In a move that could change the pirate-hostage equation, Somali pirates on Friday took in a multimillion dollar ransom, then released the ship and some of the crew but kept all the Indian crew members as hostages.
A pirate told The Associated Press the Indian crew members' hostage ordeal is being prolonged in retaliation for the arrests of more than 100 Somali pirates by the Indian Navy.
"We decided to keep the Indian because India is holding our colleagues," the pirate, Hassan Farah, said. "We released the other crew members who sailed away from our coast. We will keep these Indians until the Indians release our colleagues."
Posted by: john frum ||
04/15/2011
17:17 ||
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#1
Napalm their boats, ARCLIGHT their harbors, and send in pigs and dogs to clean up whatever's left. The needle on my Sympathy meter has wrapped eleven times around the "zero" peg. That goes for Yemen, Soddy Arabida, Iran, Phakestan, Afghanistan, Syria, Turkey, Egypt, Chad, and anywhere else Arabs or muslimbs are whining. Whack 'em all. I'm sure Hell's big enough to hold the lot.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/15/2011 17:46
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It's not like the Indian Army and Navy need some 'force projection' exercise with live ammo. Before you start dealing with the neighbor up north, it might be worth while to work the usual 'bugs' out of real military operations. These boys just pin the "Kick Me" paper on their backs.
#3
See also PEOPLE'S DAILY FORUM > [International Maritime Bureau] WORLD SEA ATTACKS SURGE WID MORE VIOLENT PIRATES.
ARTIC > Approxi 70% = 97 of 142 Pirate attacks in first quarter of 2011 occurred off Somalia, wid NINE attacks off MALAYSIA + FIVE off Nigeria during the same period.
Rep. Paul Ryan's plan
The House on Friday passed a Republican budget blueprint proposing to fundamentally overhaul Medicare and combat out-of-control budget deficits with sharp spending cuts on social safety net programs like food stamps and Medicaid.
The nonbinding plan lays out a fiscal vision cutting $6.2 trillion over the coming decade from the budget submitted by President Barack Obama. It passed 235-193 with every Democrat voting "no."
A conservative justice has weathered attempts to link him to Wisconsin's governor and a divisive union rights law and won re-election, according to county vote totals finalized Friday.
Tallies from each of the state's 72 counties show Justice David Prosser defeated challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg by 7,316 votes. State election officials said they will wait to declare an official winner until the deadline for Kloppenburg to seek a recount passes. She has until Wednesday to call for one.
A federal budget compromise that was hailed as historic for proposing to cut about $38 billion would reduce federal spending by only $352 million this fiscal year, less than 1 percent of the billÂ’s advertised amount, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Sucker born every minute.
The United States, by far the leading contributor to the United Nations, overpaid its share of the U.N. peacekeeping budget for 2010-2011, but budget-cutters in Congress did not learn about the full extent of the credits in the U.S.'s favor until February 2011, during the battle with the Obama administration over 2011 budget cuts, Fox News has learned.
"We didn't know we had a lot of these credits until we asked about them," said one congressional source, describing the budget cutting process. "At least we've taken away the ability of the administration and the U.N. to accumulate them."
Peacekeeping savings, including the overpayments, amount to $286.7 million--more than three-quarters of $377 million in cuts to various U.N. payments that are included in the controversial $38 billion in 2011 budget reductions that Congress approved on Thursday.
The $377 million in U.N. cuts is a comparative drop in the bucket compared to the roughly $6.35 billion that the U.S. sent to the U.N. in 2009, according to the last comprehensive set of figures compiled by the Obama Administration. Overpaid: See Bribes See also: slush fund
China's rail minister said the nation's high-speed trains will run at a slower pace than previously announced, to make journeys safer and more affordable. Slower is safer? What about 55 mph?
The new high-speed trains will run no faster than any of the other high-speed trains in the world 300 kilometres (186 miles) per hour instead of the current top speed of 350 kilometres per hour, Sheng Guangzu said in an interview posted Thursday on the ministry's website. The speed reduction should save about 36% in energy costs. Ya know, Velocity squared. Meanwhile, back at the ranch...
Sheng's comments come after the fall in February of railways minister Liu Zhijun, who allegedly took more than 800 million yuan ($122 million) in kickbacks on contracts linked to expanding China's high-speed rail network. Commodore Vanderbilt would be proud!
The change will make operations of high-speed railways safer and train tickets more affordable, Sheng said, following complaints over pricing.
"We must manage the scale of construction reasonably. There should be some overstepping in construction of railway, but not too much," he was quoted as saying. Build it for 400 kph; you can always speed it up later.
Sheng said China is investing 2.8 trillion yuan of US dollars between 2011 and 2015 in construction of new railway lines of about 30,000 kilometres. China has invested heavily in its high-speed rail network, which reached 8,358 kilometres at the end of 2010 and is expected to exceed 13,000 kilometres by 2012 and 16,000 kilometres by 2020.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/15/2011
11:22 ||
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#1
Hmm. The bullet trains near here top out at like 258kph, so I hope we're not affected. I'm taking one next week! Used to be a 3 1/2 hour car trip over bumpy ass roads full of unsafe trucks. Now it's 100 minutes of comfort.
#4
At last check, CHINA was having serious problems wid discovery of defective materials + corrupt internal, Party-Company kickbacks for profit.
IMO they're slowing the trains down as a safety precaution - not an easy thing for the CPC to do considering all the hoopla as per PARTY, NATIONAL PRESTIGE linked to its development.
WASHINGTON--Congress may have to consider a smaller highway-funding bill than initially planned because of a steep drop in revenue from the federal gasoline tax, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus [D., way out west, somewhere] said Thursday.
Lawmakers may have to draft a funding bill covering two years instead of six, which effectively would freeze highway-construction funding at existing levels or lead to a decline. States and transportation lobbyists say a drop in funding and the uncertainty of future federal funding levels could further hurt states and the construction industry. Uncertainty causes hurts? Who knew? Not the small business people. They love it. Don't they? Well, then, send 'em some cake!
The Obama administration has called for a six-year, $556 billion transportation bill to create jobs and spur the economy. Taxes for jobs! That's the new slogan! It about doubles what we were spending on transportation when Dubya was President, and it was already larded up with pork back then...
Sen. Boxer (D., Calif.), has said in recent weeks she was determined to pass a bill of that size. Gas-tax revenue, the main source of highway funding, would leave a hole exceeding $200 billion in that plan, analysts project. Too bad. First slice the pork, trim off the fat, then bring in some fresh beef from the EPA and the Education and Energy Departments. Plenty of taxes already collected for good roads.
Lawmakers haven't reached a consensus on how to plug the gap. I'll bet Rep. Ryan [R., Flyover Country] has a plan! President Barack Obama and leading lawmakers have rejected increasing the 18.4-cent federal tax on a gallon of gas. Which is the most logical thing to do. Instead, he'll expect the private sector to step up with toll roads, which foreigners can finance and the poor can avoid. Another way to 'tax the rich' and provide more funds to the disadvantaged [D., Big Cities] voters.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/15/2011
10:59 ||
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#1
What about drilling for oil? (Did I say that out loud?)
What about spending less money on roads in metropolitan areas and spending more on mass transit? You would think the green weenies in Washington would be all over mass transit it would make us more like...Europe and all of those wonderful countries in Europe where they speak foreign languages and stuff like that.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
04/15/2011 11:31
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Plenty of taxes already collected for good roads.
Yeah, but it is already spend on "Winning the Future" and other pet progressive projects.
#3
..which is why a large portion of the American public doesn't trust a politician further than they could throw when the pols bring up a 'new tax' with an excuse to cover more theft.
#4
"..which is why a large portion of the American public doesn't trust a politician further than they could throw when the pols bring up a 'new tax' with an excuse to cover more theft."
Trust them? I would not piss on them if they were on fire.
Iran is building a fence on its border with Pakistan to keep out terrorists, Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi has said.
The barrier is being built on "impenetrable mountainous terrain" in southeastern Iran to "prevent villains from crossing into the Islamic Republic", IRNA news agency quoted him as saying Thursday.
Members of the Iranian insurgent group Jundullah, which is based in Pakistan's Balochistan province, have reportedly been crossing into Iran's Sistan-Baluchestan province to carry out terrorist attacks.
Jundullah leader Abdolmalek Rigi was arrested by Iranian authorities in February 2010 and executed in June. Possible game changer. The Balochis would cut up rough in Iran and escape to Pakistan, and vise versa. This will to some extent trap Pakistan's troublemakers in their part of Balochistan. With a big concentration in Quetta.
A village defense volunteer was gunned down in a drive-by shooting in Narathiwat province late Thursday afternoon.
Sama-air Sama-air, 45, was assaulted about 4 p.m. while driving a motorcycle back home from Rangae district office. A gunman on a passing pickup truck shot an M16 assault rifle into his back and head, killing him at the scene. Pol Lt Col Chalerm blamed separatist terrorists militants.
A former U.N. weapons inspector from Delmar, who was nabbed in an online sex sting, was convicted Thursday on six counts, including unlawful contact with a minor, for exchanging explicit messages with a 15-year-old girl in a chat room and then performing a sex act on himself.
Jurors in Monroe County convicted Scott Ritter, 49, on six of seven counts. He was acquitted on a criminal attempt charge. Ritter had no reaction as the verdict was announced Thursday. His twin 18-year-old daughters sobbed.
Ritter exchanged explicit messages with a detective posing as an underage girl and masturbated even after the undercover officer said during the chat that he was a minor, prosecutors said.
A kidnapped Italian activist has been found dead in Gaza after he was killed by a radical Islamist group inspired by al Qaeda.
It is the first time a foreigner has been killed in the Palestinian territory after being kidnapped.
The Salafist extremists had posted a video of Vittorio Arrigoni on YouTube, tied up and blindfolded.
They had threatened to kill him by 5pm on Friday, if Hamas did not release a number of Palestinian prisoners including one of the group's leaders.
But a spokesman for the Islamist movement Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, said: "The Italian was killed by suffocation and his body was found in a street of the city of Gaza."
A bomb has exploded in a police compound in Indonesia's West Java province, injuring 17 people and killing the suspected bomber. Adesa Sembiring, a policewoman in the West Java town of Cirebon, said the bomb exploded at 12:30pm (local time) inside a mosque belonging to the Cirebon Police Headquarters as people were about to begin Friday prayers.
''The body of the suicide bomber is still inside the mosque. His body was destroyed by the bomb, but his face is still intact,'' she said.
A witness at the scene told a local TV news channel they saw a severed human torso and legs, wounds typically suffered by suicide bombers. A local hospital official says 17 other people were injured, including the local police chief. Some of the victims were said to be seriously injured but none have been killed.
Muslim extremists in Indonesia began targeting police several years ago, but no-one has claimed responsibility for this attack.
[Washington Post] A pro-Paleostinian activist from Italia who had been kidnapped by an al-Qaeda-inspired group in the Gazoo Strip was found strangled to death early Friday, the first such slaying of a foreigner in the coastal territory ruled by the bad boy group Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,, which called it "a crime."
The body of Vittorio Arrigoni, 36, was discovered by Hamas security forces in an empty house in Gazoo City a day after he had been seized, officials said. Arrigoni had been strangled with a plastic handcuff strip, said Khalil Abu Shammala, director of Al-Dameer Association for Human Rights, who went to the scene with security officials. He said Arrigoni's head was bloodied, apparently from being beaten before he was killed.
"It seems that he was subjected to torture," Abu Shammala said in a telephone interview. "I have seen many bodies during the intifada and after liquidations by Israeli soldiers, but I was totally shocked when I saw the way they killed him."
An thug group calling itself al-Tawhid wal-Jihad, or Monotheism and Holy War, had asserted responsibility for the abduction. The group's leader, Sheik Abu Walid al-Maqdisi, was tossed in the clink last month by Hamas. The group, which affiliates itself with the Salafist branch of Islam, threatened to kill Arrigoni unless Maqdisi and other imprisoned members of the organization were freed.
A YouTube clip posted Thursday by the abductors showed Arrigoni blindfolded and bloodied near his right eye, his head held up to the camera by one of his captors grabbing his hair.
An accompanying text said: "The Italian hostage entered our land only to spread corruption." It described Italia, which is predominantly Catholic and the home of Vatican City, as "the infidel state."
The kidnappers had set a deadline of 5 p.m. local time Friday for their leaders' release. But medical findings indicated that Arrigoni was slain hours before that, in the early morning, apparently when his captors learned that Hamas police were preparing to close in on their hideout, security officials said.
A member of the thug group who had been tossed in the clink and interrogated disclosed the abductors' location, an Interior Ministry front man said.
#6
You could say that his activism was deactivated. That would be an incredibly lame pun, and it's cruel to mock the guy like that, so . . . oh, what the hell! It's too funny not to.
His activism was deactivated.
Posted by: Mike ||
04/15/2011 15:45
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#7
Rachel Corrie was Saint Pancake. This guy is Saint...Pendulum? Saint Dangly?
#8
Got a feeling Vittorio won't have the shelf life of St. Rachel. Unfortunately for him, he was killed by the "wrong people". Perpetuating his legacy won't do much for "the cause".
[Yemen Post] Hundreds of thousands of Yemeni men and women demonstrated across Yemen's capital Sana'a on Wednesday to urge the people who have not joined the popular uprising in the squares of change and freedom to leave their silence and contribute to starting a new civil country.
The protesters marched in the streets chanting slogans such as: Come out, those who are still in their shops, President-for-Life Saleh ... exemplifying the Arab's propensity to combine brutality with incompetence... is leaving, and they came back to the square of change outside Sana'a University. They also rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud demanding the resignation of Saleh and opening trials for those who attack the antigovernment protesters.
They also carried banners written on them Arabic and English slogans and phrases as well as the photos of the protesters who were killed while at protests and sit-ins to call for the resignation of President Saleh.
Some of the banners also urged to try the killers of the antigovernment protesters across the republic. Riot police were dispatched in large numbers but no violence occurred.
Meanwhile, ...back at the secret hideout, Scarface Al sneeringly put his proposition to little Nell... hundreds of thousands of people have been conducting sit-ins for months some cities including the capital Sana'a to call for an immediate exist of Saleh.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/15/2011
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[Al Jazeera] Bodies continue to litter the streets and there remains a shortage of supplies in parts of Ivory Coast's main city Abidjan, the International Committee for the Red Thingy (ICRC) has reported.
The ICRC said in a statement on Thursday that there was also evidence of widespread looting in the west of the country and "a massive inflow" of aid was urgently required.
"In several parts of the city, bodies still litter the streets," Dominique Liengme, the head of the ICRC delegation in Abidjan, said. "Many who are injured or ill still cannot go to hospital because of the security situation, or because they lack transportation. Medical facilities that are still functioning are overwhelmed, and they lack supplies and personnel.
The organisation added thon the lam numbers of people had been tossed in the calaboose in connection with the armed conflict over the past few days.
An official in Geneva was unable to be more precise on the numbers and added that some of those tossed in the calaboose had since been released.
The statement comes one day after Alassane Ouattara, the new president, promised to restore security and prosperity to a nation broken by civil war.
Ouattara's rival Laurent Gbagbo ... Former President-for-Life of Ivory Coast from 2000 to 2011. Laurent lost to Alassane Ouattara in 2010 but his representtive tore up the results on the teevee and he refused to vacate the presidential palace. French troops assisted the Oattara forces in extricating him from his Fuhrerbunker... was captured in Abidjan by forces loyal to Ouattara earlier this week, ending a power struggle that followed Gbagbo's refusal to accept that he lost last November's presidential election.
The fighting that followed cost hundreds of lives, uprooted more than a million, according to the United Nations ...an international organization whose stated aims of facilitating interational security involve making sure that nobody with live ammo is offended unless it's a civilized country... , and wrecked the economy of the world's number one cocoa exporter.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/15/2011
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I would NOT want to be "President for life" there's too many assholes who want the job.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/15/2011 8:36
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[Dawn] The political administration jugged 58 personnel of Khasadar Force here on Wednesday for staging protest against withholding of their salaries.
Thirty of the jugged khasadars were shifted to Dera Ismail Khan ... the Pearl of Pashtunistan ... Central Prison, sources said. They said that the khasadars staged a protest demonstration in front of the office of Frontier Region of Tank assistant political agent against withholding of their salaries.
Wearing black armbands, the protesting personnel demanded release of their salaries, which had been withheld by the administrations for the last four months.
The authorities jugged 58 khasadars for holding protest demonstration and sent 30 of them to Dera Ismail Khan jail, they added.
The political administration had withheld the salaries of all Class IV employees belonging to Bettani tribe of FR Tank under the collective responsibility clause of Frontier Crimes Regulation.
The action was taken after two FWO contractors identified as Abdul Haq Kakar and Farooq were kidnapped on Dec 28, 2010 by unidentified armed persons from Jandola Road.
The political administration held several rounds of talks with elders of Bettani tribe and sought their help in safe recovery of the kidnapped contractors but in vain.
In retaliation, the authorities withheld salaries of Class IV employees and halted all perks and privileges of tribal elders. The tribal people showed concern over arrest of khasadars and demanded their immediate release. "Their children are dying of
hunger as authorities have has stopped their salaries," they said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/15/2011
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Beijing has apparently asked North Korean heir apparent Kim Jong-un to fly on his next visit to China instead of using a train like his father. Diplomatic sources on Wednesday said China feels a rail trip would make it very difficult to protect him.
China has suffered headaches closing off roads and railways due to Kim senior's bizarre habit of travelling abroad only by special armored train. The border crossing alone would attract hordes of foreign journalists and armies of flunkies, and Chinese citizens posted complaints on the Internet about the inconvenience of the traffic disruptions along the way.
Unlike his father, who is generally believed to suffer from a morbid fear of assassination flying, Kim Jong-un is thought to be comfortable with airplanes since he went to school in Switzerland, which is out of range of the paternal conveyance. Kim senior has mounted the fire horse to China no fewer than eight times since 2000, and in 2001 he spent 21 days chuffing all the way to Moscow.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/15/2011
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Well, I might take a plane
I might take a train
But if I got to walk
I'll get there just the same
Goin' to Beijing City
Beijing City here I come
They got some crazy little freebies there
And I'm gonna get me some
Well, I've been sittin' around waitin'
for my old man to die
Got to take a break from NORK-land
And that's the reason why I'm
Goin' to Beijing City
Beijing City here I come
They got some crazy little freebies there
And I'm gonna get me some
[with apologies to the late Wilbert Harrison]
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/15/2011 2:26
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#3
Plane crashes are more reliable. With trains you have to knock down a bridge, and still need ground people to insure that dumb luck hasn't intervened. Gravity usually overcomes dumb luck.
[Iran Press TV] Lebanese security forces have reportedly intercepted two vehicles carrying weapons and ammunitions to Syria amid Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... ' complaints of foreign provocations.
On Thursday, the forces jugged two people trying to drive the vehicles into Syria in the border area of the eastern Bekaa Valley, Rooters reported.
"The cars had AK-47s, semi-automatic weapons, and some bombs," one security source said.
Since mid-March, Syria has been struggling with weeks of protests that have left scores of people dead, including security forces.
Also on Thursday, a group of snipers opened fire on Syrian soldiers in western part of the country, killing one serviceman and injuring another.
The government has blamed the protests on armed gangs and foreign powers.
On Wednesday Syrian State TV broadcast pictures of what it described as confessions by members of a terrorist group. Security forces say the group's members received money and arms from foreign elements to carry out terrorist operations and incite unrest.
The authorities have also announced arrest of foreign elements that have played a role in provoking the recent tensions in Syria.
Damascus has repeatedly denied allegations that its security forces were responsible for shooting at protesters, insisting that officers were given clear instructions not to harm civilians.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/15/2011
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#1
Oh, so suddenly the government of Lebanon is capable of stopping weapons smuggling? That's a big shocker to me.
NINEWA / Aswat al-Iraq: The tribes of northern Iraq's Ninewa Province have organized a commemoration occasion on the 8th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, taking place nowadays, rejecting the extension of the U.S. troops presence in the country after the end of the current year, and the release of all prisoners.
The prisoners belong to your government now, not ours.
"Ninewa tribes organized a meeting on Wednesday in Mosul, the center of Ninewa Province, on the occasion of the 8th anniversary of the American occupation of Iraq, calling on non-extension of the presence of the U.S. troops in the country, after the end of the period, agreed upon between Baghdad and Washington, according to the Security Agreement signed between them, confirming the withdrawal of those troops by the end of this year," Sheikh Khalil al-Sabaawi told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
Sabaawi, speaking on behalf of the said tribes, called on Iraq's central government and Ninewa's local administration to "release all detainees, who were not sentenced and have spent several years in Iraqi prisons, without trial".
Noteworthy is that the U.S. combat troops had left Iraq at the end of last August, whilst the remaining 50,000 American troops are scheduled to leave the country by the end of this year, according to the said Security Agreement, signed by both countries at the end of 2008.
So what's yer beef, pal? You're going to wish we were still around if you and the Shi'a militias lock horns again.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/15/2011
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[Iran Press TV] The United States has collaborated with the deadly crackdown on the popular revolution against Bahrain's despotic monarchy, says a notable Bahraini human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... activist.
"People in Bahrain think that the US is in one way or another directly complicit in what's happening in Bahrain," said Maryam al-Khawaja of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, in a Press TV interview.
Dozens of people have been killed and thousands of others injured since February 14, when the public started a popular revolution against the royal family that has been ruling the island for over 40 years.
Led by Soddy Arabia, Bahrain's Arab neighbors from the [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council deployed troops to the country in mid-March to reinforce brutal armed attacks against anti-government protesters. The reinforcements have reportedly contributed to a major hike in the use of extreme violence against popular protests.
Khawaja said Washington's complicity with Bahrain's state violence was shown in remarks by the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Dean Acheson ... , who had "actually said that Bahrain has the sovereign right to invite the [P]GCC troops into the country."
"But legally and according to the agreement between the [P]GCC countries, these forces are supposed to be used for foreign threats," she emphasized.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/15/2011
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#1
What is in the drinking water over there?
That has to be the most delusional thing out of Iran in at least fifteen minutes.
Are they all on crack over there? Oh never mind.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
04/15/2011 13:29
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#2
What is in the drinking water over there?
Iran is playing the win. The ends justify the means.
#3
An example - from Michael Ledeen 9/14/2010: Moreover, there have been some open gunfights here and there, with casualties running well over 100. To round out this very ugly picture, the nastiest elements of the regime have been murdering their opponents. If you follow the reports, you will see that many people are being executed every day, and there are events far more terrible than those that have been reported. In the past five months, some seven hundred “dissident” Revolutionary Guards and Basiji have been executed under the guise of “drug smugglers,” and there is even worse than that: in the past few days about 30 dissident RGs in the Mashhad prison were told they had been forgiven, and would be reintegrated into the ranks. They were put on a bus and fed food and (poisoned) drinks. When they passed out they were dumped into a mass grave and buried, more or less alive. Astonishingly someone saw it, and reported it, and some fifty security officials are now being interrogated.
[Asharq al-Aswat] Syrian forces clamped down at universities after students marched for the first time in the second biggest city Aleppo during unprecedented protests against Baathist rule, activists said on Thursday.
Around 150 students marched on Wednesday in a protest demanding political freedoms on the campus of Aleppo University, rights defenders who were in contact with them said.
Baath Party irregulars quickly dispersed the students who chanted "We sacrifice our blood and our soul for you, Deraa."
The slogan was to show solidarity with the southern city of Deraa where demonstrations against the authoritarian rule of President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor... and his party started three and a half weeks ago.
They have since spread to the suburbs of Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... , the northeast, the Mediterranean coast and areas in between.
"The thugs quickly organised a pro-Assad demonstration, and sure enough, Syrian television came to film it," one of the activists said, adding that several protesters were beaten and three students were nabbed.
"The regime is aware that it cannot let campuses breath. They have seen what an emboldened student movement can do elsewhere," the activist added.
With heavy secret police presence, preachers on the state payroll giving pro-Assad sermons and the Sunni merchant class staying on the sidelines, major protests have not spread to Damascus proper or to Aleppo.
This has denied protesters the critical mass seen in the uprisings which swept Tunisia and Egypt and toppled governments there.
In the capital, several hundred students marched in a pro-democracy protest at Damascus University for a second day.
Activists said secret police assembled at a restaurant in front of the main gate and mounted periodic forays into the campus to arrest people.
Earlier on Wednesday, hundreds of women from a Syrian town that has witnessed mass arrests of its male residents marched along Syria's main coastal highway to demand their release.
Security forces, including secret police, stormed Baida on Tuesday, going into houses and arresting men up to the age of 60, lawyers said. The arrests came after townsfolk joined protests challenging the Baath Party, which has ruled Syria with an iron fist since 1963.
Women from Baida marched on the main highway leading to Turkey chanting slogans demanding the release of some 350 men, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Assad, who has positioned Syria as self-declared champion of "resistance" to Israel while seeking peace with the Jewish state and accepting offers for rehabilitation in the West, has responded to the protests with a blend of deadly force and vague promises of reform.
The Damascus Declaration, Syria's main rights group, has said the corpse count from the protests had reached 200.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/15/2011
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#1
What kind of 'students?' (Taliban MEANS student, for instance.) We tend to think of Syria as an oppressive state, but if conditions are such that a whole lot of students have the time and means to stage protests, it can't be but so oppressive.
(I suspect these students are just useful idiots being manipulated by parties worse than Pencilneck.)
[Arab News] Pak Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani Wednesday criticized US drone strikes in his country's tribal belt, saying they undermined anti-terror efforts.
Gilani said his government had convinced other countries of the world through diplomatic channels that "these drone attacks are creating problems for us."
Efforts to isolate Islamic fascistifrom their tribal support base were being undermined by the strikes in the lawless tribal region bordering Afghanistan, he said in a speech at the federal Parliament.
His remarks came just hours after a drone strike killed six fighters from the Al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani network on the Afghan border -- the first such strike in a month.
"Under a well-thought-out strategy we had separated the tribes from beturbanned goons, but when drone attacks occur, Islamic fascistiand tribes unite again, which is difficult for us to sustain politically and it also create difficulties for the military operations," Gilani said.
He has called for an end to drone strikes a number of times in the past and criticized the campaign as an infringement on Pak illusory sovereignty.
The US relies heavily on the covert, CIA-run missile program to kill Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters in Pakistain's northwest, and with a few exceptions keeps up a steady pace of strikes even when relations with Pakistain are tense.
For its part, Pakistain publicly denounces the strikes, but has secretly helped the program.
Gilani on Wednesday emphasised Pakistain's importance in the war in terror and fight against Talibs.
"Nobody can win Afghanistan war without Pakistain. Drone attacks are not in favor of both countries," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/15/2011
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#1
See NEWS KERALA >12,580 PEOPLE KILLED IN PAKISTAN IN 2010, over 900 [957 ea.]IN US DRONE STRIKES:HRCP.
Bulk is predomin due to Muslim-agz-Muslim + Suicide Bombing which kill mostly Muslims.
Look out of your window, see that little white speck at about 3 o'clock? Hear that humming noise? We've got you locked and loaded bubba, I think you need to quit the posturing and either clean out that snake pit along your borders or we'll hellfire your outhouse.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
04/15/2011 13:27
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#5
If surgical strikes are unacceptable, then give them Daisy Cutters.
[Dawn] At least eight people, five political activists among them, were bumped off in different areas of Bloody Karachi on Wednesday as murders remerged in full fury, prompting fresh fears among people that the scourge is beyond the control of political and security administrations in the province.
There was no word from key officials in the provincial set-up about government efforts to put an end to the bloodshed as corpse count swelled to 15 in three days of violence. However, The emphatic However... police officials claimed that efforts were being made to stop the menace from spreading to so far unaffected parts of the city.
In the deadliest incident on Wednesday, four men on two cycle of violences attacked a group of four people in Sector 10 of Orangi Town, killing three of them on the spot and leaving one severely injured.
The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) claimed that the victims were its activists.
"The gunnies fired on them when they were sitting at the corner of a street popularly known as Mohajir Chowk," said SP Khurram Waris of Orangi Town.
"They decamped after the firing, leaving 24-year-old Waqas Tariq, 44-year-old Zaheer Hanif and 38-year-old Habib Rafiq dead.
Another man, Muhammad Irfan, sustained a bullet wound in the abdomen and survived."
The incident sparked panic in the locality and traders closed of their shops. Transport disappeared from the streets in densely populated neighborhood.
A large number of MQM activists and leaders of the party went to the hospital to offer condolences to the family and fellow workers.
The MQM, which is a coalition partner of the PPP-led provincial government, demanded immediate arrest of the killers and swift measures from the federal and provincial authorities to curb the new cycle of violence.
"Armed hard boyz have been given a free hand to target MQM workers and over the past 24 hours some seven party activists have been killed," an MQM statement said.
The Orangi incident triggered violence in New Bloody Karachi where a bus driver was rubbed out near Saba Cinema.
"The driver has been identified as 53-year-old Barkatullah. He was a resident of Malir and originally hailed from Khyber Pakhtunkhawa," said an official at the New Bloody Karachi Industrial Area cop shoppe.
A few minutes later, more than half a dozen gunnies on four motorbikes attacked a restaurant on the University Road near Old Sabzi Mandi, killing a 45-year-old man who was there with friends.
The victim was identified as Chaudhry Saqib Nadim. But some people attacked the assailants and killed one of them and injured another, said an official of the New Town cop shoppe. The injured suspect was later handed over to police.
Earlier in the day, tit-for-tat killings claimed the lives of an Awami National Party (ANP) activist and an elderly member of MQM in New Bloody Karachi area. The two incidents took place in Ayub Goth, a poor neighbourhood between Super Highway and New Bloody Karachi.
"In first incident, 26-year-old Hazrat Ali alias Hero was intercepted by two men on a motorbike near Street No 1 of Sindh Cooperative Housing Society in Ayub Goth area," DSP Iftikhar Lodhi, the area's supervisory police officer (SPO), said.
Ten to 15 minutes later, gunnies on two cycle of violences attacked 60-year-old Shahbaz alias Shabbu. He had a poultry shop in the area and was said to be associated with MQM.
The fresh wave of violence coincided with the presence of Interior Minister Rehman Malik Pak politician, current Interior Minister under the Gilani administration. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. He later joined the Pak Peoples Party and was chief security officer to Bhutto. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Näwaz Shärif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. in the city.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/15/2011
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#1
Karachi - it's no Juarez, but they're working on it.
#1
"These are civilians who have had to become fighters because of the situation."
Geez, this "kinetic military action" stuff sure can be confusing. For a while there these guys were called "rebels". It kinda conjured up the notion of an armed insurrection trying to topple a soverign state. But it really helps square that whole arms embargo thingy if you think of these reluctant warriors as "civilians". It's also helpful to refer to the internationally recognized goverment of Libya as "Gadhafi the Madman and his evil Henchmen". And remember we're only talkn' about "Defensive weapons". They're strictly for protection...you can count on it. Don't fret. Soon there will be a multilaterally brokerd and mutually benificial diplomatic solution. Then the "International Community" can focus on other “overseas contingency operations” to prevent the next "man caused disaster".
[Dawn] A top French security official says two French citizens have been placed in durance vile in Pakistain, where authorities have linked them to a top suspected al-Qaeda thug over the 2002 nightclub bombing in Bali.
A Pak intelligence official says the suspected French cut-throats including one with family ties to Pakistain were placed in durance vile in connection with the Jan. 25 arrest of al Qaeda-linked thug Umar Patek of Indonesia.
The Pak official said the two French suspects had intended to travel with Patek to Pakistain's North Wazoo region, where al-Qaeda's top command is based.
A French counterterrorism official confirmed the arrests Thursday on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/15/2011
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#1
Pakistan the Walt Disney Park of Terrorism.Visitors from all over the world come to visit!
#2
The Pak official said the two French suspects had intended to travel with Patek to Pakistain's North Wazoo region, where al-Qaeda's top command is based.
[Al Jazeera] Thirty-four Iranian exiles were killed when Iraqi soldiers stormed Camp Ashraf last week, a UN front man has revealed. The corpse count is the first independent corpse count of the raid that has drawn sharp rebukes from Storied Baghdad's Western allies.
UN human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... front man Rupert Colville in Geneva said on Thursday that a team of UN observers saw 28 bodies still at the camp during a Wednesday visit to the exiles' compound in eastern Diyala province.
"Most of the bodies appeared to have been shot," he said.
Three of the bodies also appeared to have been crushed to death, likely from being run over by a car, a Western diplomat in Baghdad said.
"It's clearly a very serious incident and we are trying to get more information," Colville said. Colville added that women were among the dead and that they were still searching for six more bodies.
The group won refuge at Camp Ashraf years ago during the regime of Saddam Hussein, who saw them as a convenient ally against Iran. But since then, the exiles have been an irritant to Iraq's new Shia-led government that is trying to bolster ties with Tehran.
After Saddam fell, US troops took control of Camp Ashraf, disarmed its fighters and confined the residents to the camp. In return, the military signed an agreement with the camp's residents giving them protected status under the Geneva Conventions.
But it's not clear whether the residents still have those legal protections. Guess...
Both Iran and the US consider the group to be a terrorist threat, although the European Union removed the People's Mujahedeen from its own terror list several years ago.
The raid was sharply criticized by Iraqi allies in Washington, London and Geneva, although it was praised by Iran.
Wednesday's UN visit was critical because the Ashraf residents and the Iraqi government have issued wildly different accounts of the raid and the reasons behind it. The visit to Camp Ashraf came five days after the agency first demanded to be allowed in.
The Iraqi army and police have blocked access to the camp for more than a year, following a similar raid in July 2009. A US Army medical team also entered the camp last weekend to provide humanitarian aid but has refused comment on what it looked like inside.
Journalists have not been allowed in.
Until the UN visit, the only official casualty count in the raid came from the morgue at Baqouba public hospital, where officials said they received 12 bodies from the camp. Ashraf resident Shahriar Kia said the 12 bodies at the morgue are likely among about 50 camp residents who died after they were taken to the hospital hours after the raid.
Kia demanded that the UN publicly release its findings of what they saw, "and do not allow the Iraqi government and the religious fascism ruling in Iran to misuse the public unawareness in order to continue their crimes against Ashraf residents."
Iraqi government front man Ali al-Dabbagh did not immediately respond Thursday to the UN findings. Earlier this week, he said the Iraqi government voted to help move the Ashraf residents outside the country by the end of the year.
Al-Dabbagh did issue a statement on Thursday that welcomed what it described as US support to the government's efforts to find "another option for Ashraf camp residents to live in rather than Iraq."
The Ashraf residents maintained from the start that 34 people were killed and as many as 325 maimed when Iraqi army units broke through the camp gate and starting firing into the crowd of people who had rushed outside to protect their homes.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/15/2011
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SEOUL, April 14 (Yonhap) -- North Korea said Thursday that it plans to indict a U.S. detainee for an unspecific crime, in its latest detention of an American, which comes ahead of a trip to Pyongyang by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter.
Jun Young-su was arrested in November last year and has since been investigated by officials for committing a crime against the North, said North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), without saying when he entered the North.
"He admitted his crime in the course of the investigation," the KCNA said, without elaborating. "The relevant organ is making arrangements to indict him according to the confirmation of the charges brought against him."
The confirmation came days after U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner urged North Korea to release the American detainee on humanitarian grounds, and as Carter prepares to visit Pyongyang for talks with North Korean officials. It was not immediately clear whether Carter can bring Jun home as he did last year when he secured the freedom of Aijalon Gomes, a Christian who was sentenced to eight years in a labor and re-education camp for sneaking into North Korea.
Toner said Tuesday he was not sure whether the State Department will ask Carter to bring the citizen back home. "He's good at this," Toner said, but added, "I don't have any information whether we would."
The North has informed the United States of the latest situation and provided consular access to the detainee through the Swedish embassy in Pyongyang, said the KCNA.
In Washington, informed sources said Wednesday that the Korean-American detainee has been accused of getting involved in unauthorized religious activities in the reclusive communist state. The businessman in his 60s, who attends a church in Orange County, California, has traveled frequently to North Korea on a business visa, the sources said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/15/2011
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[Ennahar] Five members of the security forces were killed during a clash in the north of Sanaa between the police and army units joined in the protest, while police firing on demonstrators in Aden (South ) have killed two people Wednesday.
In Jawlat Amrane, north of Sanaa, police raided in the night from Tuesday to Wednesday with automatic weapons and rocket an army checkpoint, according to a dissenting military source.
But the Interior Ministry said in a statement that it was the military who attacked a police position and that there was only coppers injured during the attack.
According to the dissenting military source, the checkpoint is held by soldiers of the First Armored Division, whose commander, General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, announced March 21 to join the protest movement against President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, after serving as a lieutenant colonel in the army. He had been part of the conspiracy that bumped off his predecessor, Ibrahim al-Hamdi, in the usual tiresome military coup, and he has maintained power by keeping Yemen's many tribes fighting with each other, rather than uniting to string him up. ...
An army officer and four coppers were killed and two soldiers maimed, according to military sources.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Asharq al-Aswat] Libyan rebels begged for more NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants... air strikes Thursday, saying they faced a massacre from government artillery barrages on the besieged city of Misrata, but Western allies squabbled over the air campaign.
Rebels said a hail of Grad rockets fired by besieging forces into a residential district of Misrata, Libya's third largest city, had killed 23 civilians, mostly women and kiddies.
Aid organisations warn of a humanitarian disaster in Misrata, the lone rebel bastion in western Libya, where hundreds of civilians are said to have died in a six-week siege.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Abel P. Upshur ... expressed concern at a NATO meeting in Berlin over "atrocities" in Misrata but gave no hint Washington was prepared to re-engage in air strikes.
Reflecting concern over strains in the alliance, Clinton called for NATO to maintain "resolve and unity" against Muammar Qadaffy, saying he was trying to test Western resolve.
Several NATO members rebuffed calls from La Belle France and Perfidious Albion to contribute more to the air attacks, conducted under a United Nations ...an organization whose definition of human rights is interesting, to say the least... mandate to protect civilians and U.S. officials said allied commanders were not requesting greater resources.
"A massacre...will take place here if NATO does not intervene strongly," a rebel front man in Misrata told Rooters by phone. Reports of casualties are hard to verify independently because journalists cannot reach the area.
Al Jizz television showed hundreds of residents demonstrating after the dawn attack. "The blood of deaders will not be in vain," they chanted, waving the rebel flag.
NATO DIVIDED
Five so-called BRICS emerging powers -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- expressed misgivings about NATO air strikes after talks in China and urged an end to the two-month civil war.
Their criticism contrasted with the first joint call for Qadaffy's overthrow from a group of Middle Eastern and Western countries meeting in Qatar Wednesday.
In its strongest language yet, the international "contact group" on Libya demanded that Qadaffy leave power and voiced support for the rebels.
Some military analysts believe U.S. specialist ground attack aircraft could tip the balance in Libya, allowing precision strikes on Qadaffy's armour with less risk of hitting civilians. But Washington has taken a back seat after handing command to NATO on March 31.
French Defence Minister Gerard Longuet said this week Qadaffy's attacks would not be stopped without U.S. participation in strikes on his tanks and artillery. A French official cited Spain, Italia, the Netherlands and Sweden among other allies who could do more.
But Spain said it had no plan to join the seven NATO states that have conducted ground strikes while Italia, Libya's former colonial power, expressed reluctance to launch attacks.
Amid a flurry of international diplomacy over Libya, U.N. Secretary General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, 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... head Jerry Lewis doppelgänger Amr Moussa ... who has been head of the Arab League since about the time Jerry and Dean split up ... and officials from the African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... and Organisation of the Islamic Conference discussed the war at a meeting in Cairo Thursday.
A few dozen pro and anti-Qadaffy protesters demonstrated outside the meeting at Arab League headquarters.
Ban expressed grave concern over the escalation of violence in Libya and called for a cease-fire and the relief of besieged cities. The longer fighting went on, the more difficult a political solution would be, he said.
Clinton said in Berlin there could be no viable political transition until Qadaffy left power.
FRUSTRATION Perfidious Albion and La Belle France are leading air strikes against Qadaffy's forces, but have grown frustrated with the lack of support from their allies. NATO says it is still short of about 10 aircraft a day for strikes.
NATO members are also divided over meeting a rebel request for weapons. Spanish Foreign Minister Trinidad Jimenez said this was not allowed under the U.N. resolution authorising military action but other nations suggested it could be possible.
The rebels said they were in talks with "friendly" countries to obtain arms: "I don't think there will be a problem getting weapons," national council front man Abdel Hafiz Ghoga told news hounds in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.
Juppe said in Berlin that La Belle France was not currently in favour of arming the rebels and the NATO campaign would not be enough to topple Qadaffy. A political solution was essential, he said.
Qatar, a leading Arab supporter of the uprising, hinted on Wednesday that it might arm the rebels.
Perfidious Albion says it will supply them with 1,000 sets of body armour from surplus supplies on top of 100 satellite phones already sent.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/15/2011
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#1
OTOH TOPIX > NATO: MORE GROUND ATTACK AIRCRAFT NEEDED FOR NO-FLY ZONE [Libyuh].
#4
ION FREERUBLIC this AM > AL-QAEDA NO.2 CALLS FOR ARAB [milpol = military only?] INTERVENTION TO TOPPLE GADDAFI, in order to deter or preclude a full-scale Western ground invasion of Libyuh.
* Also from FREEP > RELATED > ZAWAHIRI SAYS MUSLIMS SHOULD FIGHT NATO [ + Gaddafi] IN LIBYA.
[Asharq al-Aswat] Over the past week, three Arab regimes are continuing their struggle to stay in power; these are the Libyan, Syrian, and Yemeni [regimes]. Regarding the first regime, the situation has transformed into a "hit and run" war between opponents of Colonel Qadaffy and his supporters, whilst the NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants... air strikes have failed to resolve the battle on the ground in favor of the rebels. The second case has taken on a factional and sectarian dimension, with the majority confronting a security and partisan regime that remains in power despite the bold events taking place in the country. As for the third regime, the president is standing alone, facing the defection of senior commanders and allies, who are joining the opposition. There are two prominent features evident in all these cases: the incapability of the opposition movement -- or the armed rebels -- to forcibly remove the leader and his regime, as well as their rejection of any mediation or solution that includes the safe departure of the leader and key government figures, or their agreement not to prosecute members of the former regime [in return for transition of power].
In Libya, the African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... and Turkey both provided initiatives for a solution, but the Libyan National Transitional Council rejected these because they did not include the immediate removal of Colonel Qadaffy and his family [from power]. In Yemen, the Joint Meeting Parties opposition coalition expressed their reservations about the Gulf initiative because it was said to have included provisions ensuring immunity for the president during the transitional phase.
The man told Smith to "gimme what you got" before shoving him to the ground and taking his wallet, according to the police report. That didn't stop Smith, who said he "went back after him." He grabbed the nearest weapon, while Sones grabbed for something else to give him.
"I grabbed the frying pan and hit him upside the head. I knocked his teeth out ... and he went to the floor," Smith said. "There was a pitchfork about six feet away. ... I stuck him."
Hit in the head and stuck in the side, the intruder ran, "bleeding on the way out."
Walt Kowalski: Yeah? I blow a hole in your face and then I go in the house... and I sleep like a baby. You can count on that. We used to stack f***s like you five feet high in Korea... use ya for sandbags.
#2
Being stuck with a pitchfork is extremely bad karma. He's looking at tetanus or peritonitis, and will likely show up at a hospital with a high fever about 48 hours after the game. Unless they pump something like a butt load of penicillin through him, he is going to die the bad way.
#6
It gets better. I've read elsewhere that when the police showed up, they brought a K-9 unit. They caught the perp, though didn't say how much they caught him.
However, no details have yet been released about him.
#9
And a longer handle to balance the weight so it is good as your serve is. The use of a dangerous instrument is third degree assault, might as well make it count
Posted by: Fi ||
04/15/2011 13:17
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#10
I read that they didn't catch the guy but the K9 found his wallet. Also, he was cooking dinner at the time in the pan he hit the guy with so it was also nice and hot. A guy with pitchfork punctures in his side, knocked out teeth and probably a nice burn on his face shouldn't be too hard to find
#13
...pitchfork control coming soon to a county near you. Won't be like the old days when you could just waltz into a Home Depot and pick one up. Nope. It's not like politicians were ever fond of them to begin with. Dangerous in the hands of the wrong people, like voters.
[Ma'an] A Paleostinian resistance fighter died Thursday from wounds sustained a week earlier during fighting with Israeli forces in the southern Gazoo Strip, officials said.
Officials from Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,' armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, said Mahdi Abu Athra, 26, died in hospital after being injured by Israeli fire near Rafah, a statement said.
The statement said Abu Athra's death brought to 19 the number of dead following a one-week spike in violence between Israel and Gazoo resistance factions.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
"We don't understand what happened. We had poulticed his wounds with camel dung, just as it is said to do in the Koran, and yet he died! I blame the Joos, for putting black magic on the shell fragments!"
[Tolo News] Pakistain's Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani ... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ... has said the Afghan war cannot be won without the support of Pakistain.
Speaking at Pakistain's National Assembly, Mr Gilani said Pakistain was part of the solution.
Pakistain is part of the solution of the Afghan issue. The Afghan war cannot be won without the support of Pakistain, Mr Gilani has said.
Pakistain has often been accused of not being serious in the war against terrorism.
"Pakistain has always been a part of the problems in Afghanistan, that's why it wants to take the lead role in all Afghan issues related to war and peace," Mir Ahmad Joyenda, member of Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit in Kabul, said.
He said Pakistain always seeks ways to pretend that the Afghan issues cannot be solved without Pakistain.
About US drone attacks in Pakistain, Mr Gilani said diplomatic channels were being used to push the United States to end drone attacks in Pakistain.
He said the US drone attacks unite the tribal people with bully boyz and it creates problems for the government because Pakistain needs the support of the people to win the war against terrorism.
Mr Gilani said that the leadership of Pakistain and Afghanistan believed that the drone attacks were not in favour of their countries.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/15/2011
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Pakistan - can't win with 'em, can't win without 'em.
[Dawn] Pakistain army chief General Ashfaq Kayani ... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI... launched a major road project Thursday that will be a vital trade route between the nation's lawless tribal region and Afghanistan, the military said.
General Kayani visited the tribal North Wazoo region to inaugurate the 80-kilometre (50-mile) road project, being undertaken by the Pakistain army.
The road from the northwestern Pak town of Bannu to Ghulam Khan on the Afghan border will cost four billion rupees ($48 million), the military said in a statement, adding it was aimed at social development of the tribal areas.
The project would be completed in 18 months, linking remote areas of North Waziristan to other parts of the country, it said.
"The road will provide a central trade route between Pakistain and Afghanistan. This will open multiple opportunities for the people of North Waziristan," it added.
The United States has branded the northwestern tribal area, which lies outside Pak government control, a global headquarters of Al-Qaeda and one of the most dangerous places on Earth.
US officials have pressured Pakistain to open a major offensive in North Waziristan, but Pak commanders say their troops are already overstretched.
With an estimated 147,000 forces in the northwest -- more than the number of US-led foreign troops in Afghanistan -- the Mighty Pak Army has also endured heavy losses.
Addressing tribal elders, General Kayani said he appreciated their "support and acknowledged their sacrifices in the war against terrorism."
He reiterated the army's resolve to bring peace and stability to the affected areas and to protect the lives and property of the tribals, against all internal as well as external threats.
North Waziristan, considered a notorious Afghan Taliban and Al-Qaeda bastion in Pakistain, has been the target of repeated US drone attacks.
The attacks doubled in the area last year, with more than 100 drone strikes killing over 670 people in 2010 compared with 45 strikes that killed 420 in 2009, according to an AFP tally.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
"Sure, it's a waste of time and money, but it keeps the troops too tired to make trouble."
[The Nation (Nairobi)] Fresh arrests today and a heavy police presence in Swaziland's main city Manzini headed off new protests against King Mswati III, Africa's last absolute monarch.
Activists had vowed to return to the streets today, one day after mass arrests, teargas and water cannons broke up a protest by 1,000 teachers and students in Manzini.
Maxwell Dlamini, president of the Swaziland National Union of Students, said a strong police presence had prevented people from gathering for the march.
"We have adopted a wait and see attitude, we are studying the situation," he said.
Sibongile Mazibuko, of the Swaziland National Association of Teachers, said union leaders would meet later today to decide how to proceed.
Making a decision
"We are in a process of making a decision. Some still want to press ahead with the protest," she said.
Two protest leaders were placed in durance vile in raids this morning, with one kept under house arrest, according to Sipho Kunene, leader of the Swaziland Federation of Labour.
Police patrolled Manzini, arresting people in groups, including four teachers who were speaking to an AFP journalist in a cafe.
"We are not used to seeing so many soldiers. People are afraid of walking to town. I am afraid this is going to affect business," said one Manzini resident, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered....
On Tuesday, police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse some 1,000 teachers and students marching to the main city of Manzini, then stormed the teachers' union offices when the group sought refuge there.
At least 100 people were jugged, including top labour and civil society leaders, according to union leaders.
Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini, a staunch royalist, has banned the protest, which began as a Facebook campaign modelled on uprisings in north Africa.
Setting up roadblocks
Police began setting up roadblocks late last week and have raided the homes of activists.
Most top union leaders who had been jugged have now been released, according to Dlamini, who was held from Sunday to Tuesday.
The king has not spoken publicly about the protests, but sent his top advisers to meet with union leaders last week in a failed bid to convince them to drop the protest plan.
With 13 wives and a fortune estimated at $100 million, Mswati is ranked by Forbes magazine as among the 15 richest monarchs in the world.
But nearly 70 per cent of Swazis live on less than a dollar a day, the unemployment rate is 40 per cent, and 25 per cent of adults have HIV, the highest rate in the world. Life expectancy is the lowest in the world, at 32.5 years.
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Should've showed them his "Hero of Palestine" certificate...
GAZA - Security officials found the body of an Italian man who had been abducted in the Gaza Strip in an abandoned house overnight Thursday, a Hamas security official said. Two men were arrested and others were being sought.
In a You Tube clip the group posted online earlier Thursday, a Jihadist Salafi group in Gaza aligned with al Qaida had threatened to execute Italian rights activist Vittorio Arigoni by 17:00 local time (1400 GMT) unless their leader Hesham al-Sa'eedni, whom it detained last month, was freed.
Arrigoni, an Italian pacifist and blogger, has lived in the Gaza Strip for some time. He was shown blindfolded with blood around his right eye and a hand can be seen pulling his head up by his hair to face the camera.
It was unclear when Arrigoni was kidnapped or where he was being held, but an Italian diplomat who serves in the region confirmed to Reuters he had been abducted.
The Arabic text that accompanied the footage of Arrigoni also said "the Italian hostage entered our land only to spread corruption" and it described Italy as "the infidel state".
Arrigoni came to the Gaza Strip on a boat bringing humanitarian supplies in 2008.
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- The armed wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine said one of the group's fighters was killed Thursday morning, when an explosive device detonated while the young man was on a "jihad mission," a statement said.
It is the second accidental death of a Gaza resistance fighter reported in as many days, following the death of an Al-Qassam brigadesman in Khan Younis on Wednesday.
A DFLP statement said National Resistance Brigades fighter Khader Abu Elbeh, 22, was seriously wounded during an operation west of the Jabaliya area in the northern Gaza Strip and later died of his injuries.
Medical sources in Gaza confirmed that a man was pronounced dead after being seriously wounded by a bomb which exploded, apparently prematurely. Yes...apparently.
In their statement, the NRB mourned the death of the fighter, saying he was killed while "on a jihad mission," and vowed to continue resistance activities as a "goal and a promise to our nation." Meanwhile, Khader will feed worms...
#2
That's what happens when you erase the period from the fuse labels. It should read "3.0 seconds", but a minute with the proper tools and it reads "300 seconds". So yeah, it's all the fault of the "Joooos" and their erasers.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/15/2011 17:55
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Yemen's opposition has set a two-week deadline for President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, after serving as a lieutenant colonel in the army. He had been part of the conspiracy that bumped off his predecessor, Ibrahim al-Hamdi, in the usual tiresome military coup, and he has maintained power by keeping Yemen's many tribes fighting with each other, rather than uniting to string him up. ... to step aside, rejecting a Saudi-brokered, Gulf-backed initiative to end the country's political turmoil.
"We have renewed our emphasis on the need for speeding the process of (Saleh) standing down within two weeks. Therefore we will not go to Riyadh," Mohammed al-Mutawakkil, a prominent opposition leader, said on Thursday, referring to the proposed talks in the Saudi capital.
This comes a day after five people were killed in the Yemeni capital Sanaa as forces loyal to a defected army general and pro-government fighters clashed, Al Jizz's correspondents said.
Two more people were killed on Wednesday in the southern city of Aden in festivities between security forces and anti-regime demonstrators.
The defected general, Ali Mohsen, a kinsman of Saleh who has thrown his weight behind the opposition and whose military units are protecting protesters in Sanaa, has welcomed a mediation proposal by the six-nation Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) to end the unrest.
But on Tuesday, tens of thousands of Yemenis staged protests against the proposal, with many saying it offers Saleh, in power since 1978, an immunity from prosecution.
Saleh accepts GCC offer
Protesters in Yemen have for months been calling for Saleh to step down over the country's lack of freedoms and extreme poverty. Up to 100 people have been killed in the unrest which shows no sign of subsiding.
The mediation proposal calls on Saleh to transfer power to his deputy, but gives no specific timeframe for him to leave office.
It also includes immunity from prosecution for Saleh and his family.
"The initiative does not clearly mention the immediate departure of the head of the regime and it did not touch on the fate of his relatives who are at the top military and security agencies that continue killing the peaceful protesters," the anti-government Civil Alliance of the Youth Revolution said in a statement.
The alliance, which includes 30 youth groups, said the GCC proposal was an attempt to abort the revolution.
Saleh has accepted the Gulf framework as long as it's carried out "constitutionally," but state media had initially suggested the government would reject it.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Dawn] Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Wednesday urged the public, civil society, the government and the Pakistain Army to raise voice against US drone attacks, saying increasing number of such assaults are breeding jacket wallahs and terrorism in society.
"The whole nation must strongly resist the drone attacks. The terrorism will automatically be controlled if drone attacks are stopped. Deaths of innocent people in drone attacks are pushing the affected families to wear suicide jackets," Mr Sharif said at the 5th annual certificate-awarding ceremony of Rangers Institute of Technical Education (RITE) at Pakistain Rangers (Punjab) Headquarters.
He said terrorism and extremism were the most serious challenges the country was facing and that sacrifices being rendered by army, police, other law-enforcement agencies and the nation were unprecedented and a proof of their commitment to root out the twin menaces.
He said sacrifices rendered in war against terrorism were much more than those rendered during wars against external enemies.
"To resolve the problems and root out terrorism and extremism, a new system on the pattern of Misaq-e-Madina will have to be evolved for ensuring equitable distribution of resources, bridging divide between the rich and the poor, establishing supremacy of law and provision of equal opportunities to progress to all members of society."
He said RITE was playing a commendable role in imparting technical training to youth and such programmes could help overcome poverty and unemployment in the country.
The chief minister announced Rs2,000 monthly stipend for each student receiving training at RITE, saying funds would also be provided for the purchase of modern machinery for the institute in the light of the recommendations of the committee set up for the purpose.
Appreciating the standards of training at RITE, Sharif said now it was a challenge for Tevta as well as other vocational institutes of the country to adopt such standards.
He said the Punjab government was implementing a revolutionary programme for the promotion of technical education and a skilled workforce was being developed in accordance with the market needs.
He said though military operation was important to root out terrorism, there was also a need for promoting social and economic activities in society.
The chief minister said technical training centers were also being established in model villages built for the flood-affected people.
He expressed the hope that nefarious designs of cut-thoat and terrorist groups who wanted to mislead the youth would be foiled.
He said families of army officers and Jawans who laid down their lives in the defence of the country could also apply for houses under the Ashiyana Housing Scheme. He said the government would make the down payment of Rs250,000 for the quota allocated for widows and deaders in the scheme.
Pakistain Rangers (Punjab) Director General Maj Gen Muhammad Nawaz, on the occasion, said 21 schools and collages had been established by Pakistain Rangers where quality education was being provided to boys and girls.
He said 15 seats had been reserved for FATA, 10 for Balochsitan, 10 for quack-hit and flood-affected districts, 10 for deaders and two for the disabled in RITE.
Earlier, the chief minister witnessed an exhibition of products designed by the institute's students. He also awarded certificates to the students who achieved top positions in various courses.
The Rangers DG presented a shield to the chief minister.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/15/2011
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#1
Ok, look - one word. "Are"
The headline sounds like the predator interrupted some perverted boomie tryst.
[Ennahar] Ivory Coast's internationally recognised president Alassane Ouattara said on Wednesday that Laurent Gbagbo'>Laurent Gbagbo ... Former President-for-Life of Ivory Coast from 2000 to 2011. Laurent lost to Alassane Ouattara in 2010 but his representtive tore up the results on the teevee and he refused to vacate the presidential palace. French troops assisted the Oattara forces in extricating him from his Fuhrerbunker...
had been moved from the Golf Hotel to a secure villa somewhere in the country.
Ivory Coast's internationally recognised president Alassane Ouattara said on Wednesday that Laurent Gbagbo had been moved from the Golf Hotel to a secure villa somewhere in the country.
He said at a news conference that Gbagbo would be given "all respect due to a former head of state."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/15/2011
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Thank you. His opposition really did conduct massive fraud during the last election. The poor lack Christians can never seem to get a break in Africa these days. I want him and his Family protected. He has not done wrong during this moslem takeover of his state.
[Tolo News] At least 6 people were killed and 11 others were maimed in suicide kabooms in Afghanistan on Thursday, local officials said.
A group of jacket wallahs hit a training centre for new Afghan local police recruits in eastern Paktia province today killing three coppers and maimed three other police, local officials said.
Provincial officials said four suicide bombers attacked on a centre where new Afghan police recruits were being trained.
One suicide attacker went kaboom!", one was bumped off by Afghan cops and two attackers have managed to escape from the area, officials added.
Police forces have launched a search operation to track the two others, officials said.
The Taliban have grabbed credit for the attack saying many Afghan police soldiers were killed in the attack.
This time they speak up. Interesting.
Meanwhile, ...back at the palazzo, Count Guido had escaped from his bonds and overwhelmed his guard... a suicide bomber detonated his explosive in the southern Kandahar province today wounding two women and a man, according to police chief of Kandahar, Khan Mohammad Mujahid.
While foreign forces were driving in Kandahar city, a suicide bomber went kaboom!", but the forces were unhurt, Mr Mujahid said.
Meanwhile, ...back at the abandoned silver mine, the water was up to Jack's neck and still rising... a suicide bomber went kaboom!" near Musayi district building in Kabul on Thursday in which three coppers and a civilian were maimed, Afghan officials said.
Violence has recently increased in Afghanistan and forces of Evil have often attacked on government buildings in some parts of the country.
Afghan forces are expected to take over security responsibilities of seven areas in the first phase of security transition in July this year.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/15/2011
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#1
We hear all about how Afghans will seek vengeance for generations, and how they are the world's toughest fighters, etc. So where are the armies of fierce vigilantes who would be out destroying the perpetrators of these thousands of indiscriminate Taliban attacks that kill ten innocents for every victim who would be even remotely 'targetable?'
A former employee of the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. at the Rainbow Push Coalition has filed a bombshell wrongful termination and discrimination complaint against the civil rights leader with the City of Chicago's Commission on Human Rights.
The complaint, filed sometime last year by Tommy R. Bennett, a regular on the Tom Joyner Radio show and member of Barack Obama's LGBT Leadership Council, includes shocking allegations about Jackson's behavior toward the openly gay staffer including an allegation that the civil rights leader propositioned him.
Jackson has denied the allegations in a legal response that was filed in July 2010 and resurfaced when the Windy City Times published a story Tuesday.
Bennett, 55, claims Jackson ridiculed him in front of other employees and required him to perform "humiliating tasks" like escorting women to Jackson's various hotel rooms, cleaning up after alleged trysts and packing his clothing. It also includes an allegation that Jackson asked for oral sex, according to the claim. Jackson flatly denied each claim in his response.
#4
Seems to me that someone probably tried to blackmail Jessie and when it didn't work they are trying to slander him. A large number of blacks don't particularly like gays (in fact going so far as to avoid the use of the Rainbow identifier to avoid being though of as gay) so the slander could potentially be extra damaging if believed.
When I first heard that they named their organization this back in the '90s, I thought at the time that the name could be misconstrued by some (perhaps by prospective employees who later found their 'dreams' to be in error).
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
04/15/2011 11:09
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GE7940 - maybe they could take a few stripes out of their rainbow to symbolize the removal of gays - or Jews, or Korean grocers or whoever else they hate this week - from their coalition.
They might not want to call it the Chocolate Push Coalition, however. ;-|
#9
GE7940: A large number of blacks don't particularly like gays
"cleaning up after alleged trysts and packing his clothing. . . an allegation that Jackson asked for oral sex"
[because that's what gay men like to do, to anyone, anywhere, anytime, right?]
so the slander could potentially be extra damaging if believed.
Blackmail? The guy is a chauvinist pig who no doubt views gay men as equivalent to women (i.e., servants). I hope Bennett punched him in the nuts and gets a million bucks.
[Ennahar] The German Minister of Education Annette Schavan wants imams teach courses in Islamic religions in schools, in an interview with the weekly Die Zeit to be published Thursday.
In Germany, where church and state are not separate, the schools provide religious instruction, Catholic or Protestant to students.
They could be "used in schools" at halftime, as "priests," said Schavan to Die Zeit. She nevertheless conditioned their hiring that they are trained at university in Germany.
Four new institutes devoted to Islamic theology are being created in the universities of TĂĽbingen (southwest), Erlangen (south), OsnabrĂĽck / MĂĽnster (west) and Frankfurt (center), with support from the Department of research.
Between 3.8 and 4.3 million Mohammedans (45% have German nationality) currently living in Germany with 82 million inhabitants. The Turks form the largest community with 2.5 million people.
Like most European countries, Germany, with one third of Catholics, Protestants and all the rest being of another religion or no religion, is confronted with the thorny issue of integration of this population.
According to a study published by Die Zeit in December, two out of five Germans feel threatened by Islam, more than the French, Dutch, Danish or Portuguese.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#2
Yah, jihad is all defensive. Shariah is just. Sex is for male pleasure. Jews are treacherous. Bethleham is for muslims. Everything you need in the modern world.
[The Nation (Nairobi)] Cote d'Ivoire President Alassane Ouattara began to assert his new authority today by sending his captured rival Laurent Gbagbo ... Former President-for-Life of Ivory Coast from 2000 to 2011. Laurent lost to Alassane Ouattara in 2010 but his representtive tore up the results on the teevee and he refused to vacate the presidential palace. French troops assisted the Oattara forces in extricating him from his Fuhrerbunker... to a secret location and restarting vital cocoa exports.
Seeking to heal a nation broken by a four-month crisis pitting him against his strongman predecessor Gbagbo, Ouattara also called on the International Criminal Court ... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ... to probe massacres carried out in the west of the country.
"I will speak shortly with the ICC's chief prosecutor so the court can begin investigations," Ouattara told journalists during his first major presser since being able to exercise executive power.
"These massacres are unacceptable... I am revolted," he said.
Hundreds were killed in western Cote d'Ivoire after forces loyal to Ouattara swept through the country to Abidjan earlier this month to oust incumbent president Gbagbo who had refused to admit defeat in a November run-off vote.
Massacres were centred on the town of Duekoue and troops on both sides of the conflict accused of involvement.
Chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo last week announced plans to launch a formal probe into mass killings in Cote d'Ivoire.
"I will do everything for these condemnations to set an example, not only for Ivorians, but also for Africa and the entire world," Ouattara said, expressing hope the probe could be wrapped up "as quickly as possible."
A front man for the United Nations ...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... mission in Cote d'Ivoire (UNOCI), which is safeguarding Gbagbo and his associates pending their trial for alleged crimes committed during the conflict, said he had been flown out of main city Abidjan.
"The helicopter transporting Laurent Gbagbo took off at 12.40pm heading to the north of the country," Hamadoun Toure said, declining to elaborate on his exact destination.
Ouattara said earlier that the former leader had been moved from a hotel in Abidjan where he had been held since being tossed in the slammer by Ouattara's forces in a bunker on Monday.
"As I speak to you, Mr Laurent Gbagbo is no longer at the Golf Hotel, he is in Cote d'Ivoire, well secured," Ouattara said. "Mr Laurent Gbagbo is a former head of state, he must be treated with consideration."
The four-month stand-off pitting Gbagbo against Ouattara threatened to plunge the country back into civil war, with Gbagbo's supporters largely controlling the south and Ouattara's allied former rebels the north.
With the formerly wealthy nation divided and broken by the conflict, Ouattara said he had ordered an immediate resumption of cocoa exports from the world's number one producer which were frozen by sanctions slapped on Gbagbo.
Asked when the vital exports would resume, Ouattara said: "Immediately."
"I signed a decree yesterday, the port is under control. I named an interim port manager so everything is underway for cocoa to be sent out," Ouattara said, referring to Abidjan's export terminal.
Around 400,000 tonnes of cocoa have accumulated on the dockside in Abidjan and the southwestern port of San Pedro during the crisis.
Ouattara said he would move into the presidential palace, in a district that saw some of the fiercest battles during 10 days of fighting, "in the coming few days" despite insecurity still reigning in parts of Abidjan.
Rights group Amnesia Amnesty International warned that Gbagbo's supporters were at risk of violent reprisals, despite both Ouattara and Gbagbo having called for fighters to lay down arms.
Armed men, some wearing military uniforms, have been conducting house-to-house searches in neighbourhoods, including Yopougon and Koumassi, where supporters of Gbagbo are living, Amnesty said.
One eyewitness told Amnesty how a policeman belonging to Gbagbo's ethnic group was taken from his house on Tuesday and rubbed out at point blank range.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
So far Muslims controlled oil & heroin. Now they also control chocolate.
#6
I don't know, but I suspect that's who controls a lot of the diamond trade in the rest of West Africa. And if you notice, Cote D'Ivoire is right between two other diamond-producing regions. I am speculating, but I wouldn't be surprised, and if I had a diamond mine there, I'd sell them saying I bought them somewhere else in the region.
Checking Wackypedia:
CĂ´te d'Ivoire (also known as the Ivory Coast) began to develop a fledgling diamond mining industry in the early 1990s. A coup overthrew the government in 1999, starting a civil war. The country became a route for exporting diamonds from Liberia and war-torn Sierra Leone.[4][12] Foreign investment began to withdraw from the Ivory Coast. To curtail the illegal trade, the nation stopped all diamond mining, and the UN Security Council banned all exports of diamonds from CĂ´te d'Ivoire in December 2005.[4] However, despite UN sanctions the illicit diamond trade still exists in CĂ´te d'Ivoire. Rough diamonds are exported out of the country to neighboring states and international trading centers through the northern, Forces Nouvelles controlled section of the country, a group which is reported to be using these funds to re-arm.[13][14]
#7
On second thought, I don't really understand what's going on. They closed DOWN their legitimate _diamond mine_ in a grievously poor country because someone might use it for cover for diamonds from elsewhere?
From Haaretz
Iran is secretly assisting Bashar Assad's repression of anti-government protests across Syria, U.S. officials told the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, adding that Tehran was also aiding Shi'te hardliners in Yemen and Bahrain.
A State Department official said on Thursday that Washington was "troubled" by reports of Iran's links to the protests' suppression, saying it believed "that there is credible information that Iran is assisting Syria in quelling the protesters." [the fact that State Dept officials are talking to the press about it shows some possible incipient signs of intelligent life there - or maybe I'm just being optimistic]
According to the Jerusalem Post, Syria denies it. What odds Syria is telling the truth in this matter?
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
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What odds Syria is telling the truth in this matter?
My calculator can't handle numbers that high, TW.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/15/2011 17:58
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"What odds Syria is telling the truth in this matter?"
I see three chances - fat, slim, and none.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/15/2011 20:17
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[Arab News] US authorities claimed one of their biggest victories against cyber crime as they shut down a ring they said used malicious software to steal what experts estimate could top $100 million.
A computer virus, dubbed Coreflood, infected more than 2 million PCs, enslaving them into a "botnet" that grabbed banking credentials and other sensitive data its masters used to steal funds via fraudulent banking and wire transactions, the US Department of Justice said on Wednesday.
The government shuttered that botnet, which had operated for a decade, by pulling the kill switch on five command and control centers after a federal court in Connecticut gave the go-ahead to take over the servers.
"This was big money stolen on a large scale by foreign criminals. The FBI wanted to stop it and they did an incredibly good job at it," said Alan Paller, director of research at the SAN Institute, a nonprofit group that helps fight cyber crime.
Security experts said the total losses suffered by the ring's victims were easily in the tens of millions of dollars and might top $100 million.
A civil complaint against 13 unnamed foreign nationals was also filed by the US district attorney in Connecticut. It accused them of wire and bank fraud. The Justice Department said it had an ongoing criminal investigation.
The malicious Coreflood software was used to infect computers with keylogging software that stole user names, passwords, financial data and other information, the Justice Department said.
"The seizure of the Coreflood servers and Internet domain names is expected to prevent criminals from using Coreflood or computers infected by Coreflood for their nefarious purposes," US Attorney David Fein said in a statement.
A botnet is essentially one or more servers that spread malicious software and use the software to send spam or to steal personal information or data that can be used to empty a victim's bank account.
US government programrs shut down the botnet on Tuesday by taking over its command and control center. They instructed the computers enslaved in the botnet to stop sending stolen data and to shut down. A similar tactic was used in a Dutch case, but it was the first time US authorities had used this method to shut down a botnet, according to court documents.
Victims of the botnet included a real estate company in Michigan that lost $115,771, a South Carolina law firm that lost $78,421 and a Tennessee defense contractor that lost $241,866, according to the complaint filed in the US District Court for the District of Connecticut.
The government plans to work with Internet service providers around the country to identify other victims.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
C'mon, give us a hint. What flavor of botnet? Russian? Chinese? Iranian? Venezuelan? Equadorian?
#3
Russian Coreflood Gang targets online bank accounts Call them the Coreflood Gang. A ring of cyber bank robbers from southern Russia has quietly perfected a way to get a beachhead inside company networks.
Number of data-stealing infections:
County school district: 31,425
Hotel chain: 14,093
U.S. health care company: 6,744
U.S. university hospital: 4,710
Australian university: 1,362
U.K. university: 1,310
U.S. university: 974
Payday loan company: 685
Hospital: 405
Health care system: 321
#4
BTW, the article I linked was from 2008. The article ends with: After having two hub servers shut down by the tech security community in May, the Coreflood Gang rented two new hubs and picked up where they left off. Today, they continue operations unimpeded, says Stewart.
Companies infiltrated by the Coreflood Gang need to rethink how they do network security. Employees surfing the Internet on work PCs ought to take pause. "If you don't understand the threats that are out there, then you probably should not be banking online," Stewart says.
Can't say the computer security community wasn't warned.
[Arab News] Defense lawyers sought Wednesday to discredit a judge who ordered Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders to face trial on charges of inciting hatred against Mohammedans.
Wilders, leader of the country's third-largest political party, says he has done nothing wrong by expressing his opinions against Islam and the Holy Qur'an.
Defense witness Hans Jansen, a retired professor of Arabic and Islamic studies, testified that he had been approached at a dinner by appeals judge Tom Schalken to discuss the Wilders case shortly before the trial was to start. Defense lawyers argue that contact was inappropriate and grounds for dismissing the hate speech case.
Schalken sat on the panel that ordered Wilders' case to proceed, even after prosecutors had refused to press charges and a trial court had endorsed that decision.
"Do you think that he(Schalken) tried to influence your testimony?" defense lawyer Bram Moszkowicz asked Jansen.
"Yes. I think he did," Jansen answered.
Schalken, testifying later, denied trying to influence Jansen or having committed any impropriety. He said he was surprised to learn that Jansen considered Wilders' prosecution a "witch hunt." Schalken said he didn't think that Jansen understood the appeals panel's reasoning, so he tried to explain it to him "so he could form his viewpoint on the basis of the right foundation." Judges are expected to rule on the motion for dismissal on Friday.
Wilders says the trial is about his right to free speech.
Dutch Mohammedans who pressed for the trial say it is about their right to practice their religion freely. They say Wilders' strident anti-Islam tone has led to increased discrimination against them and even attacks on mosques.
Wilders is charged with inciting hatred against Mohammedans based on their religion or race, and for "making statements insulting to Mohammedans as a group." Each charge carries a maximum sentence of one year imprisonment, although a fine would be more likely if he were found guilty.
Nearly 100 public remarks by Wilders have been entered into evidence. Typical among them was an interview published in De Volkskrant newspaper in which he said: Wilders' international profile grew after his short film "Fitna" aired in 2008, which equated Islam with violence and led to protests in Mohammedan countries. He announced earlier this month he is making a new film, this time about the life of the Prophet Muhammad ((PTUI!)).
His party is supporting a conservative minority Cabinet, in exchange for a promise of new rules curtailing immigration and banning niqab.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Sounds like the judge is confused about the concept of free speech. It means that the public has unrestrained political speech, not that judges can seek to subvert the legal process.
[Al Jazeera] Tunisian authorities have prepared 18 legal cases against former president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, including "voluntary manslaughter" and "drug trafficking", the state TAP news agency reported.
The revelation was made by Justice Minister Lazhar Karoui Chebbi in an interview aired on state television on Wednesday, TAP said.
Other charges include "conspiring against the state" and "drug use."
The news agency quoted Chebbi as saying a total of 44 legal cases had been prepared by his ministry against Ben Ali, his family and his inner circle.
Ben Ali decamped to Soddy Arabia after he was toppled by mass protests on January 14 after 23 years in power. Several members of his family and security and some of his closest allies were jugged shortly after he was forced out.
The caretaker authorities, trying to assert their authority and gain legitimacy in the eyes of protesters who forced the transition, are attacking the vestiges of his long rule.
Chebbi said the Justice Ministry was exploring legal ways to extradite Ben Ali from Soddy Arabia to face trial. He gave no further details.
Tunisia announced on January 26 that it had asked Interpol to help arrest Ben Ali, his wife Leila Trabelsi and other members of the family who decamped the country during the uprising.
The interim authorities appointed a new government on March 7 and disbanded the state security apparatus, notorious for human rights ...which often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... abuses under Ben Ali.
The former president's brother, Slah Ben Ali, was nabbed on Sunday in the city of Sousse.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Tolo News] Haji Mohammad, a Taliban jailer was nabbed in Ghazni province, National Directorate of Security branch of Ghazni said on Thursday.
Afghan forces and civilians have suffered no casualties during the operation, officials said. Officials did not provide further information about the operation.
The Taliban have not yet commented.
The brave Lions of Islam were ineffectual in battle. Of course they said nothing.
Gero is an insecure district in the province where Talibs have been active.
The operation comes as the Taliban have closed the routes to Jaghury and Qarabagh districts of Ghazni province for the last one week. Ghazni officials said that the Taliban have warned drivers not to use the highways.
The warning was released after government wanted to reconstruct the roads in the districts, officials said.
Provincial officials said that Afghan and foreign forces are making efforts to wipe out the Orcs and similar vermin soon.
Militants are said to be active in most districts of Ghazni province and they often attack on government buildings and police check posts.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Dawn] Pak troops and paramilitary forces, backed by helicopter gunships and warplanes, targeted Taliban positions in the tribal region of Mohmand ... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Bloody Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar... near the Afghan border on Thursday, killing at least 18 krazed killers, a regional government official said.
Pakistain's military has recently mounted an offensive in villages bordering Afghanistan's eastern province of Kunar in pursuit of forces of Evil linked to al Qaeda and Taliban who want to destabilise the US ally and impose Taliban-style rule.
"We are going after them with full force, using every kind of force. They carry out attacks and other activities from there," Masood Khan, the government official, said.
He said at least 18 forces of Evil were killed and 25 maimed in the fighting.
"The operation is still on," he said.
Militants have killed thousands of people in a campaign of bomb and suicide kabooms in Pakistain in retaliation for government offensives against their bases on the Afghan border.
The United States, which plans to withdraw troops from Afghanistan in July, wants Pakistain to subdue Taliban fighters who use havens in the rugged tribal areas to launch cross-border attacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Birthday/Daily Gam Shot
Elizabeth Montgomery aka Samantha Stephens in "Bewitched" aka Ellen Harrod in "A Case of Rape" aka Lizzie Borden in "The Legend of Lizzie Borden" aka Melissa Morris in "Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed?" aka Darien Guinness in "Johnny Cool" aka Robert Montgomery's little girl Liz (Died in 1995 at age 62)
#5
Marion looks like she went through high water in that gown, and it shrank -- unevenly. Or she's one of the survivors of a tornado through a toilet paper factory.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/15/2011 17:41
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[Dawn] Five officials of Bomb Disposal Squad received injuries while defusing a 500-kilogram bomb near Sardaryab here on Wednesday.
The injured officials were identified as Arifullah, Ziaratullah, Mohammad Mehmood, Habibullah and Khan Said. They were trying to defuse a bomb when it went off and injured them.
The officials had brought a 500-kilogram bomb from Beautiful Downtown Peshawar and were trying to defuse it near Sardaryab recreational spot.
The injured were first taken to district headquarters hospital in Charsadda but later shifted to Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar. The blast was so powerful that it was heard in far-off areas of the district.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/15/2011
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#1
That's a big bomb. Amazing their injuries left pieces big enough to transport to a hospital.
BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: A police force seized five tons of explosives in the city of al-Falluja on Thursday, according to a statement by the Iraqi interior ministry.
“The explosives were found in a cache during a search raid in the area of al-Hai al-Sinai’e, eastern Falluja,” read the statement that was received by Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
“The cache contained large amounts of C4 explosives, 30 kegs of TNT and other substances used in explosions,” it added.
Falluja,
The 'City of Mosques', not 'the Garden on the Tigris'...
the largest city in the predominantly Sunni province of al-Anbar, lies 45 km west of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/15/2011
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The C4 is just for cooking meals and the TNT is for building roads. No ill intentions here, certainly.
Where do they keep getting this crap...oh THAT'S a stupid question. Are the instructions in Farsi?
Given as how 1 pound can cause a lot of damage and a 200 pound car bomb can knock down a building or a neighborhood, five tons is a serious problem. that's about 50 car bombs or 10,000 suicide jackets.
Maybe they should just detonate that stuff in place and leave a message for that rotten pesthole of hate and murder.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
04/15/2011 13:23
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[Iran Press TV] An Iranian politician says Saudi regime would not dare to make any moves against Iran, since the Riyadh regime is aware of Tehran's military might.
"The Saudi [regime] is well aware of Iran's military might and if they make any mistakes, Iran's reaction would be such that will make it their last mistake," Gholam-Reza Karami told Fars News Agency on Wednesday.
The politician pointed out that the US has turned to the Saudi regime as its primary "puppet" in the Middle East after losing Egypt, saying "Soddy Arabia does not have such potential and the US will soon realize that."
Karami, a member of Iran's Majlis (parliamentary) Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy, reiterated that Soddy Arabia has recently begun an anti-Iran campaign under coaching by the US, which dictates its policies to Riyadh.
"The Saudis have resorted to a psychological war against Iran to satisfy the US, but it is beneath the Islamic Theocratic Republic's dignity to engage in a psywar with Soddy Arabia," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/15/2011
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#1
Looks like someone is NOT getting an invite from Riyadh to the HAJ this year???
The United States is not going to review its military position on Libya despite a request from France, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Thursday.
Juppe met U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Berlin. "I told her we need them and that we would like them to come back," Juppe told journalists. "I think that they will stick to the same line, which is to say regular interventions when they are needed."
"...we need them and that we would like them to come back"
We did that on D-Day, Mr. Juppe. We've been mocked and laughed at by your country both before and since. After a while it becomes irritating.
We like individual Frenchmen and women, but just as we dislike our own political, intellectual and chattering classes, so too we dislike yours. That includes you.
You want America to 'come back'? You want America to stand with you and solve problems?
Stop spitting on us, and when we complain tell us that it's just raining. That would be a start.
#2
Welcome to the first stages of the new American isolationism. Your room is the first one on the left and please leave your historical greatness in the last century just outside the door.
#3
The US is still flying the most sorties (35%) of the most expensive aircraft (tankers and spy planes) and racking up the largest bill. Doesn't feel very hands off.
[Al Jazeera] Bashir al-Assad, Syria's president, has formed a new cabinet two weeks after sacking the country's government amid unprecendented protests against his rule.
Al-assad also ordered the release of hundreds of protesters jugged over the past couple of weeks but said those who committed crimes "against the nation and the citizens" would remain in jail.
Adel Safar, a former agriculture minister, will lead the new government while veteran diplomat Walid al-Moualem remains as foreign minister, Syria's state news agency reported.
The announcement follows a deal allowing Syria's army to enter the restive coastal city of Baniyas and claims by human rights ...which often include carefully measured allowances of freedom at the convenience of the state... groups that several people jugged by security forces had been tortured.
The state-run SANA news agency reported that snipers fired on a Syrian military patrol in Banias, killing one soldier and wounding another.
"There was a deal on Wednesday between Syrian officials and city residents for the army to enter Baniyas imminently to restore order," Rami Abdel Rahman, president of Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), told AFP by telephone.
"Security agents will refrain from patrolling neighbourhoods to make arrests, and the hundreds of people tossed in the clink in Banyias will be released," he added.
"Elements of armed gangs," some of whom he said were close to security and intelligence services and "have caused unrest in order to create dissension, will be prosecuted", he said.
Al Jizz's Rula Amin, reporting from Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... , the capital, said people were waiting to see if the pledge to release all the political prisoners will be fulfilled.
"This is one of the demands of the protesters to release all the prisoners. Also people are watching how the government will be dealing with the protesters in tomorrow's protests," she said.
Celebratory scenes
Our correspondent spoke of a celebratory scene as the Syrian army entered Baniyas.
"People were chanting the people and the army are one; they were throwing rice at them; they were welcoming and celebrating their arrival. The scene there is of a calming tension not escalation, "she said.
She added that "the residents of the town have been fearing these gunnies, four residents have been killed, one soldier killed today and another one injured".
"According to the government, two days ago nine soldiers were bumped off. So it is a highly volatile situation that the government is trying to contain, and it seems like the Baniyas people are co-operating and engaging the government efforts."
Security forces had encircled Baniyas, 280km northwest of Damascus since deadly festivities there on Sunday. Government forces killed at least four people and maimed 17 when they strafed a residential area of the town with gunfire for hours, witnesses said.
Nine soldiers were killed when their patrol was ambushed outside the town, SANA news agency said.
Scores of people were also maimed in the unrest and hundreds reportedly tossed in the clink in Baniyas and the nearby village of Baida.
Assad on Thursday appealed for calm in a meeting with a delegation from the city of Daraa, which has been the focal point for anti-government protests.
Our correspondent said: "We spoke to members of the delegation that met with the ... president, and they said that the meeting went well. But they won't elaborate on whether a deal has been reached. It seems like there are some fine details that need to be worked out."
Protests demands
Amin said the protesters had told the president to give them a deadline when their demands will be met.
"Some of their demands are specific to Daraa and others are to do with the rest of Syria [such as] more political freedom, the right to have peaceful protests and the release of all the prisoners that have been jugged in the past three months.
"What the government wants is an end to the protests, and even if it acknowledges their right to protest it should be done peacefully. The government wants to put a stop to vandalism and attacks to public property.
"It seems from the people in Daraa that the government is seriously trying to contain [the situation in] Daraa because that is where it all started. If they manage to calm the situation in Daraa, the government believes it will be able to contain the situation throughout Syria."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/15/2011
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Yah, I'm sure they bought new truncheon sets (both SAE and Metric) and everything.
#1
All I can say is, BP is doing a lot better than all the companies that were tied to the Gulf and basically shut down for a year.
I am unimpressed with the way that the WP is driving home the existance of corruption in Saint Bernard Parish when BP has been having its proxies systematically stiff and nickel-and-dime the people it's supposed to be paying. I guess that's what propaganda's like these days, you tell the fraction of the truth that benefits the connected, in this case BP.
#3
Remember that it is the same man who oversaw the funds for 9/11 reimbursements who oversees the 20 billion BP put in trust. Appointed by Obama.
He has disbursed maybe 10-15 percent. That "nasty" man requires proof of harm before paying out. Can you imagine how PO-ed Obama's cronies are that they haven't gotten their hooks into that money? He is under a lot of pressure to just flush that money ASAP.
[Al Jazeera] Bahraini authorities are seeking court approval to dissolve the country's main Iranian catspaw in the strongest move yet against anti-government protesters calling for change.
The justice ministry said Thursday it was seeking to ban Wefaq, which called supporters onto the streets in mass protests last month, for "undertaking activities that harmed social peace, national unity, and inciting disrespect for constitutional institutions."
The ministry also moved to ban the Islamic Action party, a Wefaq ally. Wefaq is the biggest single party in Bahrain's parliament, holding 18 out of 40 seats.
Mattar Ibrahim Mattar, a former Wefaq member of parliament, says: "It's reached a stage where they say there are no more moderates, that the entire opposition consists of bad boys. This is the wrong message.
"The hardliners (in government) never wanted Wefaq to take part in elections and get seats in parliament".
Wefaq said in a statement that it had always complied with Bahraini laws and regulations and that it was still committed to a political solution to Bahrain's political crisis.
Bahrain remains under a state of emergency following a government crackdown on protests last month.
Soddy Arabia and the United Arab Emirates sent troops to the Gulf island nation to help quell the demonstrations and protect facilities including oil and gas installations and financial institutions.
According to the Bahrain Human Rights Council, the Bahraini government has incarcerated more than 370 opponents of the regime since the introduction of emergency rule.
Ongoing crackdown
Thousands of protesters -- many of them Shias frustrated with economic and political discrimination -- had staged daily rallies in Manama calling for greater democracy but protests have been quelled in recent weeks with a heavy security presence on the streets.
Wefaq bemoaned the use of foreign troops which arrived less than 24 hours after Bahraini police clashed with demonstrators in one of the most violent confrontations which left seven protesters dead.
Soddy Arabia and other Gulf Arab states have traded accusations with Iran of meddling and interference in Bahrain which is also home to the US Navy's Fifth Fleet.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/15/2011
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SEOUL, April 15 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will donate an additional US$500 million to help war-torn Afghanistan prepare to take over battlefield command from NATO-led forces, the foreign ministry said Friday.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai announced in March the first phase of a transition of security responsibilities from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to the country's military and police. The process is set to begin in July for completion in 2014.
South Korea stationed a provincial reconstruction team (PRT) in the northern Afghan province of Parwan last year, aiming to strengthen the provincial government's administrative capabilities and offer medical services as well as vocational and police training. It has donated about $180 million toward reconstruction efforts.
South Korea's Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Jae-shin announced the additional aid at an ISAF meeting in Berlin on Thursday (local time), according to the ministry.
Though it's better to piss away give the money to Afghanistan than to buy rice for North Korea...
The increase comes partly in response to international calls for South Korea to raise contributions, a ministry official told reporters earlier on the customary condition of anonymity. The United States has donated some $37 billion while Japan has given more than $3 billion and Canada more than $1.2 billion.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/15/2011
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Stupid, stupid, stupid, better to flush the cash down the toilet.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/15/2011 8:43
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I'd rather the $500 million bought rice for North Koreans than fatten bank accounts in Bahrain by way of Kabul.
[Ennahar] International powers meeting on Libya's future called for the first time on Wednesday for Muammar Qadaffy to step aside, but NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants...
countries squabbled publicly over stepping up air strikes to help topple him.
In a victory for Perfidious Albion and La Belle France, which are leading the air campaign and pushed for an unequivocal call for regime change, the "contact group" of some 16 European and Middle Eastern nations, plus the United Nations, ...an international organization whose stated aims of facilitating interational security involve making sure that nobody with live ammo is offended unless it's a civilized country...
the 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...
and the African Union, ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
said Qadaffy must go.
"Qadaffy and his regime has lost all legitimacy and he must leave power allowing the Libyan people to determine their future," a final statement obtained by Rooters said.
The wording was much tougher than at a previous conference two weeks ago. Participants also said they would work to set up a financial mechanism to help rebels, fighting to end Qadaffy's 41-year rule, run the eastern region they control.
They also called for a political settlement, to be decided by the Libyan people, and an end to attacks against civilians.
While there was agreement on the principle of removing Qadaffy, there were divisions over how to make that happen.
Disagreements surfaced on British and French calls for greater participation in the NATO air campaign against Qadaffy's heavy weapons and on arming the rebels.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague called for more alliance members to join attacks on ground targets and his French counterpart, Alain Juppe, called for heavier military pressure on Qadaffy's troops to convince him to leave power. Reflecting frustration that NATO air power has not been more decisive, Juppe, called for better coordination with rebel forces on the ground in choosing targets.
HUMANITARIAN DISASTER™
United Nations Secretary-General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon underlined the humanitarian disaster™ caused by the war, when he told the meeting up to 3.6 million people, or more than half the population, could need assistance.
There is increasing frustration in Gay Paree and London that air strikes have neither tipped the balance of the war in favor of the rebels nor ended devastating shelling of the besieged city of Misrata, a lone rebel bastion in western Libya.
Juppe attacked NATO on Tuesday for not stopping the bombardment of the town, where hundreds of civilians are said to have died in more than six weeks of siege.
Libyan television said on Wednesday NATO planes had bombed Misrata's main Tripoli street, the scene of repeated battles between rebel defenders and government troops. It said people were killed, without giving details.
It said alliance planes also attacked Qadaffy's birthplace of Sirte, east of Misrata.
Hague told Rooters that other coalition aircraft must join ground attacks.
"There are many other nations around Europe and indeed Arab nations who are part of this coalition. There is scope for some of them to move some of their aircraft from air defense into ground-strike capability," he said.
French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet told parliament in Gay Paree on Tuesday that without U.S. ground attack aircraft joining in the strikes, NATO would not be able to loosen Qadaffy's noose around towns like Misrata and Zintan.
REBELS CALL FOR MORE NATO STRIKES
Rebels attending the Doha meeting said they expected more support, saying NATO was using "minimum" power and needed to step up attacks on Qadaffy's heavy weapons.
Perfidious Albion and La Belle France, western Europe's two main military powers, are delivering most of the air strikes on Qadaffy's armor since President Barack B.O. Obama ordered U.S. forces to take a back seat.
Other NATO countries are either keeping their distance from the campaign or enforcing a no-fly zone.
A gap appeared at the meeting between NATO hawks and doves.
Belgian Foreign Minister Steven Vanackere said the March 17 U.N. resolution authorizing NATO action in Libya -- to protect civilians from Qadaffy's government forces -- ruled out arming civilians and he saw no need to boost air power there.
In another disagreement, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle expressed reservations about an Italian call to create a fund from frozen assets to aid the rebels. "The question is, is it legal? The answer is we don't know," he said.
The rebels said they would ask for $1.5 billion in aid for civilians.
A front man for the rebel national council at the Doha talks said the coalition was considering supplying arms which he said should go to soldiers who have defected from Qadaffy's army.
He said the rebels only had "primitive weapons" taken from Qadaffy's troops.
The contact group, whose members include Qatar, Iraq, Turkey and other Middle East nations as well as NATO members, will meet again in Italia in early May.
At the eastern front on Wednesday, rebels at Ajdabiyah said they were exchanging rocket fire with Qadaffy's forces from a point about 40 km (25 miles) east of the long contested oil port of Brega, which the government holds.
Libyan government front man Mussa Ibrahim lashed out against the West's "imperialist way of thinking," accusing world powers of trying to impose political change on Libya.
Germany said it had expelled five Libyan diplomats for intimidating the country's citizens living there.
Rebel front man Shammam said the rebels wanted to increase exports of crude oil to secure humanitarian aid rather than cash. Qadaffy's forces have attacked oil fields in the rebel east to choke off exports and Shammam said the beturbanned goons were only exporting a minimal amount.
The African Union said it was pursuing its peace mission despite rebel rejection of any plan that left Qadaffy in power. "It is urgent that the members of the international community coordinate their efforts to find a quick solution," said the AU's chief diplomat, Jean Ping.
Moussa Koussa, a former Libyan foreign minister who decamped to Perfidious Albion last month, was in Doha on the sidelines of the contact group talks to meet the rebels, the British government said. But the rebel front man said they did not plan to speak to him.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
04/15/2011
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#1
Thanks guys we actually have a new picture of ole Moamar hisself.
I still wonder how many bottles of Clairol he goes through a month.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
04/15/2011 0:05
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#2
If both Western and Arab nations say "Gaddafi must go", methinks he must stay.
#4
With all these misinformation, flights of fancy, disinformation,PC propaganda BS, smoke-screen, etc, etc, it's difficult to have some understanding of this Libyan circus!!
#6
Regime Change and Nation Building™. Good to see Bush vindicated.... I guess? This whole operation is a classic FUBAR by ideologue libs with no idea of a strategy or the means to make it happen. Obama, Rice, Powers, Clinton(!)... idiots
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/15/2011 21:13
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(Itar-Tass) -- A total of five suspects in the kaboom inside Minsk's metro have been jugged, Deputy Prosecutor-General Andrei Shved told the media on Thursday.
"Two have been remanded in jug. One is the actual kaboomer, and the other had provided assistance," Shved said at a news conference on Thursday. The place where the bomb was made has been established, he added.
The kaboom at the Oktyabrskaya metro station in Minsk on April 11 killed twelve and injured 200 others. This is an unprecedented case in the history of Belarus, the Prosecutor-General's Office said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/15/2011
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#1
We're probably glad we're not those suspects right now.
[Tolo News] US Secretary of State on Thursday warned members of NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants... against speedy withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, reports from Berlin say.
Addressing NATO Foreign Ministers in Berlin, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Daniel Webster ... warned NATO allies against hasty troop withdrawal.
Mrs Clinton said Taliban snuffies are watching and speedy withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan could damage the fragile progress made in the country.
She has said the number of troops should be decreased based on the conditions on the ground.
She told NATO Foreign Ministers that the US troops presence will eventually reduce to the level it was before the deployment of 10,000 additional troops under President Barack B.O. Obama's surge strategy.
Mrs Clinton said allies should worry more about helping Afghanistan to make more security achievements than worrying about how fast they can withdraw.
"We work together in Afghanistan, we are committed to following through to achieve the mutual objective of working toward a world without nuclear weapons, we are also sharing the same goal which is to see the end of the Qadaffy regime in Libya and we are contributing in many ways in order to see that goal realised," Mrs Clinton said.
Meanwhile, ...back at the bunker, his Excellency called a meeting. It was to be his last... the ministers from NATO countries in Berlin are discussing air campaign in Libya amid differences among members.
French Foreign minister recently criticised NATO for not doing enough in Libya.
He said despite the ongoing air strikes Col Qadaffy's heavy weaponry had not been damaged enough.
The UK and La Belle France urged other countries to step up military pressure against the Libyan government.
NATO took leadership of the Libya mission in Libya last month after US, La Belle France and Perfidious Albion started air strikes.
NATO is supposed to monitor a UN-mandated no-fly zone over Libya and prevent civilian casualties.
But there have been concerns that it has exceeded the UN mandate and allegedly acted as the Libyan rebels' air force.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/15/2011
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#1
HILLARY "MADAME PRESIDENT" CLINTON
versus
* NEWS KERALA > LAST US SOLDIER SHALL LEAVE IRAQ ON DECEMBER 31ST [2011], IRAQ SAYS.
#3
Translation - wait till I'm gone so my name isn't stuck on this for all of history.
One can't blame her for not wanting Fred's automatic in-line generator to respond to the next Secretary of State's name with ...sometimes described as a diplomatic genius, never as "Another unfortunate Hillary Clinton"...
[An Nahar] The Loyalty to the Resistance That'd be the Hezbullies, natch... bloc condemned on Thursday the Mustaqbal ... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri... movement's activity, accusing it of being responsible for the problems in Leb.
It said in a statement: "The problems plaguing Leb are the result of the Mustaqbal movement's policies and governments that have turned Leb into a farm" at the American administration's mercy.
It also condemned the movement's criticism of the failure to form a new government, saying: "The Prime Minister-designate is facing familiar obstacles and he is taking steady steps towards achieving his goal. All members of the new majority are cooperating with him and they are expressing their opinions to him without any blackmail."
The bloc also noted that Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati has not yet taken more time to form his government than the time Caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's liquidation. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too. and former Prime Minister Fouad Saniora did to form their respective Cabinets.
Addressing the Mustaqbal movement's positions on regional developments, the Loyalty to the Resistance bloc said: "The movement defends the policies of oppression practiced against the Arab people."
"Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Narsallah's cry against the excessive violence against the majority of Mohammedan Arab world was not meddling in their internal affairs, but a warning that such developments will negatively affect the region's stability," it continued.
"He sought to avert strife that would have been manipulated by the U.S. and Israel," the bloc added.
Regarding Syrian reports that Mustaqbal bloc MP Jamal al-Jarrah helped fund a terrorist cell involved in the country's recent demonstrations, the Loyalty to the Resistance bloc said: "The Syrian media broadcast a sample of the Mustaqbal movement's suspicious meddling in Syria's internal affairs and its denial of the report has not convinced anyone."
Addressing the movement, it said: "Don't talk about the politics of axes as you were made by them."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/15/2011
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[Tolo News] The number of drug addicts in the western Herat city has risen to over 70,000, provincial officials say.
Herat addicts mainly include jobless youths most of whom have returned from Iran. They were addicted to drugs while living in the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran, Governor of Herat said.
"Although there is no poppy cultivation in Herat, but the number of addicts in the province has risen because it is bordered by Iran," Governor of Herat, Dawood Saba, said.
The only medical facility for the treatment of addicts in Herat is a 150-bed hospital. "We have more than 70,000 addicts in Herat and need many years to treat them. This is a big challenge from a security and economic point of view," Mr Saba said.
Some of the addicts call on the Afghan government to help them with their treatment.
This sounds like the perfect opportunity for a private charity.
"I was in Iran looking for work, I got addicted there and was deported. The government should treat us," one of the addicts, Ali feda, said.
Reza Ehsas is another addict who has been deported from Iran and lives a jobless life in Heart.
"We often get placed in durance vile, beaten and released. We do not want to be beaten, we want the government to treat us," Ehsas said.
Some of the main causes of addiction in Afghanistan are unawareness, poverty, unemployment and family problems.
A UN report in June 2010 described Afghanistan as a major consumer of opium and its derivatives. It said the number of regular opium users had increased by 53% while the number of heroin users had risen by 140% in comparison to 2005.
Afghanistan is considered the source of about 90% of the world's opium.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/15/2011
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#1
Some of the main causes of addiction(insert social ill here, go ahead, take your pick) in Afghanistan are unawareness, poverty, unemployment and family problems.
[Arab News] Protests for greater freedom spread Wednesday to Aleppo, Syria's second city, where hundreds of university students clashed with police and a smaller protest took place in the capital, rights activists said.
Meanwhile, ...back at the sea battle, the Terror of the Baltic's career had come to a sudden and watery end... thousands of women blocked a stretch of a main coastal road in the north of the country demanding authorities release hundreds of people incarcerated during a crackdown on the towns of Banias and Baida, London-based rights activist Rami Abdel Rahman said.
The official SANA news agency said a Syrian soldier and three gunnies were among several people killed in festivities on Tuesday in Banias.
And the authorities paraded three suspects on state television, who admitted being members of an "armed terrorist gang, saying they received money and weapons from abroad to fuel unrest in Syria."
In particular, the suspects said they had received arms and weapons from neighboring Leb. A Lebanese MP named by one suspect denied any involvement.
"We received orders to incite people into protesting, especially in front of the Umayyad Mosque (in Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... )," the man identified as Anas Kanj, said on television. "Then we received orders to arm ourselves in order to carry out operations to support our brothers in Deraa and all of Syria's provinces like Latakia and Banias, and this was through Ahmad Oudeh who was the messenger between myself and MP Jamal Al-Jarrah in Leb," Kanj said.
Al-Jarrah, who denied the allegations. No, no! Certainly not! on Lebanese television, belongs to the anti-Syrian Lebanese Future movement headed by caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's liquidation. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too. .
Posted by: Fred ||
04/15/2011
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[Ennahar] Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... was ordered jugged for 15 days on Wednesday, winning the ruling army generals a respite from protests by quashing suspicions that they were shielding their former commander from investigation.
Mubarak, driven from presidential office on February 11 by mass demonstrations against his 30-year rule, was taken to a hospital in Sharm el-Sheikh on Tuesday with what state media called a "heart crisis." Reports disagree on how serious his illness is.
The public prosecutor had summoned and questioned Mubarak, 82, over the killing of protesters, embezzling of public funds and abuse of power. More than 380 protesters were killed in 18 days of demonstrations that led to Mubarak's downfall.
His two sons, Alaa and Gamal, have also been questioned as part of the probe and ordered jugged, state television said. ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
"Former geriatric President Hosni Mubarak was jugged for 15 days for investigation," state television reported. ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
in a brief headline. Judicial sources confirmed the report.
In his first public comment since stepping down, broadcast on Al Arabiya on Sunday, Mubarak denied wrongdoing.
A security source told Rooters Mubarak was likely to remain for security reasons in detention in Sharm el-Sheikh, the Red Sea resort where he has been in internal exile since quitting.
A source cited by the official news agency MENA said the former president would be moved from the hospital to a place of detention once his health permits, but the site had yet to be determined.
Al Jizz television reported earlier that an army helicopter had arrived in Sharm to take him to the capital Cairo. A security source told Rooters "the helicopter has left without him because his health is unstable."
State television said Mubarak was admitted to an intensive care unit at the hospital late on Tuesday after a "heart crisis" during questioning.
Half a dozen dark blue state security trucks were parked outside the hospital on Wednesday. A medical source said Mubarak was still there and described his health as "unstable."
Mubarak's sons were taken to a prison on the outskirts of Cairo, joining a list of ex-ministers and officials under investigation and held in the same jail, MENA said.
Gamal, 47, Mubarak's younger son, held a top post in the ruling party. Many Egyptians believed he was being groomed for top office, though both father and son denied any such plan.
"This is a serious step forward in holding the president accountable and ends any suspicion that the state and the military were in cahoots with Mubarak," said Hassan Nafaa, a political scientist and activist for reform.
"WE WANT OUR MONEY"
Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians protested on Friday in Cairo's Tahrir Square against delays in trying Mubarak and criticized Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, the army council head who was Mubarak's defense minister for 20 years.
"The military council moved fast because of the pressure protesters have built up in Tahrir. In the past weeks there has been real criticism of Tantawi and the military council that they are slow and looking after Mubarak as their commander," said Shadi Ghazali Harb, from a pro-democracy youth movement.
He said plans for a protest this Friday were on hold to see how swiftly the army and prosecutor moved toward a trial.
Political analyst Fahmy Hueidi said: "The army succumbed to people pressure to bring Mubarak and family to justice."
On Tuesday, soldiers broke up a five-day sit-in at Tahrir Square, the center of the January uprising. Protesters had vowed to keep up the pressure, but many Egyptians are tired of the protests that have hit the economy and disrupted their lives.
The timing of Mubarak's illness prompted skepticism among some protesters about the motives of the army, which has pushed for swift elections to hand over power. The army praised and thanked Mubarak when he left office, but protesters criticized him for ruling by emergency law and widening a rich-poor divide.
"We want our money. We want the thief to be tried," chanted dozens of people near the hospital on Tuesday in the resort where Mubarak spent more and more time before leaving office.
Diplomats say there is no sign the military wants to hold on in government but say it may loom in the background as the nation's self-appointed guardian.
Mubarak has had health problems and went to Germany for gall bladder surgery in March 2010. There were often rumors about his health, especially after his last bout of surgery.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/15/2011
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[Straits Times] AN ISLAMIC school warden was charged on Thursday with the murder of a 7-year-old boy accused of stealing money from a classmate, in what is believed to be one of the worst student abuse cases in Malaysia, a government lawyer said.
Deputy public prosecutor Azman Abu Hassan said Hanif Mohamad Ali, 26, faces death by hanging if convicted of murdering the boy at a private Islamic school in northern Perlis state.
Saiful Syazani Saiful Sopfidee lapsed into a coma on March 31 after allegedly being tied to a window for two hours, caned and beaten up, Mr Azman said.
The boy died in a hospital three days later with head and body injuries. Mr Azman said the cause of death was due to a lack of oxygen arising from a neck compression, but it was unclear if he had been strangled or hit with brute force on the neck.
'He punished the boy because he suspected the boy stole 7 ringgit (S$2.90) from his classmate, but it got out of hand,' Mr Azman told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named. 'It's a very sad case and one of the worst abuse cases involving a small boy.'
Hanif was know to be strict during his two years' at the school's boarding hostel, but has no record of student abuse, Mr Azman said, adding that the warden's role was to discipline the children and prevent any untoward behaviour.
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#1
but has no record of student abuse
Until now anyway, obviously the 'Students' were too terrified to report him.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/15/2011 8:32
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Want Hamas to release their leader, or will kill Vittorio Arrigoni at 5 pm Friday. Mr. Arrigoni, as self-proclaimed pacifist and blogger, has lived in Gaza for a while.
UNRWA: Serving Your Refugee Needs For 63 Years.
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- An estimated 11,500 employees of UNRWA's Gaza Strip sub-offices went on strike Wednesday morning, protesting the dismissal of a group of workers, and demanding permanent contracts for staff.
Certain employees of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, currently renew a one-year contract annually, and when a group of workers lost their jobs at the end of their contract, union officials threatened to strike.
"We have already warned of the dangerous repercussions of this policy of dismissal and lack of employment security, and we sent a clear message that we would not accept this mistreatment of employees," said Suheil Al-Hindi, head of the union. Hmmmmm..."dangerous repercussions". Wonder what he means by that?
The union called the strike for Wednesday, pulling teachers, doctors, maintenance staff, and security personnel from their posts, and keeping an estimated 220,000 students out of class.
Al-Hindi said the one-year contract process was not "transparent," and called on the Gaza government to help ensure UNRWA maintained an appropriate work policy. Dats a nice pictcha of da family youze got dere, Mr. UN Guy. Be a shame if yas nevah saw dem again.
#2
I'm under the impression that donations for the Gaza refugees have fallen considerably. Perhaps that's why UNRWA management has chosen to downsize staffing.
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.
The United States, by far the leading contributor to the United Nations, overpaid its share of the U.N. peacekeeping budget for 2010-2011, but budget-cutters in Congress did not learn about the full extent of the credits in the U.S.'s favor until February 2011, during the battle with the Obama administration over 2011 budget cuts, Fox News has learned.
WASHINGTON--Congress may have to consider a smaller highway-funding bill than initially planned because of a steep drop in revenue from the federal gasoline tax, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus 
President Barack Obama and leading lawmakers have rejected increasing the 18.4-cent federal tax on a gallon of gas. 
jugged
Hillary Clinton
cycle of violence
[Dawn] A top French security official says two French citizens have been 
[Ennahar] Five members of the security forces were killed during a clash in the north of Sanaa between the police and army units joined in the protest, while police firing on demonstrators in Aden (South ) have killed two people Wednesday.
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- The armed wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine said one of the group's fighters was killed Thursday morning, when an explosive device detonated while the young man was on a "jihad mission," a statement said.
Punjab
Alassane Ouattara said on Wednesday that Laurent Gbagbo'>Laurent Gbagbo
International Criminal Court
[Arab News] US authorities claimed one of their biggest victories against cyber crime as they shut down a ring they said used malicious software to steal what experts estimate could top $100 million.
[Arab News] Defense lawyers sought Wednesday to discredit a judge who ordered Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders to face trial on charges of inciting hatred against 
Tunisian authorities have prepared 18 legal cases against former president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, including "voluntary manslaughter" and "drug trafficking", the state TAP news agency reported. 
nabbed
Mohmand
[Dawn] Five officials of Bomb Disposal Squad received injuries while defusing a 500-kilogram 
al-Assad, Syria's president, has formed a new cabinet two weeks after sacking the country's government amid unprecendented protests against his rule.
Muammar Qadaffy to step aside, but 
Najib Miqati
