Syria had accepted Annan's plan for government troops and weapons to be withdrawn from cities by Tuesday but put up last minute conditions that opposition groups must make a written guarantee that they would lay down their arms.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/10/2012
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Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
I am sure the families of Lebanon and Turkey feel much safer now knowing they have this memo from the UN with which they can use to protect themselves.
Why the UN hadn't offered to protect them with memos before the bullets started flying and killed their family members is anyone's guess. But I am sure they are all sleeping better knowing those memos are now posted and keeping them safe from harm.
#4
Iran and Russia have a mutual defense treaty. Any attack on Iran is considered an attack on Russia. I guess this is their way of saying they mean it.
#6
To actually take out many of the facilities, they would probably need ground troops. Air strikes would set the project back a year or two, but that is about it.
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.
Chinese politician Bo Xilai, once a rising star, has been stripped of his elite Communist Party post while his wife is being investigated for the murder of a British national, state media said.
The most transparent administration ever has just invoked Executive Privilege in refusing to allow Congressman Issa and Senator Grassley to question former NSA White House staffer, Kevin O'Reilly regarding Operation Fast and Furious.
They decided it would be lawful for five of the six to be jailed for the rest of their lives in a so-called 'super-max' prison. 
Al-Qaeda has warned Britain against handing over a radical Islamic cleric to Jordan after his release from prison, saying such a move will open the "door of evil" for the British government and its people, according to an Islamist website.
An 
North Korea
[Sydney Morning Herald] Zim-bob-wean president 
A home-made 
Nawaz Sharif
[An Nahar] A peace plan for Syria was in jeopardy on Monday as deadly fresh 
...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo...
Najib Miqati
Gunmen suspected of being members of a radical Islamist sect have reportedly killed over a dozen people - including a 6-year-old girl - in recent attacks in Nigeria's restive northeast, authorities said Monday.
Robert Mugabe has struck a secret "gentleman's agreement" to hand over power in Zimbabwe to his feared defence minister, Emmerson Mnangagwa, sources close to the two men have revealed. Insiders say that Mr Mugabe, aged 88 and now in office for three decades, will stand as Zanu PF's candidate in elections one last time before handing over to Mr Mnangagwa, a former spy chief nicknamed "The Crocodile" for his ruthless reputation.
King of the Arabians, Sheikh of the Burning Sands Abdullah
[Dawn] The Human Rights Commission of Pakistain (HRCP) in its annual report 2011 mentioned that at least 943 women were killed in the name of honour. The data is based on media monitoring and field reports from the HRCP volunteers, and the number of victims of honour-related violence could be much higher as such cases often go unreported.
Somali pirates
(Sh.M.Network)-President Museveni has cautioned UPDF soldiers waiting to be deployed toSomaliathis week against involvement in sexual relationships with Somali women.
(Sh. M. Network)- Witnesses say a 
Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff used a visit to the White House on Monday to complain about US monetary policy as she made her case for international action against currency "manipulation" directly to Barack Obama. In a meeting that highlighted the occasionally uneasy relationship between the two countries despite their potential to be strong partners, Rousseff said that excessive monetary expansion in the US and Europe was hampering growth in countries such as Brazil.
Asif Ali 
International Criminal Court
[Dawn] These days the capital police are busy trying to create a "top quality working environment". As a handout of a meeting held on April 3 reveals, the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Bani Amin Khan has directed all station house officers and supervisory officers to repair and construct boundary walls, and provide quality mess and recreational facilities to employees within 15 days.
Samir Geagea
Michel Aoun
Enrique Pena Nieto
Josefina Vazquez Mota
While police were on high alert and a ban was imposed on 
Shortly afterwards, two workers of the Pakistain People's Party were targeted within the remit of the Pirabad 
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
